This diagnosis belongs in the bin - it's much more likely to be applied to women (borderline personality disorder)

This diagnosis belongs in the bin - it's much more likely to be applied to women

 

Ditto

Majority of patients I see with BPD labels have highly traumatic pasts. PTSD often makes more sense. A normal response to abnormal situation(s). And undiagnosed autism can also be in the mix.

I'm trying to recall if I have ever met a male patient diagnosed with BPD.

 

In the UK psychiatrists diagnose complex PTSD, and many in the mental health field believe that is 'just a more socially acceptable way of saying BPD'

 

Also see 'complex emotional needs' and a newish term 'childhood emotional neglect'

 

Article refers to studies pointing to women with a BPD diagnosis as having a higher risk of suicide. Compared to what I couldn’t quite grasp.

If higher risk be so, if I recall rightly from elsewhere it is, seems like the best case for removing the possibility that a component of the extra risk is the diagnosis itself. One knows one isn’t so likely to acquire a new personality in this lifetime. Personalities aren’t amenable to treatment. Making it seem like the only way out of the pain and distress is out of this life.

This diagnosis is bin worthy. But a new less obviously derogatory term isn’t going to solve the issue. Medicine, psychiatry and psychology as whole disciplines need to learn to let go of their prejudices and suspect ‘treatments’ and improve themselves. Work on their own obnoxious behaviours over this issue.

 

There is tremendous stigma associated with the diagnosis, I overheard a GP call people with the diagnosis ‘sticky’, as in, they ‘sticky-up the system and it takes a lot of time to deal with them’. Luckily a mental health nurse jumped in and explained how GP communication could be improved in order to understand and effectively address concerns and meet the needs that people with the diagnosis often have. It was a satisfying moment.

 

How awful.

A gloopy one. I think of a ‘sticky’ label as one that can’t be shaken off, nor can the negative effects of having it be shaken off.

But of course, I would look at it from the other direction. Being a patient with a ‘contested’ illness, the disaster of ‘CFS’ and everything.

No one more of a ‘heart sink’ patient than a person with an ME diagnosis I am reliably informed.