borderline personality disorder
Bipolar disorder versus borderline personality disorder
what's the difference or how do you tell the difference that's what I’m going
to talk about today this is actually based on a viewer question. Can you
explain the difference between a borderline with depression and bipolar I’m
going to focus on the difference between bipolar ,disorder ,and borderline
personality disorder.
Because depression is actually a part of bipolar disorder
there's a big difference between the personality disorders and the psychiatric
illnesses like ,depression ,anxiety schizophrenia bipolar disorder. Personality
or your personality is your hard wiring and the illnesses are your state at the
time another analogy would be comparing ,your personality to.
the climate of a region and a disorder like depression would
be the weather that you're having at the moment i grew up in Florida which is a
warm climate and we basically had two seasons hot. and ,not hot. but then we'd
have hurricanes that could rip through and completely disrupt the environment
but once hurricane season pass we'd still be ,left ,with ,a warm climate.
how the weather manifests at the time likewise your
personality makeup affects how your illness manifests so going back to the
geographical example. Russia has a very cold climate and this affects the type
of storms that you see there so you get blizzards and cold climates and
sandstorms and desert climates and ,tropical ,storms ,in ,tropical climates.
so if a person would say narcissistic personality disorder
it's depressed it's going to look different from the person with dependent
,personality ,disorder ,who becomes .depressed. the narcissistic person because
of their self tenderness may look more angry and self loathing whereas the dependent
person because ,of their neediness.
can become more pitiful and helpless when they get depressed
now these are just broad stroke examples so back to borderline personality
disorder. this is actually a really big topic but I’m only going to briefly
define the disorder for you and I’m going to use our diagnostic and statistical
manual of mental disorders the fifth edition.
and I’m going to read the definition so borderline
personality is defined by the following a pattern of unstable relationships
self image. an emotional expression marked by impulsivity beginning in early
adulthood and present in a variety of contexts. as indicated by five or more of
the following.
it's important that you realize that it's five or more of
these characteristics so what you don't want to do is take out one and say oh I
have that does that mean I have borderline personality disorder. no unless you
have several of these things number one is frantic efforts to avoid real or
imagined abandonment an example of this is the person who may seem to ,read
,into things too easily. um things that you say are interpreted to mean that
you're done with them or that um you're abandoning them in some way.
Number two a pattern of unstable and intense interpersonal
relationships characterized by alternating between extremes of. idealization
and devaluation in this kind of relationship the person with borderline
personality disorder may at one point think that ,you're ,the ,best ,thing ever.
and you can do nothing wrong and in the next moment or the next day you're the
worst thing ever the exact opposite number ,three is an identity disturbance.
You have a markedly persistent or unstable self image or
sense of self this kind of identity disturbance occurs at a deep level and not
to be confused with whether. you're not sure if you're meant to be a teacher or
an astronaut this is a confusion about core identity issues like your gender or
your sexuality or even your spirituality. now I tiptoe around this because I
don't want you to walk away thinking that anyone who wants to change their
gender has borderline personality disorder in fact as i mentioned before an
important thing to remember with this is that the diagnosis is ,based on a.
Grouping of symptoms of the things that I’ve listed so you
need five of them and it's not that anyone who's angry ,say ,has borderline
personality disorder. anyone who's ever cut themselves must be borderline it's
about having multiple things that fall into this category and having it present
a problem for you in many ways not just.
In one relationship number four is impulsivity in at least
two areas that are potentially self damaging some examples of this could be
reckless spending or reckless sexuality drug ,abuse ,of binge eating. number
five would be recurrent suicidal behavior gestures or threats or even self
mutilating behavior and this would be thi ngs like cutting yourself or taking
overdoses of pills even though you don't really want to die.
You’re just responding to internal distress and that's why
you're doing these things number six would be an unstable reactive mood and
this would be things ,like ,episodic ,low ,mood irritability. anxiety that
usually lasts a few hours or a few days and this is one of the key differences
between borderline ,personality and bipolar disorder. on that after i get
through the criteria number seven is chronic feelings of emptiness and this is
one of the reasons people with borderline personality disorder cut themselves.
Hoping mechanism to help them feel real some people will cut
themselves though to relieve tension number eight is inappropriate intense
,anger ,or ,difficulty controlling anger. and this can look like temper
tantrums constant anger or physical fights number nine and the last one is
transient stress related paranoid ,i deation ,or severe dissociative symptoms. clinicians
sometimes call these micro psychotic episodes they're not full blown psychosis
but they're close and if you don't know what psychosis is I’ll have a link for
you in the corner.
That on a post where I’ve talked about or defined psychosis
but let me explain what dissociation is dissociation happens when a person
disconnects with their present situation ,and ,this disconnection can. be from
the current environment or from their thoughts or even from themselves and an
example of this is a person who's been subjected to repeated physical ,or
,sexual abuse.
And one of the ways they cope to deal with the act at the
time is just to mentally pull away as if it's not really happening to them and
that's one of the ways that they can deal with getting through it. well with
borderline personality disorder dissociation happens a lot in different
circumstances so that's the criteria for borderline personality disorder ,it's
,a ,lot ,of stuff.
and so it's not a matter of taking one of these things out
and saying i must be borderline because I cut myself you need to have at least
five of these nine things that ,I just listed. going on at the same time or in
general that's the kinds of things that you do or feel so back to borderline
,personality disorder and bipolar disorder.
They look very similar because you can have the mood swings
and impulsivity but in the case with borderline personality disorder you're
more likely to have mood swings that can shift from hour to hour over the
course of the day. with borderline personality disorder the group of symptoms
not just lower high mood but the group of symptoms that make up an episode need
to last at least ,two weeks.
If you're in the depressed state in one week if you're in the
manic state so you aren't shifting in and out of states hour to hour also the
sense of fear of abandonment and unstable identities are things that have. more
to do with your hard wiring and it's also influenced by your environment as well
it kind of goes to the nature versus nurture theory how much of who you are is
based ,on ,genes versus.
How you were raised in your formative years and these issues
are not part of bipolar disorder think of mania as like a hurricane that swoops
in and swoops out and leaves ,the ,hot ,climate behind. some other examples of
the practical differences is that bipolar disorder does not make you do
manipulative things manipulative behavior has ,to ,do ,with your personality.
Also people with who are manic or depressed at the time don't
engage in self harm only because of their mood state ,so ,if ,you get depressed.
the coping skills that you employ at the time have to do with your personality
and it's not the depression itself so the depression may push you into doing
something that self harming.
But it's your personality type or your personality coping
skills that reacts to the depression with self harm the treatment for
borderline ,personality ,disorder and bipolar disorder.
Are very different but they can overlap the primary treatment
for borderline personality disorder is a psychotherapy called ,dialectical
,behavioral ,therapy ,or ,debt. it's an offshoot of cognitive behavior therapy
that was developed specifically for burgling personality disorder and when it's
implemented by someone trained ,in ,deputy ,it's very effective. and it's
usually a combination of group and individual sessions the primary treatment
for bipolar disorder is medication management sometimes with the depressive
episodes ,if ,they're ,mild ,to moderate.
They can respond well enough to cognitive behavior therapy
but manic episodes usually require medication. people with borderline
personality disorder can still have a mood disorder so you can have both
problems so if a person with borderline ,personality ,disorder ,also becomes
.depressed. then they may require medication to get through the depression also
sometimes the swinging moods that you can have with borderline personality
disorder can ,respond ,well ,to ,mood.
