anybody else have it?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Borderline ... y_disorder

i like to think that it's a big reason why i tend to keep to myself
and stay alone. it's really hard to be around other people and
communicate with them without coming off as being really abrasive.
my interpersonal skills IRL are thee worst. :/

Funny... I was discussing this in irc earlier...

No, but I suspect that my dad has it. He meets all the criteria for it, certainly. Goes off the handle over nothing at times, then in a few minutes its all okay. Also very abrasive, like you mentioned.

But BPD is not the same thing as PTSD.. why is that part in the title?

it's been up for debate that there is no such thing as borderline personality disorder and that it's just an offshoot of ptsd.
i'll have to find a good article on it and post it in here.

Yes, I have it. I have Dependent and Borderline personality disorders.
I never knew it was possible to have two, though.
To top personality disorders, I've got Schizophrenia, Bipolar, and Atypical Autism. (Or so they say)

I have predominantly narcissistic personality disorder but also clear signs of borderline and some schizoid as well. Since borderline and narcissistic are both within the Cluster B group of disorders and usually overlap each other to some degree, it's not strange that I have borderline as well as NPD.

Even though I can pretty much act and simulate being "normal", my personality disorders coupled with a very light form of AS makes me a complete social misfit beneath the surface. It's not visible in any way other than through my actions and reactions, sometimes not even then if I manage to keep my true feelings to myself. Usually I go overboard though.

Having a "normal" life is impossible in my case, that's why I want to be reclusive for life. My relations to people and society are so deeply disturbed that the only way for me to lead a peaceful existence is to cut myself off as much as possible from the responsibilities of social life. If I was forced to take part in society it might have pushed me as far as murder. There is no way I can handle the overflow of warped emotions resulting from having to take social responsibility. I'm quite easily forced into a position where I fight for my survival as an almost non-human mental lifeform.

Even when I'm fully aware of my irrational and exaggerated reactions they are so powerful that I can't resist it. I willingly give myself to these feelings because they are in a way my true self. Denying this would be to let the logical side defeat the emotional side and that would reduce me as a person. Destroying a part of who I am, no matter how irrational that part of me might be, is a form of spiritual suicide. I don't understand why some people would expect me to put to death my own emotions in favor of only logic.

In my borderline-narcissistic emotional world, all my experiences of a more profound nature are stored. All the pain which granted me insight, everything about me which I have ever known.

Ah, I see... I read that first article. Interesting, but I still think they are separate. Lots of conditions co-exist with Aspergers too, but they are still only side conditions. However, I can see how a post traumatic stress episode could cause BPD and a number of other things like paranoia and severe trust issues. That is certainly not outside the realm of possibility.

Wow, that was really profound, Soleiyu. I feel much the same way about my personality disorder (Avoidant Personality Disorder).

Yeah, I can relate as well. I think it's a good thing that these differences between people exist, even if they impair "normal social functioning".

I can't speak for others, but my own goal is to adapt to survive in the world in which I exist while being as true to myself as possible. I especially like this sentence:



I basically agree, both in application to myself and others.

This is not completely related to the topic but sometimes I suspect that how mental disorders are defined, diagnosed and treated are heavily influenced by the social constructs of what should be normal and what isn't. Michel Foucault observes in Madness and Civilization that mental institutions, for example, are really just another means of social exclusion in the way that other social outcastes are confined from mainstream society and frowned upon. This is not to say that mental disorders don't exist or that those suffering from it should not be given medical attention, but how society regards what is normal and what is not affects how it looks at mental disorders and in turn affects (perhaps negatively) how a mental disorder is defined, diagnosed and treated.

@shmoo. You're 100% on the mark. As far as I'm concerned, all mental illnesses are social constructs. When I took Psych 101 at university, I had an assigment where I was asked to give the reason why a woman who is subject to fits of uncontrollable nervous laughter around others would be considered mentally ill behavior. The correct answer? Because her behavior was socially unacceptable and disturbing to others. Furthermore, I was taught that this definition "socially unacceptable behavior that is disturbing to others" is THE supreme criterion for determining whether or not any given behavior is indicative of a mental illness. Now, one's societies norms are constantly changing, so what is metnally ill in one decade will be reclassified the next decade when norms change. Hence, until the 1970s homosexuality was universally frowned on and was therefore a mental illness. By the 70s, however, a significant shift in public attitudes toward homosexuality was beginning to take place, and since it was no longer universally frowned on, it was delisted as a pathology and became a lifestyle choice.

One of the threads on the site here links to a Personality Disorder Test which measures an individual's levels of pathology. In order to assess degrees of schizotypality it asks questions about whether or not one has 'odd or eccentric behaviors or beliefs' and uses belief in reincarnation as a 'typical' odd belief. So anyone who believes in reincarnation will therefore score high for schizotypal personality. In Western society, belief in reincarnation is indeed odd; however, in Asian societies it isn't odd at all. Does this mean then that all traditionalist Buddhists and Hindus suffer from schizotypal personality disorder and require medical treatment along with cognitive-behavioral reporgramming? No, because a behavior or belief is only diseased insofar as it does not conform to the society in which the individual lives. Thus, by this logic, the traditionalist Buddhist living in Thailand is not at all schizotypal for believing in reincarnation as long as he or she remains in Thailand. Should he or she decide to move to New Jersey, however, the moment they enter American air space they will become much more schizotypal based solely on the fact that their beliefs and behaviors are not the norm. Needless to say, then, the oppressive power of contemporary psychology is frighteningly great.

too have personality disorder, never tested, but I know that I have 5 years may have at least more.
It's hard to determine which category.

I swear that no matter just how much i have read about Borderline disorder (wikipedia, some articles here and there) i still don't really understand it.

I mean, for example, i understand and can conceptualize depression, or autism, or paranoia, or schizoid. But i can't do that with Borderline, why oh god why!?