The following is a post on Brandon Marshall and borderline personality disorder. Borderline is often abbreviated as BPD and is easily confused with bipolar disorder. They are very different mental illnesses (brain disorders). I wanted to get this posted today and will write more about the differences later this afternoon. (The difference between Borderline Personality Disorder and Bipolar Disorder.)
The very well known football player Brandon Marshall now with the Miami Dolphins, just told the media that he has borderline personality disorder.
I praise him greatly. It’s not easy to talk about borderline personality disorder as it’s a very difficult to treat illness that comes with a lot of stigma. Much more than with a bipolar disorder diagnosis.
I am so happy that this is talked about openly. It will make a difference in so many lives, including those who are embarrassed about a bipolar disorder diagnosis.
For his entire career he has been known as a huge talent with huge ‘personal’ problems. He says he has been miserable- now he has some answers. That is how I felt when I was finally diagnosed with bipolar disorder. Did you feel the same? How about your loved one?
Here are the links to various articles on the story.
The public often has an image of a person with mental illness created from pictures of old psychiatric hospitals, out of control movie characters or people on the street. By talking openly about having a mental illness and a really misunderstood illness like borderline personality disroder, he will save relationships and lives.
Julie
PS: His press conference video on the post below.
Dear Julie, thank you for always caring enough to teach those of us that don’t understand and to speak for those who are not able to. Sue
While I applaud Brandon Marshall for being willing to speak up about the issues of mental health that have effected him and his search for help, these diagnosis are as much of a problem as the problems. People identify with their diagnosis. Why not describe what it is that you are good at and what you have a problem with and find how you can use your strengths to master what appears to be a problem. This is called solution focused therapy. The finest work in the field comes from this sort of approach including motivational counceling and the use of the Nurtured Heart Approach which under the format of Safe Harbors and Motivational counseling has provided the most amazing results in those addicted ever seen. Look up Susan Redford’s work with Crystal Meth users. Never been results like this seen before. Turning psychotherapy and educational models on their heads. and that’s for persons identified as Bipolar as well.
I believe that borderline personality is the SAME as rapid cycling bipolar disorder.
Since there is no test, there is no way to tell the difference between rapid cycling bipolar and borderline personality disorder.
Since BPD is treated often with the same drugs, my conclusion is the psychiatrists are wrong about borderline personalities. What the HECK is a borderline personality anyway? I have books on both, and the symptoms are identical in many respects. Mood that shifts rapidly, in three words!!!!!!
I have had BOTH diagnoses in fact! So apparently they are so similar that they are confused by MD and PhD psychologists who diagnose these types of disorders.
Patricia, please, please PLEASE read the explanation of the REAL difference between these disorders in the following link
http://www.bipolarhappens.com/bhblog/bpd-and-bipolar/
These are both real illnesses. Just because they can be confused and have similar treatments does not mean that they are one and the same.
Thank you again Julie for providing simple understandable definitions regarding these illnesses. I come from a family with both illnesses in seperate individuals, understanding the differences goes a long way to knowing how to cope with life in general.
Hi Julie;
I would love to here what you have to say about someone who has both bipolar and borderline personality disorder as I certainly do. I was disagnosed with bipolar in 99 and borderline in 02. Good on Brandon for coming forward. Not so easy when you are dually diagnosed as your “brain is always out to get you”
I can personally confirm that Boderline and rapid cycling bipolar are the same at my house! Julie helped us get our daughter dx’d with BPD and she is bipolar. Two different things….I know this because no matter how many bipolar meds we stacked on nothing stopped the “cycling” and the rages were triggered not just a build up to mania. I’ve seen manic, depressed and Boderline….not fun! DBT is helping my family come back together! Thank you Julie!!!!
Borderline personality disorder and bipolar are often mistaken as being the same thing. They are also often misdiagnosed, one for the other. This is because the symptoms for both illnesses are startlingly similar.Borderline personality disorder is actually less common and less known than bipolar. Borderline personality disorder accounts for only about twenty percent of hospitalizations for mental illness each year, while bipolar accounts for about fifty percent of hospitalizations. Borderline personality disorder is most common in young women, whereas bipolar is equally common in both men and women, as well as all age groups…
My ex was diagnosed with borderline, I have bipolar II, and I have family with bipolar II that can become I if severely out of balance. I also have at least 2 good friends with diagnosed BP, not sure if they are BP 1 or 2, and one other good friend who I’m pretty sure is also Borderline (my most drama queen friend who tries to manipulate attention out of invented/overblown crises, etc.) but who chooses not to tell me why they are on meds except that bipolar was not the correct diagnosis or med.
I can tell you that as a person with BP who has dealt with people with Bipolar and others with Borderline, Borderline is NOT the same as BP and doesn’t have a lot of crossover. It is possible for a person to have both, but if a person has one or the other it’s a pretty clear cut difference in my experience. The difference is that borderline is more manipulative and drama-queen like than most people with bipolar, and that borderline doesn’t biologically cycle with the sleeplessness, mania etc. of bipolar. I was told by docs that Bipolar is genetic and biochemical, but that Borderline is based on early childhood experiences of neglect, abandonment etc. and that Borderline is not greatly helped by biochemical adjustments as Bipolar is. I was told the only effective treatment for Borderline is therapy, specifically DBT therapy, and that throwing meds at Borderline doesn’t do much good, whereas meds can be the difference between night and day in Bipolar and in fact is THE primary treatment for bipolar. IE, you can therapy a bipolar person blue in the face but if they have a biochemical imbalance that needs meds, therapy wont do much good (this is why the discovery of how much more effective lithium was over talk therapy in the treatment of bipolar was so revolutionary in the 1970’s when lithium’s use for bipolar was discovered). And conversely, you can throw all kinds of meds under the sun at someone with Borderline but as it’s not primarily an organically based condition, it really won’t do much good, what they need is a program of DBT therapy to deal with the disorder.
here is the link of the Mayo clinic’s symptoms of Borderline http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/borderline-personality-disorder/basics/symptoms/CON-20023204
Symptoms
By Mayo Clinic Staff
Borderline personality disorder affects how you feel about yourself, how you relate to others and how you behave.
Signs and symptoms may include:
Thank you for this excellent reply. I will check on the broken link. Links in older posts often change if the other website does a redesign! Julie