Borderline personality disorder??

I am sorry for continually posting about my mental health illnesses, I have been newly diagnosed with bipolar and borderline personality  disorder.


I do not know if I quite believe I have either of these so I am hoping someone with borderline personality disorder might PM with their symptoms or how they understand what BPD is to them?


I am joining a support group here in my town and then I will stop posting ,

hey, im sctually bpd and bp. bordline personality is normal when people do things in extreems. like me for instance when i shop i will spend every penny litteraly. or like before i had the surgery when i got upset i would bake. but i would go and but like 12 boxes of cake and make them all. then there would be times when i would be sooooo down that i would not talk to anyone. basicly jumping from one thing to the next with no time to relax in the middle. hope this makes sence. and bi polar is simmilar. depending on wich type you have

Please refer to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders IV-R. You can look up the diagnostic criteria for each of the disorders you have asked about. I respectfully disagree with the previous posters description of borderline personality d/o. 
  Here is a brief description:

Borderline Personality Disorder

A pervasive pattern of instability of interpersonal relationships, self-image, and affects, and marked impulsivity beginning by early adulthood and present in a variety of contexts, as indicated by five (or more) of the following:

(1) frantic efforts to avoid real or imagined abandonment. Note: Do not include suicidal or self-mutilating behavior covered in Criterion 5.

(2) a pattern of unstable and intense interpersonal relationships characterized by alternating between extremes of idealization or devaluation

(3) identity disturbance: markedly and persistently unstable self-image or sense of self

(4) impulsivity in at least 2 areas that are potentially self-damaging (e.g., spending, sex, substance abuse, reckless driving, binge eating). Note: Do not include suicidal or self-mutilating behavior covered in Criterion 5.

(5) recurrent suicidal behavior, gestures, or threats, or self-mutilating behavior

(6) affective instability due to a marked reactivity of mood (e.g., intense episodic dysphoria, irritability, or anxiety usually lasting a few hours and only rarely more than a few days)

(7) chronic feelings of emptiness

(8) inappropriate, intense anger or difficulty controlling anger (e.g., frequent displays of temper, constant anger, recurrent physical fights)

(9) transient, stress-related paranoid ideation or severe dissociative symptoms

Bipolar d/o is an axis one (Clinical disorder)
Borderline Personality d/o is an axis two (personality d/o's and mental retardation)

An expert working with "borderlines" is Marsha Linnehan, from University of Washington. Quite a bit of research with Dialectical Behavioral Therapy.

FIND OUT WHAT CRITERIA YOU MET FOR AN AXIS 2 DX. Don't  take it lightly....

Best of luck to ya-and sorry I wrote so much...but it's kinda "my thang!"

Kathy

First of all, never feel like you are monopolizing the Mental Health Forum with your questions, that is what we are here for.

I have both BPD and Bipolar, and totally agree with Kathy.  I have been in therapy for almost 20 years, with the same therapist, and have successfully been able to eliminate most of the behaviors and feelings that go with the disorder, except the abandonment thing.  When first diagnosed, I had all but one of the criterion. 

What has helped me is being on medications for symptom management, like depression and anxiety, and hard work in cognitive behavioral therapy.  My therapist is the best I could possibly have. 

Feel free to PM me if you have specific questions you want me to answer personally.

Hugs,
Trish