Borderline Personality & Bipolar Disorder

There is often a lot of confusion between these two mental disorders, so on this page I will try to explain some of the similarities, especially in terms of the symptoms, and we’ll also look at the difference between bipolar and borderline personality disorder and how they affect depression.

There is no substitute for proper diagnosis from a doctor so please after reading this if you have any doubts or think you may suffer from borderline personality disorder, go see your doctor.

The effects of both bipolar and borderline personality disorder can be very serious so please get professional help if you believe you might be suffering from either of these conditions. There are many problems with the correct diagnosis of bipolar disorder and other similar disorders because some of the symptoms are shared and can be confused. Approximately 70% of people who have these types of depressive disorders are not correctly diagnosed in the first place and many remain so.

To learn more, I have a brief description of bipolar depression on this page.

What is Borderline Personality Disorder?

Like Bipolar Disorder one of the main symptoms is violent and unpredictable mood swings. These mood swings can often cause the patient’s emotional state to become extremely unbalanced and, as a result, this can lead to further problems. The following is a short list of possible consequences which may result:

• Low self image and self esteem
• Poor relationships with others
• Feelings of being abandoned
• Swings in how the patient regards themselves, ranging from self admiration to very poor self regard, judgments become unstable and inconsistent
• Many sufferers end up self harming or even attempting suicide

The seriousness of the symptoms and, in particular, the consequences of suffering from Borderline Personality Disorder can often cause sufferers to become hospitalized.

It can be seen that those suffering can be a threat to themselves and others. This disorder is very destructive.

So what causes these problems? It is believed that there may be several major causes including a genetic link or a problem starting in the brain.

Why Are the Two Disorders Often Confused?

Given the symptoms briefly listed, they are broadly similar to those for Bipolar Disorder which is also a problem consisting of violent mood swings. Both disorders may require hospitalization; however, Borderline Personality Disorder is not as common as Bipolar Disorder, and the second results in more hospitalizations. As has been said, both disorders involve depression, as you might expect from mood swings, negative self image, poor self esteem and problems in personal relationships.

The similarities between these two mental disorders are:

• Mood swings which can happen quite quickly, even within minutes, and range from feeling elated to quite depressed and sad.
• Rash or risky behaviour results from the feelings that come from the mood swings and can include aggressive behaviour, spending sprees, wild sexual behaviour and driving without any care.
• Alcohol and drug abuse is common. The reason why this happens is because these substances are seen as a way to cope with the symptoms and problems caused by the two disorders, but of course this is not at all helpful and often makes the problems much worse.

What Is the Difference Between These Two Disorders? Is BPD worse than Bipolar Disorder?

Let’s compare the two disorders, which might help us understand the difference between them.

Bipolar Disorder:

• Is a mental illness
• Moods may last for days or weeks before any change
• Involves feelings of extreme happiness or elation (also known as mania)
• Reasons for mood change are unknown and appear to have no external cause

Borderline Personality:

• Is an emotional condition
• Moods often last for only hours and not longer than a day
• No feelings of extreme happiness or elation (mania)
• External cause of mood changes and usually a result of a stressful event such as an argument or something similar.
• Emotional feelings of abandonment and loneliness are more common than for Bipolar sufferers

People suffering from borderline personality disorder are very likely to have other mental health issues as well. Another difference is that there is more likely to have been an emotional or physical trauma in childhood than for bipolar sufferers. This means it is even more important for sufferers of BPD to get some form of therapy. There is a lot of help available and one source is online therapy which can be extremely effective online therapy which can be extremely effective and very convenient.

Please note that it is possible to suffer from both Bipolar Disorder and Borderline Personality Disorder though this is not so common.

The Connection Between Depression and Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD)

There is a very high, (of the order of 80% according to one study), percentage of patients who suffer from Borderline Personality Disorder and who also suffer from Major depression.

When someone has BPD they suffer from depression in a slightly different way to those who do not have it. The difference is in the emotional feelings they have. BPD sufferers feel anger, loneliness and emptiness as their main emotions. Treatments for depression do not seem to work with these sufferers as well as they do with other patients.

Sufferers of BPD benefit most from a treatment of the symptoms. Once the symptoms are treated, an improvement is seen and the depression lifts. This seems to suggest that the symptoms are a cause of the resulting depression.

So what should you do if you think you have Borderline Personality Disorder? In short, please get help as soon as you can. Therapy from a qualified professional is highly recommended. Do not try to self-diagnose or self treat because this condition requires professional guidance and care. Talk to a doctor first and get some advice and a proper diagnosis.

You can find out much more about Borderline Personality Disorder from Wikipedia

Bipolar Disorder and Depression

This is a brain disorder and is also called manic-depressive disorder. The condition seems to involve not only mood swings but changes in energy levels.

Bipolar disorder can destroys lives, but only if it is not treated. It often starts in the late teens and it usually occurs before age 25.

The fact that it involves changing moods and lows and highs accompanied with drastic increases and falls in energy levels, means that relationships and productivity in all areas of life can be negatively affected. It is therefore important that the condition is not ignored or misdiagnosed.

There are different categories of bipolar disorder and these define the length of manic and depressive episodes. Manic is the extreme “up” of a mood and depressive is obviously the negative “down”. These mood swings can vary in length but Bipolar Disorder I means that manic episodes last for about a week and depressive episodes can last for about two weeks. Bipolar Disorder II is defined as less serious manic episodes and more frequent mood swings.

This condition normally affects someone for their whole life but can be treated with a combination of therapy and medication. In other words, despite the severity there is hope!