Posted by ramsea on December 4, 2003, at 10:42:16
In reply to Re: psychological theories of Self » ramsea, posted by fallsfall on December 4, 2003, at 8:16:20
My subject title reveals my oral fixation, but really you all have given me much to reflect on.
My pdoc believes in Borderline PD and ADHD, but he insists that I don't qualify, that my Bipolar dx is enough to cover matters such as high emotional reactivity, severe social anxiety, panic attacks, inability to focus, disorganization, underachieving, etc. I believe that both Dinah and fallfall presented (and extremely eloquently, too) BPD theories that were opposed in one primary way---ye olde environment vs. biology.
Off-hand I feel the gender aspect needs looking at, and I would like to see whether any researcher has touched on this at depth. The forensic psychiatry hospitals are filled to the brim with patients who have personality disorders. Most forensic BPDs are female. Presumably the male wards are filled with antisocial personality disordered patients. Could it be that when forensic matters come up women are being labelled borderline when they are actually the female version of anti-social?
For example females are considered by some neuroscientists, et al, to be more emotion/relationship oriented than males so a female version of anti-social would include more problems around emotions and relationships, as in BPD fear of abandonment, mood swings. Of course many (most) borderline individuals are not violent or criminally inclined, but they are tarred with this brush of malicious criminality. Maybe the label borderline tries to cover too much ground.
I am of course just thinking aloud. I am determined to figure out why borderlines are given such a time of things, just heavily cloaked in stigma. To be honest I had a psychiatrist once when I was in my early 20s who said I might be borderline PD. This was after having been dx by a major teaching hospital and a whole battery of tests as having manic depression, and should be on lithium for life. That dx was to counteract the misdiagnosis of schizophrenia when I was 19. Really it seems that was a psychotic manic episode. Along comes this psychiatrist and his colleague and they booted me out, said I was BPD and needed AA, and to stop wasting their time, and to stop being a waste of space. They were horrible. Their neglect has caused lasting damage, physical and emotional. Following this I have not been given a personality disorder dx by a number of varying psychiatrists. But I don't forget what happened to me--or what happened to some others I know.
An intersting story, though very tragic, was written up in the news last month. A man in his 70s committed suicide by jumping under a train. He was an in-patient at the time of his death, but the hospital staff had decided he should be discharged as there was nothing wrong with him. The coroner looked into it, and apparently he had been treated for depression for most of his adult life. But the hospital, covering their tracks I expect, argued that the man wasn't ill--he had a personality disorder. The coroner rode over that and insisted that the poor man had died as a result of some sort of depressive illness.
My fear with personality disorders is that they get misused by authorities who either want to lay the blame for lack of treatment success onto the person who is for some reason not getting better; or they want to shove someone out of the realm of illness and into the realm of police (this is something that is really distressing to me, deaths have resulted).
It's become fairly acceptable to say to people, oh you know--I suffer from depression; stress; ADD, or anxiety. Bipolar is iffy. Schizophrenia is still very stigmatized. Same for Borderline PD. And yet I can see that some people with BPD are going to get better without needing to be on chemicals for life. There is a high rate of BPD people who recover even without treatment after about age 35-40. Many can use 12-steps and therapy to deal with problems and learn new skills. I envy the person who is a little like a bipolar, with the best bits like creativity and excitement, passion and drama---but not long-lasting, mysterious mood switches and plunges that never cease over a lifetime and leave some perfectly able and good people on the fringes of society, disabled and disregarded. But now I'm just feeling sorry for myself!!!! Thanks for a lovely chat and I will keep looking for you all.
poster:ramsea
thread:286142
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/psycho/20031202/msgs/286519.html