Overlap between ADHD and Borderline Personality Disorder

[Donny997]

Originally Posted by BellaVita

When my BPD ex went cold turkey off of his antidepressants, might have been Wellbutrin, he went into a rage and had to be hospitalized.

It was scary, and I could tell it was really painful for him.

During the rage he gave me a rose he had carved and painted for me.(while he was shaking and looked angry) I could tell he was trying so hard. But then he left the scene fast and went running around looking very angry, yelling at teachers, threatening that he would run away (well, he did sort of end up running away), breaking things. He seemed also very "out of it" while it happened. Like, I'm not sure how to describe it.

I'm not sure why the dean thought it was okay for him to go off of his medication cold turkey, but I guess they didn't know much and thought it was okay.

That's really intense!!

Speaking of the rose thing, borderlines are definitely romantics!! I think I read somewhere that casanova was a borderline. THE original don Jaun lol. I always thought he must've just been a charming narcs!!

[BellaVita]

Originally Posted by Donny997

That's really intense!!

Speaking of the rose thing, borderlines are definitely romantics!! I think I read somewhere that casanova was a borderline. THE original don Jaun lol. I always thought he must've just been a charming narcs!!

Yep, he sure was a romantic. I didn't know that it had to do with Borderline.

I don't know much about Casanova, but that is interesting to know anyway.

[Fortune]

Originally Posted by Donny997

W.e I'm just sharing what I know I'm not an expert and obviously I'm excluding a bunch of other stuff. I'm a big picture thinker I like to, snap shots of core issues helps me understand psych. jargon better. Concrete symptom checklists that change every DSM edition are important but I don't pay as much attention to them.

I'm not referring to DSM checklists, but okay. I'm referring to what I've read about personality disorders in books about them.

[Donny997]

Originally Posted by Fortune

I'm not referring to DSM checklists, but okay. I'm referring to what I've read about personality disorders in books about them.

Okay how do they define it today?

[daveddd]

Originally Posted by Donny997

Do stims help at least?

here and there

with facing the day in general

gain tolerance quick though

[daveddd]

with the connection between ADHD and BPD becoming more apparent i thought this study was useful

pretty much reviews every med and borderline

a lot of positives for specific issues

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3811092/

[Donny997]

I tried to post the chart I mentioned earlier. Too little space. Ill try to post sometime soon.

Thanks Dave for the continued info ^

[Donny997]

To risk being overly simplistic, I think borderlines have two main problems that stand out: affective instability and identity diffusion. Im terms of what neurochemicals potentially help modulate these two things, serotonin and dopamine come to mind. Serotonin transmission is often defective in borderlines and other impulsive personalities leading to affective instability. SSRI's help smooth out the peaks and valleys here. It helps calm the turbulent emotions, but what's needed next for further improvement is to shift from a primarily feeling-orientation to a thinking one, which facilitates the second core problem (lack of identity). Identity is formed as we move from the pleasure principle to the reality principle, from feeling to thinking, from passion to reason. Where schizoids and avoidants need more feeling to connect to their sense of themselves, borderlines need less feeling and more thinking. More mature lifeviews and expectations, not giving into every whim, not letting changing feelings determine behaviour. Also "thinking" develops domains of knowledge, facilitating ccompetence. Even more simply, I'd say to develop an identity one has to "think" and introspect: about values, about fields of interest, etc. The personalities with the strongest sense of self, narcs and OCDPs, are heavily thinking oriented.

Feeling is the realm of childhood vulnerability, thinkikg is the realm of adult competence. So maybe stimulant medication would also help in not only stabilize emotions but also to get on the path of greater self-definition.

Me personally, serotonin and dopamine go a loooong way for me lol

[Mrs.melon]

Hi, there. First of all thank you for sharing it had been very insightful to read this. I've had my struggles with depression since early child hood which set into anxiety and panic attacks and noticed I was always a bit different over the years, I felt alone and wondered what was wrong with me, why I struggled so much more than my peers or family members. I had a very disfunctional childhood and was also sexually abused from a young age and physically assaulted. I've seen many psychologists over the years as it was either commit suicide or do something about it, I was very sad and utterly alone in my own despair and had no support network and still don't. Until I was 21 I saw a psychologist that changed my life, he said he was not going too and didn't want to diagnose me with bpd but, that he wanted me to go to a book shop and read up on the topic. I picked up a work book on bpd and dbt and felt for the first time in my life that id been set free that I could finally understand myself and what was happening to me. And my journey began to understanding, self work and self healing. The reason that I am writing is because, over the years I have attracted many partners or even boys who liked me from a young age with adhd and was wondering why do I keep attracting boyfriends with this disorder- I looked on google and just typed in bpd adhd relationships and came across this artical. So you are not alone on this at all. I think we attract people into our lives that are on the same wave length or vibration, or just similar to us, what ever you want to call it. My boyfriend and I currently- I have bpd and he has adhd both exhibit impulsive behaviours and self esteem issues- these are the similarities that I have noticed and there may be more. So thank you for sharing! It's been very helpful and insightful. I think we are both pretty intelligent people to be able to overcome our challenges this life has given us and to notice the people we've attracted into our lives and the similarities between us and our disorders. Thank you.