borderline personality disorder and bipolar - Bipolar Disorder Message Board

LAP18 · 11-12-2006, 01:47 AM

I have been reading "the bipolar Child" by Demetris Papolos. I have always suspected that my daughter had something else going on. There is a page in the book that talks about Borderline Personality Disorder. It says that some bipolar girls may have a combination of these two disorders (Bipolar and Borderline). My daughter has "a history of unstable and tempestous interpersonal realationships,impulsive behaviors,frquent displays of temper,identity confusion,feelings of empitiness and makes frantic efforts to avoild real or imagined abandonment". (page 45)

Just to give you an idea, I checked her cell phone usage and from november 1st to november 8, she called this (very dangerous young man) 100 times. on one of those days, she obsessively called him 60 times! He called me and begged me to keep her away from him.

Her ex boyfriend complained about the same thing. When she couldn't get in touch with him, she then would call his father's cell phone hundreds of times! didn't care if that man was working or watching TV with his wife!

As I keep reading, and checking this healthboard ,I realize that she is not on a med combo, she only takes Abilify and is about to switch to Lamictal. But no med combo.

I also noticed that her moods do not swing. She is ALWAYS irritable. She is always impulsive. She is always looking for companionship from men, even if these men are dangerous.

She has a "look" that is scarry. It's glassy, her pupils seem larger than normal at times.
She has been out of control for almost 7 years now. She is not getting better.

It is 3:30 am, and I cannot sleep. I keep thinking that maybe her doctors are not treating her properly. Is there anyone else here who knows about borderline disorder? Must you have a drug cocktail if you are bipolar? Anyone just taking one med?

laura

Dee-nah · 11-12-2006, 08:24 AM

Hi Laura,

I was diagnosed with both Borderline and Bi Polar 1, and to be totally honest with you it sucks! Nobody seems to see it from my/your daughters prospective. When that uncontrolable symptoms happen (calling 100 times ) it's not only annoying to who it's done too but it also puts alot of stress on us as well. We don't want to be doing this but the impulsiveness is just too much and we do it, then we get down on ourselves for doing it so we do it again and explain why, then we obcess on what we just said so we call again,and so on and so on.. It's horrible and it's uncontrolable.. I'm on lithium, abilifly, remeron, xanax and congentive, it has helped fme but getting me on the right medication was HELL. This can be fixed, if she would talk to her doctor about this or go on line and get educated more on both disorders.

Hope this helped..

Dannyk · 11-12-2006, 04:29 PM

I was diagnosed with boderline personality 15 years ago. The way I understand it, and I may be wrong, but 1 out of 10 girls have it while 1 out of 100 boys have it. I guess I'm one of the lucky ones huh. This is one of the reasons the diagnosis of being bipolar really messes with my head. It seems my life has been one of turmoil since as far back as I can' remember. I started using drugs at the age of 12 and continued for 21 years. I attemped suicide and wound up in a coma for 5 days then went through rehab to kick the drugs. Then I turned to food and ballooned out to almost 400 lbs. I had gastric bypass and lost 166lbs then I found alcohol. I've also done the perscription drugs thing. Anything to medicate the fact that I am a mental case and there seems nothing to do about it. I have been in counseling since 1990 and to this day I dont' seem to be any better off then I ever been. I recently went through detox and now in and intensive outpatient program but I am wondering what the next distraction will be. I try to be positive but it's very hard. One of the hardest things for me is how this how all this has gotten in the way of my family life. My daughters want to know what's wrong with dad but how do you explain daddy has mental health issues? All I want is to be a regular person but it feels like I will be this way until I go to the grave. But on a positive note...I'm glad I'm not alone with this and that there are other people who understand. Thank you all so much for your support.

Dan