Posted by Sarahmarie on May 18, 2002, at 17:59:51
In reply to Re: A Big Question -- about Borderline Personality Dis, posted by katekite on May 18, 2002, at 17:47:28
> BPD is a real diagnosis, but its a rare problem. It is treatable: usually mood stabilizers or ssris help, and therapy does help but it takes a long time. So if it was true it would not be horrible: if fact if it was true it would be good in a way, finally a diagnosis to a life of anguish. Any correct diagnosis is good.... being that once a correct diagnosis is made the right treatment will result.
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> You might see if you can get a psychological evaluation that is not through an interviewer, such as the MMPI.
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> Personally, a couple of therapists I saw during depressions tossed the BPD diagnosis around with me. I worried over it and it really got me down but they were ultimately not right. Therapists are often wrong, its just the process of getting to know us. Think of all the people they see: they are trying to fit people into categories and it is very tempting for them to jump to a conclusion.
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> The reason it was so disturbing an idea to me was that after reading the description, I saw that borderline individuals tend to put others needs last if they are upset, make all these frantic (read 'needless') attempts to avoid abandonment, sounded like they yelled a lot and might even be abusive. Sounded two-faced too. I had always thought of myself quite differently.
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> So at that point after crying and asking my boyfriend if I was really like that, him saying no... I looked at the criteria and saw that I only fit 3 or so. Not enough.
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> The ones I fit are/were: black and white thinking (when depressed I tend to not believe people need or love me)... also even when I'm not depressed it's I take rejection really hard...so I tend in hard times to either really need and like my shrink or not like them at all and think they suck; I'm impulsive (pull my hair out which is impulse-control, interrupt, have trouble with authority) (it turns out impulsive is my personality, also I finally got diagnosed with ADD which explains it to some degree); and lastly I have big issues with abandonment, this is a probably abuse related.
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> But the MMPI places me squarely in the sane normal population in this respect: people are allowed a degree of personality issue, even normal people have issues. When depressed or anxious or when life is hard everyone has some issues that predominate.
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> So -- at this point we should revisit that you say you only fit 3 of the characteristics. (Compared to a group of borderline individuals, you are not borderline). If you feel you've been honest and if you think someone who has known you for quite some time on a personal level, someone you've opened up to (other than this therapist and your ex) would agree with you, then you are not borderline.
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> The last thing to say about those 3 issues is that those may well be the central issues that therapy can work on. For example, I've gotten way better about rejection/abandonment through knowing some stable non-abusive people and through actively working on reminding myself that most people are nice (not intending to hurt me).
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> Ok so here's the next question: what do you think prompted your therapist to bring this up? Did you get attached to them early in therapy? Or have a problem with them? Or call them when needing support more than once a month?
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> Since its unlikely you're borderline, lets figure out what prompted your shrink to get this misimpression.
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> For me, it was usually that I related my abandonment issues but seemed to easily attach to the therapist (a warning flag to them, as how could someone who won't trust anyone look so trusting?)....anyhow, there are a million reasons they could be wondering... what do you think it is?
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> Sid mentioned I said something about not getting angry about it with them... I don't think that was me but it is good advice.
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> So your therapist may not know you as well yet as you would like.
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> In any case, whatever they think about this has nothing to do with whether they like you and whether they think they can help you (that's an abandonment trap I would have fallen into). It is also not a reason to think they are not a good shrink (black white thinking) as they have gotten on the wrong track here but every human does sometime: they are human.
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> Hope you can keep from worrying over this. Things will most likely be just fine after you talk to them next time and straighten out whatever issue it might have been that prompted them to find #4 and #5 (as you do have some borderline traits, all they would need to do would be to accidently find a couple more).
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> kateThank you Kate for all the good information. I just took the Meyers-Briggs Personality test on-line and the results wer ISTJ, which is supposed to be an Introverted Sensing Thinking Judging type--does this Personality Type also belong to the Borderline personalities?? I am just asking.
I know I shouldn't be worried too much about this, I guess I am just obsessing on the fact that everything I have read and the fact that my therapist told me that this condition cannot be cured--makes me feel kind of lost and hopeless.SarahMarie
poster:Sarahmarie
thread:24005
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/social/20020517/msgs/24072.html