Only SOME symptoms of borderline! Is that possible?

[SaraPharm]

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Hey,

So I have been researching a ton about personality disorders and of particular interest to me is BPD. Now, is it possible to be diagnosed with BPD but without having the symptoms of mutiliating behaviour and suicide attempts.

Let me clear it up, say you have a patient that has extreme issues with interpersonal relationships, gets attached very easily to certain people and begins to idealize them, exhibits some reckless behviour such as fast driving and binge eating (because it offers them a temporary repreive from their emotions), has intense changes in emotions daily due to what happens in their external environment, highly sensitive and doesnt do well with criticism, has slight paranoid thoughts BUT no self-mutiliating behaviour or suicide attempts.

So to sum up, do all BPD patients exhibit self-mutilating and suicidal behaviour?

Thank you!

 

[splik]

you can look up the DSM criteria, you only need 5 of 9 symptoms so actually there are different sorts of borderline. the central feature seems to be a fear of abandoment and everything is really related to that. most people who self harm or experience suicidal crisis are not borderline, and most (?) borderlines do not self-mutilate or repeatedly attempt suicide, though you would be forgiven otherwise if on an inpatient psychiatric unit. also the focus of much treatment is on suicidal behaviors but there is alot more to it than that. in the original borderline concept, parasuicidal behaviors were less prominent, but because marsha linehan started out focusing on chronic parasuicidal behaviors, that is how we end up thinking of borderline personality organization in that way.

suicidal behaviors/self harm are really ways to escape from powerful emotions that the individual cannot regulate or soothe themselves. different people have different ways of regulating these, e.g. sex, drugs, alcohol, gambling, restricting, bingeing and purging etc.

 

[markglt]

..traits
example..
it's likely sara has cluster b traits.

 

[Ceke2002]

You seem really interested in Borderline PD. Although I shouldn't really get into it on the open boards, I was previously diagnosed with this (no longer meet diagnostic criteria thanks to therapy) and I'd be more than happy to answer any questions you might have privately. Please bear in mind though you'll be getting a patient's point of view and not a professionals.

 

[whopper]

Several people have some signs or symptoms of a disorder and exist on a spectrum of having issues but not to the degree where they are diagnosable with it.

For example, most people in their teens and up until their mid-20s IMHO have at least some signs of borderline P.D. Not surprising given that one of the theories with the disorder is that the person is caught in a stage of development that most people their age have overcome. Remember, you have to be at least 18 years of age to be diagnosed with the disorder.

These things exist on a spectrum. The DSM has put the 5 criteria as a line in the sand because it had to be put somewhere. Think of cholesterol as a parallel. In most cases the lower it is, the better, but the AHA put 200 as the line. Of course it's better (for most people) to have less than 200. A cholesterol level of 199 isn't somehow significantly less worse than 200.