Q. I have been diagnosed with BPD. I however, am not sure. How severe do the symptoms have to be before they are classified as BPD? A. It’s not severity but persistence. Are the criteria you fit present in every aspect of life since puberty?
Since my belief is that the BPD is a medical problem, even the criteria are somewhat of a problem. Kind of like including “afraid to have sex again” as a criteria for having had a heart attack. The criteria are incredibly useful as a starting off point, and it’s extremely rare to have the biology and not fit the criteria.
Q. I have some of the symptoms or maybe all really but I am not sure they are really serious enough to be considered real BPD.
A. “I can’t be having a heart attack, my chest pain isn’t bad enough.” Don’t judge by severity, but persistence or pervasiveness. I don’t have a clue whether you fit the BPD or not. Patients are usually the best judge. There is no “fake” BPD. The BPD is a form of epilepsy, caused by brain injury – it’s where emotional and physical traumas meet. It causes the following symptoms: chronically: moodiness, emptiness, boredom, chronic anger, and feeling like your best friend died all the time. Under stress (which can also be chronic): dysphoria (anxiety, rage, depression, despair), dissociation (deja vu, unreality, looking through someone else’s eyes), and responding like a cornered animal.
Q. Also, I was diagnosed several years ago with OCD and now my therapist said she is not real sure of the OCD diagnosis.
A. OCD involves checking or counting behaviors (checking the stove or front door repeatedly, counting cars, etc.) – often associated with ritual behaviors such as washing hands all day long and they’re never clean enough. It’s an anxiety symptom, likely a disease entity all by itself. Reducing anxiety for whatever reason helps. SSRI’s and even high doses of the vitamin inositol (18,000mg daily) can work wonders.