Aspies with Borderline Personality Disorder?

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i think i have both aspergers and some traits of borderline personality. i seem to be more emotional than most aspies, i have a wide range of moods, and anxiety over being alone.

I am one of those people.

I've been told by my psychiatrist and almost everybody else that you can't have BDP if you have aspergers. I am displaying alot of the tell-tale symptoms of borderline and it's really quite terrible. The littlest thing will set me off, like somebody giving me a bad look for example, and I go into a self destructive, injurous rampage. It usually lasts at most 2 days. Sometimes it'll last as little as a few minutes. I have very black and white thinking, like when my boyfriend pushes me away because he needs some space due to my clinginess, I started blaming myself and beating myself up.

People, including my psychiatrist just blame my symptoms and behaviours on the fact that I have aspergers and it's all part of my disorder. It's really, really frusterating because nobody will listen to me when I say I'm suffering. They just brush it off as "oh she has aspergers, it's all part of her disorder blahblahblah." She refuses to let me elobarate on anything and just cuts me off and shuts me down and gives me a "sugar coated" response like "oh it's ok sweetie you just have to stop worrying and everything will be fine.|" Just shut the f**k up people and LISTEN TO ME!! ! I really need help here and I'm suffering. I have really bad anxiety issues and worry about everything. Even if there isn't anything to worry about, I'll find something. I had an abusive childhood and I still haven't gotten over it. Alot of past crap still haunts me to this day and the fact that my boyfriend who I'm currently living with suffers from depression and won't do anything about it doesn't make things any better. If only he would just get off his god damned lazy ass and do something instead of sitting in front of the TV wasting his life away.

Sorry for my ranting here, I appologize. I just needed to get that off my chest. My verdict here is that I believe it is possible to have other anxiety/mood disorders that are completely separate from aspergers.

After 20 years of therapy, hospital, medications and so on......

I have both BPD and PTSD traits(terrible childhood) and AS, with AS being the core dx.

Mics

My ex husband was also dx with bpd and I can really relate to your post. When I met him the thing I admired most about him was his outgoing nature and ability to chat up anyone and everyone. I eventually divorced him when I realized he was cheating (as bpd folks are likely to do). It was very sad for me and I still feel a little lost without him.

I am of the belief that any combination of diagnosis can technically coexist, but I imagine it would be extremely difficult to live with both bpd and aspergers in the same brain...

My dad almost certainly has AS while my mom is a pretty textbook Borderline person. neither is disgnosed because both have serious issues with hating psychology. Fortunately for them it seems to have balanced each other's issues out. The best thing to do when dealing with someone who is borderline is to be completely non-dramatic. My dad brings my mom back "down to earth". Fortunatly she never had the drug issues, her "addiction" is just drama of every kind.

Ugh, I totally have BPD. It sucks. I'm still in the process of getting diagnosed but we all know I have it. I hate the identity issues. It's soooo confusing. Any others who have it along with Aspergers that are my age, feel free to message me! I'd love to hear from you.

I'm not diagnosed but I have many of the symptoms of being one.

Unsure whether I have it or not. I have some but not all symptoms.

I can certainly relate to it enough that their symptoms/antics make more sense to me while most people would just dismiss them as irrational manipulative jerks. They tend to be way more spontaneous, rebellious, and socially adept than me though, which I can't relate to as easily. I feel like I'm too cautious and constrained on average to have BPD, though I get the same kinds of intense emotions.

I have a diagnosis of BPD. I was diagnosed a couple of years ago after a major breakdown. I can see why I was given the diagnosis as at the time I was very emotional, I have a history of abuse, have experimented with drugs in the past (although only socially, was never addicted) and have self-harmed. But I am convinced it is a mis-diagnosis. My behaviour at the time was highly atypical for me, I am not normally an emotionally volatile person, am not prone to mood swings and very rarely lose my temper. I do not have emotionally intense or unstable relationships. I would not describe myself as feeling empty. I do not usually act impulsively. I know it is not necessary to meet all the criteria in order to have a diagnosis of BPD, but the ones I am lacking seem so key that I really don't recognise myself as a borderline and don't find it a helpful description. Like I said, at the time of my diagnosis I probably fit the criteria much better, but in order to have a personality disorder the traits have to be stable over time and I don't think this condition has been met in my case, plus I was suffering from very severe depression at the time. I probably do have some traits, but I don't think it is an accurate description of me. Even the professionals can't seem to agree as I asked for a second opinion and the second psychiatrist said I was suffering from psychotic depression, not BPD. My GP does not think I have it. Other professionals involved in my care seem to have different opinions, either being convinced I have it or thinking I am highly atypical of the diagnosis.

I have recently found out about AS and that seems to far more accurately and completely describe the particular set of difficulties I have and do experience. The difficulties I have (such as coping with change, some mild sensory problems, shutdowns, obsessions, motor clumsiness*) which I have not found described when researching BPD have all been explicitly mentioned when looking into AS. The issues such as extreme emotional volatility* that I don't seem to have seem to be less of an issue in AS than BPD. The issues I do have that are described within BPD (such as anxiety issues, recurrent depression, self-esteem issues, empathy problems, self-involvement*) seem to overlap with AS. Furthermore, the age of onset seems to be significant. BPD seems to typically develop from adolescence, whereas I have very clear memories of problems as early as 7/8 years old (may well even be earlier, but I simply can't remember clearly further back than this). Also, the more I read stories about people with BPD and posts by them online there was a feeling of "but I don't do that" or "that isn't me" and, since finding out about AS, I am having the opposite experience.

I think I may be an example of why one may be confused with the other, or even where the two may co-exist to produce a somewhat different third.

What about schizoid? There's some debate about whether it even is a separate condition or just a subtype of AS.

yes and yes and YES

I am a walking textbook case of BPD; its so obvious to even rookie 1-st year psych students

the AS in me is harder to detect and always has been b/c my eye contact is intense and direct. never had the issues w/ eye contact most Aspies seem to

However : I have strong Asperger traits that seem to ~overlap~ with similar BPD traits. I think the major differential that delineates the AS condition from the BPD essence is that AS is inborn vs BPD is typically acquired.

There is also quite the tendency for female Aspies to display BPD - like traits when being Aspergers / Autistic just becomes too unbearable. In the sense that while male Aspies are less emotional and female Aspies more prone to hysterical / histrionic episodes.

AS WE ALL KNOW AS IS HORRIBLY UNDER-DIAGNOSED IN FEMALES ANYWAYS. .....so yes its possible and quite probable to be both simultaneously ! !

I have a BPD diagnosis. I am not sure if it's correct or not. Is it possible to be BPD without outwardly visible emotional dysregulation? Because I always look mellow. I just do dumb, impulsive things. It makes it hard to see where the social problems with ASD end and where they begin with any mood disorders I may have.

Honestly? This doesn't really sound like BPD. Impulsive is a criteria for multiple conditions.

The problems I have relating to people don't really fit with Asperger's though. There's something going on. Aspies often struggle socially but have a rich internet social life. Not me. If anything, relating to people on the net is worse. So it's clearly a personality problem more than it is a social skills problem. Now, is it BPD? I honestly don't think so, but at least one professional would say it is. It's something though.

My ability to relate to people and build relationships is comically bad. I seriously don't think 90% of aspies have this as bad as I do, yet my Asperger's is very mild clinically. I actually socialize a decent amount, even for an NT, but I still don't really build relationships due to mutual boredom. I am pretty sure I don't irritate people excessively because I socialize the same way at work events that I do elsewhere and still get hired and promoted. The boredom thing and attachment issues that go beyond social skills deficits are BPD traits.

Not all autistic people love socializing on the internet. I like it better than face to face, but I find I don't really like it all that much. too much puts me off, sometimes for months.

There are many disorders that directly impact social skills or how social, asocial, or antisocial one is.



It's hard to say whether 90% of autistic people with the AS label have this as bad as you do, because it seems to me that most people on the spectrum don't seem to have a full awareness of their social deficits and difficulties. I couldn't begin to guess where I rate compared to most people.

This article seems to describe what emotional dysregulation in BPD looks like:

http://tinyurl.com/qxmvbpt

If you're emotionally hyporeactive, then BPD just doesn't sound right.