Borderline And Bipolar Disorder

2024 Author: Harry Day | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 15:43

So, continuing the rubric of answers to readers' questions, let's talk about the similarities and differences between borderline and bipolar types of disorders.

To begin with, I want to emphasize that I am not a psychiatrist and, therefore, do not deal with disorders professionally. What does this mean and how does it work in practice? If a person comes to me with a borderline personality organization (closer to psychotic or directly psychotic), I definitely work in tandem with a psychiatrist - I give the client a contact for professional advice. If a person needs medical assistance (supportive drug therapy), together with the prescribed course, we work out the underlying mental problems.

What are the superficial similarities between borderline and bipolar disorders? Firstly, this is an unstable emotional state, unreasonable and sudden outbursts of anger or irritability, a rather high tendency to suicide. However, bipolar disorder can be diagnosed in both people with borderline personality disorder and psychotic clients. People with borderline personality organization are more likely to be diagnosed with borderline personality disorder (if this condition is closer to psychotic, since it is always a continuum).

What is the overall human continuum? Neurotic personality, borderline personality and the lowest level of personality organization - psychosis (identity is split at a high level, there is a violation of the ego). In the latter case, there are also positive aspects for the psychologist - these people are the most sincere in their judgments and behavior, most often the protection of the primary order prevails or they are absent at all, therefore it is easiest to penetrate into the psyche of such a person and apply the methods of psychotherapeutic treatment. For comparison, in the case of a neurotic, the disclosure of his psychological essence, the identification of a need and a problem can, on average, take a whole year. For a psychotic, on the contrary, everything is on the surface: "I want to be hugged, held on arms - I feel bad!" In the context of working out the problem, there are both positive and negative aspects when working with different types of clients.

What is the difference between borderline disorder and bipolar disorder? In the borderline personality, the disorders are hidden deep within the psyche and are mainly associated with attachment disorders in childhood and the perception of the social environment as a chaotic and unsafe environment ("Oh, God! I do not understand where I am. I do not understand what I am at all!"), i.e. there is a split into black and white (either good or bad), and the consciousness does not perceive the fact that a person can be good with bad qualities or, conversely, bad with good deeds. The more pronounced and deeper the violation, the stronger this splitting will be.

Unlike borderline, bipolar disorder is sometimes expressed in outbursts of anger, a pathological manic state. This type of disorder was previously called depressive-manic disorder. Characteristic features are cyclicality and deep depression, an obsessive state ("I will do all the work six months in advance in just 2 days!").

The manic state is quite complex and dangerous in that depression comes on very sharply, and then the person begins to attend suicidal thoughts. As a rule, there is a violation of the biochemistry of the brain, i.e. neurotransmitters are not properly regulated. Sometimes there may be a genetic disorder associated with the season (for example, depression in the fall or spring).

So let's summarize. Bipolar disorder can be part of a neurotic, borderline or psychotic process of the psyche and is characteristic of individuals of different levels of organization (for example, in a neurotic, such a state will not be so pronounced, it will not be accompanied by outbursts of aggression and suicidal tendencies, but in general it will be presented in the psyche, experienced it will be much easier by the client). Quite often, neurotic individuals with bipolar disorder do not even turn to a psychologist or psychiatrist, coping with their condition in various everyday ways, because the level of organization of the psyche is supportive. What does this mean? In the first years of life, a person was strongly supported inside, so he received less psychological trauma and still finds ways to self-organize his consciousness.

Borderline disorder directly involves profound identity disturbance, ego splitting, and may or may not be accompanied by bipolar disorder. For example, the psyche of a borderline person is disassembled into different puzzles (relatively speaking, round and square), which cannot be put together, therefore, in order for the whole picture to come together correctly, you need to develop a completely different perception of internal and external objects (surrounding people, events that have occurred, etc.) …