Q. Do you know if there is a connection between people with homosexual tendencies and BPD?
What are the chances of a mother being considered “unfit” (based on this diagnosis) as a custodial parent in a child custody battle?
Also, can adults can “grow out of it” (BPD) or can it go away, disappear, or be overcome without meds? If so, what are the chances, factors, and indicators of it being gone?
A. Yes, there is a connection between homosexuality and the BPD. During the 1980’s an article stated that 50% of males admitted to psych hospitals with the BPD also were homosexual. The identity confusion may be part of it, as well as the biological components. Interestingly, one study reported that 50% of transsexuals lost their desire to change sexes when they took Tegretol (carbamazepine).
Individual courts vary. Courts rarely have any clue as to what the diagnoses are, and what their significance is (except for antisocial personality disorder). The “expert witnesses” often disagree with each other as well. Your best bet is to be in counseling, to be taking your medication, to study how to be a happy and successful person, and to trust that God (however you perceive your higher power) has a good plan for you (read “Embraced By the Light” by Betty Eadie). Angry, out of control people don’t do in court as well overall as those who are loving and kind.
No, you don’t “grow out of the BPD.” It does change. The severest symptoms often change, but the suffering doesn’t. The medical symptoms including: (1) moodiness, chronic anger, emptiness and boredom and (2) dysphoria (anxiety, rage, depression and despair) and dissociation under stress persist. The definition based on criteria rather than medical symptoms may change, but the medical symptoms do not go away.