Anyone?

[catmagnet]

Does anyone know what the difference between bipolar, depression, borderline personality disorder, I've been diagnosed differently over the years and i'm not sure whats wrong.

[ParamedFlorena]

Hi catmagnet!

We really need to know what diagnoses we have! I agree entirely with you! Thanks for starting this post. It's a really important topic and I hope as many as possible can toss in with their opinion!

I know we have members who knows psychology a lot better than me!
(I grasp for the dictionary! -   laborlawtalk.com )


Bipolar disorder:
As categorized by the DSM-IV, bipolar disorder is a form of mood disorder characterised by a variation of mood between a phase of manic or hypomanic elation, hyperactivity and hyper imagination, and a depressive phase of inhibition, slowness to conceive ideas and move, and anxiety or sadness. As I will come back to further below, there are several forms of bipolar disorder*.


Borderline Personality Disorder:
In psychiatry, borderline personality disorder (BPD) is a personality disorder characterised by extreme 'black and white' thinking, mood swings, emotional reasoning, disrupted relationships and difficulty in functioning in a way society accepts as normal. The name comes from the DSM-IV-TR; the ICD-10 in Europe has an equivalent called Emotionally Unstable Personality Disorder.
Psychiatrists describe borderline personality disorder as a serious mental illness characterized by pervasive instability in moods, interpersonal relationships, self-image, and behavior. This instability often disrupts family and work life, long-term planning, and the individual's sense of self-identity. Originally thought to be at the "borderline" of psychosis, people with BPD suffer from a disorder of emotion regulation.

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*Cyclothymia is a mild mood disorder which is sometimes seen as more of a personality trait than an illness. Cyclothymia is characterised by repetitive periods of mild depression followed by periods of normal or slightly elevated mood. A percentage of cyclothymics go on to develop full-blown bipolar disorder (normally bipolar II type) at some stage in their lives, while others suffer from forms of depression or other more severe mood disorders.

Cyclothymia, dysthymia - those are milder onsets of depression and I believe it is often overseen as a kind of depressive ailment.
Talk out with the next who wants to diagnose you about the two terms! Ask for a discussion!

Florena

[catmagnet]

I'm bumping this back up again to see if theres any more input..thanks for your response..cat

[SFgirll853]

I am feeling the same, and cant seem to shake the "blues" but also have periods of energy.  I too have been diagnosed as "boderline" manic, manic depressive, post -partum.  Some days I feel fine, others I cry all day, others I am on top of the world.  It is a confusing place to be.

[Hensley258]

You bring up a very interseting topic. I think in the world of mental health that mis-diagnosis is more common than people really know.

I once brought this topic up to my Psychiatrist (because I have a friend that was Mis-diagnosed) and he told me that even for a very experienced Psychiatrist, that proper diagnosis is sometimes a challenge. Unlike physical illnesses that can be lab tested, there is really no way yet to lab test for Bi-polar, uni-polar or other dissorderes.

Many mental illneses can also share a lot of the same symptoms, which also makes diagnosos more difficult.

My P-doc said that in the next 5 to 10 years more accurate ways to test will become avalible to doctors and patients.

I think mostly it's just the shear complexity of the human brain that makes diagnosis difficult at times. Not to mention that one persons perception of his or her symptoms can vary even though the illness is the same.