Post by Mea on Jan 6, 2016 10:19:20 GMT
Anonymous asked: Is it possible that my therapist might have overlooked BPD because of depression and anxiety? Looked at a bunch of checklists and it seems like I have BPD but I've never been officially diagnosed.
Answer: Definitely. I was diagnosed with depression and anxiety years before I got a BPD diagnosis. The truth is, if the diagnostician doesn’t know what to look for, BPD can look a lot like depression + anxiety (and often + PTSD). Symptoms like the fear of abandonment can look like generalized or social anxiety to someone who isn’t digging into those symptoms and anxieties and finding the root of them. Symptoms like chronic feelings of emptiness and self-harm tendencies can look like depression if they don’t dig deeper into the aspect of that depression which takes over your life in the same fashion a personality disorder does.
Many people receive a list of diagnoses before they finally receive a diagnosis of BPD. Someone I know was diagnosed with depression, social anxiety, and OCD. They went to a new therapist, and that therapist concluded that it was actually BPD all along, and the compulsive symptoms previous therapists thought was OCD was more akin to the impulsiveness seen in BPD. (Of course, you can also have all of the above.)
If you feel comfortable doing so, bring up BPD with your therapist. Print off the checklist and check which symptoms apply to you and make a note of how much they affect you. If you can, fill it out multiple times. Maybe even get a trusted loved one to fill one out for you, since they may notice things you don’t.
-Mea
Answer: Definitely. I was diagnosed with depression and anxiety years before I got a BPD diagnosis. The truth is, if the diagnostician doesn’t know what to look for, BPD can look a lot like depression + anxiety (and often + PTSD). Symptoms like the fear of abandonment can look like generalized or social anxiety to someone who isn’t digging into those symptoms and anxieties and finding the root of them. Symptoms like chronic feelings of emptiness and self-harm tendencies can look like depression if they don’t dig deeper into the aspect of that depression which takes over your life in the same fashion a personality disorder does.
Many people receive a list of diagnoses before they finally receive a diagnosis of BPD. Someone I know was diagnosed with depression, social anxiety, and OCD. They went to a new therapist, and that therapist concluded that it was actually BPD all along, and the compulsive symptoms previous therapists thought was OCD was more akin to the impulsiveness seen in BPD. (Of course, you can also have all of the above.)
If you feel comfortable doing so, bring up BPD with your therapist. Print off the checklist and check which symptoms apply to you and make a note of how much they affect you. If you can, fill it out multiple times. Maybe even get a trusted loved one to fill one out for you, since they may notice things you don’t.
-Mea
