jake entrekin

Hello all,

I am a new subscriber to this newsgroup because my ex gf was diagnosed with
BPD and used to be a cutter as well. I tried my best to help her cope with
her disorder by showing her unconditional love and support but we ended up
parting ways nonetheless. Anyway, my point in writing is that some of the
symptoms that she demonstrated, which led her doctor to diagnose her with
the disorder, bear eerie similarities to reactions I have to relationships.
For instance, I easily get angered, I have this attitude sometimes that
nobody gives a shit about me, nobody cares, they stopped caring, I don't
want to be around people, I isolate myself, etc. I've never cut or
anything, but I do have episodes of unexplainable anger, frustration, etc.
Furthermore, I have been diagnosed with generalized anxiety disorder and was
on Zoloft for that and the panic attacks have gone away as well as some of
the depression. I guess what I'm asking is what exactly constitutes someone
having BPD? I am concerned because I am always battling the way I feel
inside towards other people. In other words, I'm either desperately needing
someone in my life or vehemently pushing them away, throwing insults at
them, etc. I feel like I do that as a defensive measure to protect myself
somehow, but was curious if anyone who has had BPD or has known someone who
had it thinks that I may show signs of having it. Thanks for reading this
drawn-out rambling post!

-Jake Entrekin

P.S. I'm a 26 year old male

sole

Hi Jake,

Welcome! To answer your question...I can't. I don't think anyone here
would presume to know if enough about you or your situation to say that you
do or don't have BPD. One of the funny things about this disorder is that
everyone has some or all of the symptoms, to some degree, at sometime or
another. It becomes a disorder when you have at least 5 of the 8 symptoms
to such a degree that they interfere with your ability to function. Even
then, it would take a trained Dr. to come to an accurate diagnosis. Below
I've pasted the DSM IV Criteria for BPD. Hopefully, it helps. This link is
to a page I've found to be very informative.
http://www.borderlinepersonalitytoday.com

Feel free to post any questions or feedback. Best of luck.

Sole


Borderline Personality Disorder DSM IV Criteria


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 and
devaluation.

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

4. impulsivity in at least two areas that are potentially self-damaging
(e.g., spending, ***, 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

The DSM IV goes on to say:

The essential feature of Borderline Personality Disorder is a pervasive
pattern of instability of interpersonal relationships, self-image, and
affects, and marked impulsivity that begins by early adulthood and is
present in a variety of contexts.

Individuals with Borderline Personality Disorder make frantic efforts to
avoid real or imagined abandonment (Criterion 1). The perception of
impending separation or rejection, or the loss of external structure, can
lead to profound changes in self-image, affect, cognition, and behavior.
These individuals are very sensitive to environmental cir***stances. They
experience intense abandonment fears and inappropriate anger even when faced
with a realistic time-limited separation or when there are unavoidable
changes in plans (e.g. sudden despair in reaction to a clinician's
announcing the end of the hour; panic of fury when someone important to them
is just a few minutes late or must cancel an appointment). They may believe
that this "abandonment" implies they are "bad." These abandonment fears are
related to an intolerance of being alone and a need to have other people
with them. Their frantic efforts to avoid abandonment may include impulsive
actions such as self-mutilating or suicidal behaviors, which are described
separately in Criterion 5.

Individuals with Borderline Personality Disorder have a pattern of unstable
and intense relationships (Criterion 2). They may idealize potential
caregivers or lovers at the first or second meeting, demand to spend a lot
of time together, and share the most intimate details early in a
relationship. However, they may switch quickly from idealizing other people
to devaluing them, feeling that the other person does not care enough, does
not give enough, is not "there" enough. These individuals can empathize with
and nurture other people, but only with the expectation that the other
person will "be there" in return to meet their own needs on demand. These
individuals are prone to sudden and dramatic shifts in their view of others,
who may alternately be seen as beneficent supports or as cruelly punitive.
Such shifts often reflect disillusionment with a caregiver who nurturing
qualities had been idealized or whose rejection or abandonment is expected.

There may be an identity disturbance characterized by markedly and
persistently unstable self-image or sense of self (Criterion 3). There are
sudden and dramatic shifts in self-image, characterized by shifting goals,
values, and vocational aspirations. There may be sudden changes in opinions
and plans about career, ***ual identity, values, and types of friends. These
individuals may suddenly change from the role of a needy supplicant for help
to a righteous avenger of past mistreatment. Although they usually have a
self-image that is based on being bad or evil, individuals with this
disorder may at times have feelings that they do not exist at all. Such
experiences usually occur in situations in which the individual feels a lack
of meaningful relationship, nurturing and support. These individuals may
show worse performance in unstructured work or school situations.

Individuals with this disorder display impulsivity in at least two areas
that are potentially self-damaging (Criterion 4). They may gamble, spend
money irresponsibly, binge eat, abuse substances, engage in unsafe ***, or
drive recklessly. Individuals with Borderline Personality Disorder display
recurrent suicidal behavior, gestures, or threats, or self-mutilating
behavior (Criterion 5). Completed suicide occurs in 8%-10% of such
individuals, and self-mutilative acts (e.g., cutting or burning) and suicide
threats and attempts are very common. Recurrent suicidality is often the
reason that these individuals present for help. These self-destructive acts
are usually precipitated by threats of separation or rejection or by
expectations that they assume increased responsibility. Self-mutilation may
occur during dissociative experiences and often brings relief by reaffirming
the ability to feel or by expiating the individual's sense of being evil.

Individuals with Borderline Personality Disorder may display affective
instability that is 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) (Criterion 6). The basic dysphoric mood of
those with Borderline Personality Disorder is often disrupted by periods of
anger, panic, or despair and is rarely relieved by periods of well-being or
satisfaction. These episodes may reflect the individual's extreme reactivity
troubled by chronic feelings of emptiness (Criterion 7). Easily bored, they
may constantly seek something to do. Individuals with Borderline Personality
Disorder frequently express inappropriate, intense anger or have difficulty
controlling their anger (Criterion 8). They may display extreme sarcasm,
enduring bitterness, or verbal outbursts. The anger is often elicited when a
caregiver or lover is seen as neglectful, withholding, uncaring, or
abandoning. Such expressions of anger are often followed by shame and guilt
and contribute to the feeling they have of being evil. During periods of
extreme stress, transient paranoid ideation or dissociative symptoms (e.g.,
depersonalization) may occur (Criterion 9), but these are generally of
insufficient severity or duration to warrant an additional diagnosis. These
episodes occur most frequently in response to a real or imagined
abandonment. Symptoms tend to be transient, lasting minutes or hours. The
real or perceived return of the caregiver's nurturance may result in a
remission of symptoms.

Associated Features and Disorders

Individuals with Borderline Personality Disorder may have a pattern of
undermining themselves at the moment a goal is about to be realized (e.g.,
dropping out of school just before graduation; regressing severely after a
discussion of how well therapy is going; destroying a good relationship just
when it is clear that the relationship could last). Some individuals develop
psychotic-like symptoms (e.g., hallucinations, body-image distortions, ideas
of reference, and hypnotic phenomena) during times of stress. Individuals
with this disorder may feel more secure with transitional objects (i.e., a
pet or inanimate possession) than in interpersonal relationships. Premature
death from suicide may occur in individuals with this disorder, especially
in those with co-occurring Mood Disorders or Substance-Related Disorders.
Physical handicaps may result from self-inflicted abuse behaviors or failed
suicide attempts. Recurrent job losses, interrupted education, and broken
marriages are common. Physical and ***ual abuse, neglect, hostile conflict,
and early parental loss or separation are more common in the childhood
histories of those with Borderline Personality Disorder. Common co-occurring
Axis I disorders include Mood Disorders, Substance-Related Disorders, Eating
Disorders (notably Bulimia), Posttraumatic Stress Disorder, and
Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder. Borderline Personality Disorder
also frequently co-occurs with the other Personality Disorders.

Specific Culture, Age, and Gender Features

The pattern of behavior seen in Borderline Personality Disorder has been
identified in many settings around the world. Adolescents and young adults
with identity problems (especially when accompanied by substance abuse) may
transiently display behaviors that misleadingly give the impression of
Borderline Personality Disorder. Such situations are characterized by
emotional instability, "existential" dilemmas, uncertainty,
anxiety-provoking choices, conflicts about ***ual orientation, and competing
social pressures to decide on careers. Borderline Personality Disorder is
diagnosed predominantly (about 75%) in females.

Prevalence

The prevalence of Borderline Personality Disorder is estimated to be about
2% of the general population, about 10% among individuals seen in outpatient
mental health clinics, and about 20% among psychiatric inpatients. In ranges
from 30% to 60% among clinical populations with Personality Disorders.

Course

There is considerable variability in the course of Borderline Personality
Disorder. The most common pattern is one of chronic instability in early
adulthood, with episodes of serious affective and impulsive dyscontrol and
high levels of use of health and mental health resources. The impairment
from the disorder and the risk of suicide are greatest in the young-adult
years and gradually wane with advancing age. During their 30s and 40s, the
majority of individuals with this disorder attain greater stability in their
relationships and vocational functioning.

Familial Pattern

Borderline Personality Disorder is about five times more common among
first-degree biological relatives of those with the disorder than in the
general population. There is also an increased familial risk for
Substance-Related Disorders, Antisocial Personality Disorder, and Mood
Disorders.

Differential Diagnosis

Borderline Personality Disorder often co-occurs with Mood Disorders, and
when criteria for both are met, both may be diagnosed. Because the
cross-sectional presentation of Borderline Personality Disorder can be
mimicked by an episode of Mood Disorder, the clinician should avoid giving
an additional diagnosis of Borderline Personality Disorder based only on
cross-sectional presentation without having do***ented that the pattern of
behavior has an early onset and a long-standing course.

Other Personality Disorders may be confused with Borderline Personality
Disorder because they have certain features in common. It is, therefore,
important to distinguish among these disorders based on differences in their
characteristic features. However, if an individual has personality features
that meet criteria for one or more Personality Disorders in addition to
Borderline Personality Disorder, all can be diagnosed. Although Histrionic
Personality Disorder can also be characterized by attention seeking,
manipulative behavior, and rapidly shifting emotions, Borderline Personality
Disorder is distinguished by self-destructiveness, angry disruptions in
close relationships, and chronic feelings of deep emptiness and loneliness.
Paranoid ideas or illusions may be present in both Borderline Personality
Disorder and Schizotypal Personality Disorder, but these symptoms are more
transient, interpersonally reactive, and responsive to external structuring
in Borderline Personality Disorder. Although Paranoid Personality Disorder
and Narcissistic Personality Disorder may also be characterized by an angry
reaction to minor stimuli, the relative stability of self-image as well as
the relative lack of self-destructiveness, impulsivity, and abandonment
concerns distinguish these disorders from Borderline Personality Disorder.
Although Antisocial Personality Disorder and Borderline Personality Disorder
are both characterized by manipulative behavior, individuals with Antisocial
Personality Disorder are manipulative to gain profit, power, or some other
material gratification, whereas the goal in Borderline Personality Disorder
is directed more toward gaining the concern of caretakers. Both Dependent
Personality Disorder and Borderline Personality Disorder are characterized
by fear of abandonment, however, the individual with Borderline Personality
Disorder reacts to abandonment with feelings of emotional emptiness, rage,
and demands, whereas the individual with Dependent Personality Disorder
reacts with increasing appea*****t and submissiveness and urgently seeks a
replacement relationship to provide caregiving and support. Borderline
Personality Disorder can further be distinguished from Dependent Personality
Disorder by the typical pattern of unstable and intense relationships.

Borderline Personality Disorder must be distinguished from Personality
Change Due to a General Medical Condition, in which the traits emerge due to
the direct effects of a general medical condition on the central nervous
system. It must also be distinguished from symptoms that may develop in
association with chronic substance use (e.g., Cocaine-Related Disorder Not
Otherwise Specified).

Borderline Personality Disorder should be distinguished from Identity
Problem...which is reserved for identity concerns related to a developmental
phase (e.g., adolescence) and does not qualify as a mental disorder."

hannes lau

I would like to say, only one psychiatrist or doctor should a
diagnosis place. No one here can do this really. And is it really
so important to know its diagnosis? Isn't it more important to work
on its prime problems? For a better li(v)fe every day in the future...

CU A.
--
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hannes Lau | Mail: hannes.lau@debitel.net
Berringer Str. 1 | http://www.hannes-lau.de
18146 Rostock | Home- Office- Tel: +49 (0381) 6707195

sole

Hannes,

Ultimately, you are right. The emphasis should be placed on working on
behaviors and learning how to regulate our emotions and not necessarily
finding a label for yourself. However, to get medication, one has to be
diagnosed by a physician. So doing research to find a name for your
symptoms can be a useful thing. I know that no one should attach themselves
to a label but to tell the truth, when I saw the criteria for BPD I was
blown away and so relieved. Up until then, I thought I was crazy and all
alone. I didn't know that there were enough other people out there going
through the same things I was going through, for the medical community to
actually have a name for it. I didn't absorb myself in the BPD label but it
definitely legitimized what had been going on in my life for so many years.

Speaking of labels, "they" are considering making an addition to the name
Borderline Personality Disorder in the DSM Criteria. Next to the words
Borderline Personality Disorder, in parentheses, would read "Emotional
Regulation Disorder." I think it's a great idea because it better describes
the disorder. Here's an article on the subject.
http://www.borderlinepersonalitytoday.com/main/name_change.htm

sole

hannes lau

I ran decades long around and knew only this: Hey, possibly something is
not correct with me. Quite true but... what? I do not know it nevertheless.
No one spaek with me, no one can i tell, what's going on. I know
myself not.
And now? Now i have a big sackful problems... :-(

CU A.
--
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hannes Lau | Mail: hannes.lau@debitel.net
Berringer Str. 1 | http://www.hannes-lau.de
18146 Rostock | Home- Office- Tel: +49 (0381) 6707195

sole

I wish I knew German so I could understand your webpage. From your other
posts, it would seem you are very sad right now. Can I ask what's if your
big sackful of problem?

sole

hannes lau

Hm, sorry, i can't translate, it's tooo much...


Hm, shortly. You know the ICD-10?

That's now: F 60.31, F 32.2, F 50.0, F 10.1, F 60.8/9, and
self-injuries - how long since? I don't know exactly.... decades...
now then... :-(

And now i sit here alone and alone, without work, too little money, the
wife desires the dissolution... and so on... :-(

CU A.
--
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hannes Lau | Mail: hannes.lau@debitel.net
Berringer Str. 1 | http://www.hannes-lau.de
18146 Rostock | Home- Office- Tel: +49 (0381) 6707195

sole

No, I'm not familiar with ICD-10. I assume it's a complilation of disease
codes or something? I'd be willing to look up the ones you've referenced,
if you tell me how.


I'm sorry. Lonliness can be so overwhelming. My divorce was the most
painful experience in my life. Why are you unable to work?

sole

zarah

Couldn't find an English translation, but appears to be Alchoholism?


60.8 Narcissistic Personality Disorder
60.9 Personality Disorder, Unspecified


At least, I think that's correct. I am familiar with the ICD-9 (my mother,
grandmother, and myself all work, or have worked, for hospitals and health
clinics), so I just looked up on Yahoo! "ICD-10" along with each of the
diagnosis codes. Please, do let me know if those are incorrect.

Zarah

hannes lau

Yes, it's right.

No, everything is o.k.. AFAIK is the ICD 10 newest.

CU A.
--
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hannes Lau | Mail: hannes.lau@debitel.net
Berringer Str. 1 | http://www.hannes-lau.de
18146 Rostock | Home- Office- Tel: +49 (0381) 6707195