Some of the people in my outpatient group were diagnosed as having both BP and BPD. I thought it was somewhere in between BP1 and BP2 but I am not sure. Have you tried one of the mental health websites? Has someone told you that you have BPD?

*bump*

Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD)
Bipolar Assiative Disorder (BAD) not BP

sorry pet peeve.

I was diagnosed with both initially. I'm not sure if this helps but BPD is a mood disorder that can be controlled with therapy. There's a special type of therapy called Dialectical behavior therapy (DBT). I went through it and may go through again for the hell of it. BPD can be controlled.

BAD however is a chemical imbalance. It's something you live with and will have for the rest of your life. It is best controlled with the combination of drugs and therapy but can be controlled drug free with just therapy alone. But in doing so it is advised you are under the watchful eye of a psychiatrist and therapist in case you any episodes.


Sorry, someone bumped this thread.

To add more to the confusion...
This is highly debated even among professionals, so I could be all off in what I'm about to say, but here's what I think. My friend who works with BPD patients thinks that the key difference is ego-dystonic versus ego-syntonic. In other words, personality disorders evidently have much more of a cognitive effect that affects your whole mental state, not just a "monster" that comes in and takes over the real "you"; whereas mood disorders like BP effect your emotions...your thought processes are affected too, but when you're not in a manic or depressive state, your cognitive view of the world is pretty much normal. There's still a different, "real" YOU under the chemical/emotional crap.

My birthmother had BPD, and my (biological) sister does. I have repeatedly asked doctors to screen me, for those reasons, but they don't see any indication I fit a personality disorder. Bipolar sufferers don't seem to lack self-identity or empathy (I find them extremely compassionate and caring, whereas the BPD people I know like my sister have trouble with empathy and tend to use/throw away relationships). If you feel the pain of others and can easily commiserate, rather than seeing other people as cardboard cutouts that are one-dimensional, you probably don't have BPD.

That said, I don't understand why something ego-syntonic would be easier to cure than ego-dystonic. DBT can basically help people with BPD restructure how they see the world, and they may no longer fit the criteria later. Mood disorders seem to stick around and require medical intervention indefinitely. So, I wonder if the chemical process are entirely different...even though many of the symptoms overlap. But then others think it's the same thing on a continuum, which is the opposite of what I've said here. It will be interesting in the future if/when they do figure it out.