Posted by ramsea on December 3, 2003, at 14:54:30
In reply to Re: borderline pd and bipolar » ramsea, posted by fallsfall on December 3, 2003, at 8:24:58
This is fascinating stuff. It sounds like you are fit and willing to make your life work. I will re-read what you wrote again, as several questions of interest to me arose. Out of curiosity, I wanted to know when you first realized you were having "problems". For example, I was a mood disordered toddler. I showed definite symptoms that are seen in Aspergers and ADD, as well as childhood bipolar.
If you haven't read Flight of the Mind, a book which offers a biological and psychoanalytical look at the "manic depression" of Virginia Woolf, I really do think you'd like it. I just read it a few weeks ago, and recall a whole chapter on Self psychology, including analysis of her childhood and the subject of mirroring. Her father was cyclothymic and her mother, who died early, was pathologically bereaved. V. Woolf was therefore a candidate for splitting/self-fragmentation.
I wanted to ask you if you believe that (in humble opinion and all that <smile>) a bipolar who had a traumatic childhood, where there was poor mirroring, is then borderline? I hope that made sense. Try again: as a bipolar who had a disturbed childhood, am I necessarily borderline? I appreciate what you said about not bipolars are borderline and vice versa. But what if a person has experienced a terrible environment, in addition to having the genetics quite apparently in place?
It's kind of hard for me to think of any famous bipolars , or authors, who say they had a happy childhood. I am sure they exist, of course, I just can't think of them. BW thinking is pretty common in lots of dysfunctional mental conditions, i.e., schizophrenia, alcoholism, Asperger's, ADD, etc.
Actually I just read Driven to Distraction, which is about ADD/ADHD and there is a chapter on Borderlines. The author (pdoc) discusses the similarities between ADD and borderline--very interesting. I seriously believe I am ADD, but again my pdoc dismisses this, as he dismissed out of hand the possibility that I might be borderline.One more question and I'll stop badgering you! Why does Marsha Linehan say that a client who misses a session because she was hospitalized for a psychiatric problem is said to have an "unexcused absence"? If it had been a "physical" problem, she would have had an "excused absence". Isn't that kind of backwards???? Take care & many thanks for your help.
poster:ramsea
thread:286142
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/psycho/20031202/msgs/286257.html