Bipolar and borderline personality?!
Question:
Bipolar and borderline personality?
does these disorders usually go hand-in-hand??
Answers:
Yes, they often do.
People with Bipolar Disorder are not typically Borderline as well, but many times, people with Borderline Personality Disorder are (or were) diagnosed with some form of Bipolar Disorder (1, 2 or not otherwise specified).
Bipolar is a shift from manic (grandiose, irritable, sleepless, tireless, with unrealistic beliefs about the self) to depressive (hyposomnia, depressed mood, loss of interest, fatigue, irritability, loss of concentration) states.
Borderline is a pattern of insecurity and self-defeating behaviors and attitudes, as well as unstable relationships, often in which a person goes from idealizing others to devaluing them. This pattern is also described as splitting (people are either ALL good or ALL bad).
So you can see how both disorders involve swinging from one extreme to another.
The big difference between them is that Bipolar is a mental disorder, which can be expected to change or be treated with psychotropic medications and therapy, while Borderline is a personality disorder, meaning it is only diagnosed in adults, and is therefore much less liable to change, and for which only one intensive model of therapy has been found to have marginal success (Dialectical-Behavioral Therapy).