Mental Health Has anyone here been diagnosed with Borderline personality disorder?

[UncookMyBrain]

This is my primary diagnosis, despite also having OCD, I have learnt most my problems stem from a personality disorder not just anxiety or a mere symptom.

The reason I ask is I have never tolerated drugs well and never knew why, I cant handle weed without getting paranoid. Speed eventually gave me speed psychosis. Doing a big cycle of steroids gave me MDD and psychosis.
Here in Australia my psychiatrist says I can have either schizophrenia or bipolar on my record, I have chosen neither as I dont believe I meet the criteria. I honestly believe I am just drug fucked, everything in the DSM seems like it must be a spectrum disorder where you can have degrees of it however I know people with bipolar and even more with schizophrenia and I have no psychosis. If anything I believe I have Borderline personality disorder, OCD and Cyclothymia.
I have heard the two personality disorders that are prone to psychosis are borderline and schizotypal so it makes me wonder if a lot of people have been diagnosed schizophrenic when they dont even have the illness.

Also where do we draw the line between a true mental illness and just being messed up from drugs?

 

[SixBuckets]

Have you heard of schizoaffective disorder? It's often described as "part bipolar, part schizophrenia, part personality disorder". I have no idea if you have this or not, but if your doctor is alternating between bipolar and schizophrenia diagnoses, this might be what he's thinking of.

I'm guessing that what your doctor means by 'on your record' is your diagnosis for Medicare and the PBS. There are a lot more drugs approved for treatment of bipolar and schizophrenia then there are for schizoaffective disorder, and there's also a different range of treatments for bipolar vs schizophrenia. Basically, if he records your diagnosis as one thing and then prescribes you something that is not PBS approved for that condition, you can't get the subsidised rate on your meds and may be out of pocket $300 or more per prescription. A lot of psychiatrists will give you a "Medicare diagnosis" so they can prescribe off label (seriously, the number of people with drug induced psychosis who have schizophrenia 'on the record' is astronomical) but unfortunately they don't tend to explain this to patients.

The short version is that your psychiatrist may be trying to do the best thing by you, but not explaining it very well.

 

[UncookMyBrain]

Yea thats what I was thinking. I think my symptoms are most closely related to BP2.
I dont think I am schizoaffective. I dont meet the criteria for schizophrenia because I have no false beliefs, the ones I did have were drug induced. I dont hallucinate at all.
I am more closer to Type 2 Bipolar but that is so similar to borderline that I really question whether I actually have bipolar 2. I get depressed but I hardly feel a mood stabilizer will lift me out of it. I do become high functioning under stress however high functioning is my baseline, I have done a lot of sales work.

I am tempted to go back on zoloft to give me energy but then I worry about anger issues from the BPD.

What my plan is, is to just try manage my symptoms with exercise to see if I can stabilize myself, most my problems stem from stress and exercise has been a good stress reliever for me.

I have not heard of schizoaffective being a little bit of 3 things, I have heard it being simply someone who has both bipolar and schizophrenia.

 

[SixBuckets]

The diagnostic criteria for bipolar 2 and borderline personality disorder are actually really different, but there of course may be some overlap in symptoms.

It's really hard for laypeople to diagnose themselves. I'd have a talk to your doctor and find out exactly what they think you have and why they think you have it.

Worth noting, though, is that topiramate is often prescribed off-label for both bipolar and borderline personality disorder - it's believed to reduce anger outbursts from both conditions. Horrible side effect profile, though. :-/

 

[UncookMyBrain]

Yea I would rather just avoid situations that make me angry. Thats the thing with BPD is that its environmental so I can manage myself to a certain degree.
Actually it is hard for doctors to differentiate between BPD and BP2 at least in Australia.

I am not really a layperson I have a fair enough of psych research and I know I have BPD although being male it can easily present as NPD or ASPD.
A lot of my mood has to do with poor eating habits and such, BPD is known for self neglect and that in itself over time produces problems at least for me.
So I am trying to be healthy and manage my environment and I will see how my mood goes in the following 6 months.

 

[wrecker31]

This is my primary diagnosis, despite also having OCD, I have learnt most my problems stem from a personality disorder not just anxiety or a mere symptom.

The reason I ask is I have never tolerated drugs well and never knew why, I cant handle weed without getting paranoid. Speed eventually gave me speed psychosis. Doing a big cycle of steroids gave me MDD and psychosis.
Here in Australia my psychiatrist says I can have either schizophrenia or bipolar on my record, I have chosen neither as I dont believe I meet the criteria. I honestly believe I am just drug fucked, everything in the DSM seems like it must be a spectrum disorder where you can have degrees of it however I know people with bipolar and even more with schizophrenia and I have no psychosis. If anything I believe I have Borderline personality disorder, OCD and Cyclothymia.
I have heard the two personality disorders that are prone to psychosis are borderline and schizotypal so it makes me wonder if a lot of people have been diagnosed schizophrenic when they dont even have the illness.

Also where do we draw the line between a true mental illness and just being messed up from drugs?

I was originally given a bipolar diagnosis while commited to a psych hospital at about 19 or 20. Drugs gave me horrible side effects & when my crappy ins finally let me see a real private psychiatrist 2 months later he dismissed my weight gain, trembling hands, uncontrollable twitching, etc as nothing and said exactly "yup your bipolar. Keep taking Seroquel. Good thing I stopped that shit right then and there and then Surprise! All the commercials about the class action lawsuits about the permanent damage that caused for SOME people were all over the place. And the best part of all was that leaked email by one of the pharm corporate guys telling people to suppress the studies that showed the massive weight gain side effects.

Then one session with one LCSW said I was prob not bipolar but BPD. The thing is do many of these things have overlapping symptoms. I have crazy intense paranoia during stress and the week before my period. So maybe I have Paranoid Personally Disorder or Schizoeffective Disorder or maybe I am just fucked up from all the drugs I've taken in my life. I think I would need a million dollars and the best psych team in the world to try & get an accurate diagnosis.

Anyways good luck to you.

 

[UncookMyBrain]

You dont have paranoid personality disorder, people with that are paranoid even when they arnt under stress and its an overdiagnosed condition too.
I think these psychiatrists tell people with BPD they are bipolar for many reasons, its easier to convince the patient they need medication, its less stigmitized, insurance covers it and it doesnt require as much therapy.

 

[wrecker31]

This is my primary diagnosis, despite also having OCD, I have learnt most my problems stem from a personality disorder not just anxiety or a mere symptom.

The reason I ask is I have never tolerated drugs well and never knew why, I cant handle weed without getting paranoid. Speed eventually gave me speed psychosis. Doing a big cycle of steroids gave me MDD and psychosis.
Here in Australia my psychiatrist says I can have either schizophrenia or bipolar on my record, I have chosen neither as I dont believe I meet the criteria. I honestly believe I am just drug fucked, everything in the DSM seems like it must be a spectrum disorder where you can have degrees of it however I know people with bipolar and even more with schizophrenia and I have no psychosis. If anything I believe I have Borderline personality disorder, OCD and Cyclothymia.
I have heard the two personality disorders that are prone to psychosis are borderline and schizotypal so it makes me wonder if a lot of people have been diagnosed schizophrenic when they dont even have the illness.

Also where do we draw the line between a true mental illness and just being messed up from drugs?

IMHO if symptoms start before drug use (like childhood) then it might indeed be a mental illness as opposed to being fucked by drugs. I started cutting, anorexia & irresponsible impulsive sex way before I ever tried a drug.

 

[wrecker31]

This is my primary diagnosis, despite also having OCD, I have learnt most my problems stem from a personality disorder not just anxiety or a mere symptom.

The reason I ask is I have never tolerated drugs well and never knew why, I cant handle weed without getting paranoid. Speed eventually gave me speed psychosis. Doing a big cycle of steroids gave me MDD and psychosis.
Here in Australia my psychiatrist says I can have either schizophrenia or bipolar on my record, I have chosen neither as I dont believe I meet the criteria. I honestly believe I am just drug fucked, everything in the DSM seems like it must be a spectrum disorder where you can have degrees of it however I know people with bipolar and even more with schizophrenia and I have no psychosis. If anything I believe I have Borderline personality disorder, OCD and Cyclothymia.
I have heard the two personality disorders that are prone to psychosis are borderline and schizotypal so it makes me wonder if a lot of people have been diagnosed schizophrenic when they dont even have the illness.

Also where do we draw the line between a true mental illness and just being messed up from drugs?

You dont have paranoid personality disorder, people with that are paranoid even when they arnt under stress and its an overdiagnosed condition too.
I think these psychiatrists tell people with BPD they are bipolar for many reasons, its easier to convince the patient they need medication, its less stigmitized, insurance covers it and it doesnt require as much therapy.

But don't you think it's messed up to slap the bipolar diagnosis on a BPD because meds don't usually work on this, cause serious side effects & keeps the patient from getting the therapy they need.

 

[UncookMyBrain]

I dont think the therapy works very well, I havent heard of remission from BPD myself, I did some DBT by making lifestyle changes and its very difficult, fighting the boredom and trying to conform just leads to depression.
I think I do also have BP2 though because my depression has got worse especially today and for no reason, the zoloft helped a bit immediately, I am going to stay on it until I can keep up a good diet and exercise routine.