A member asked:

What is the difference between bipolar/depression and borderline personality disorder?

10 doctors weighed in across 4 answers
Dr. Pamela Pappas answered

Specializes in Psychiatry

Differences: It can sometimes be tough to tell a rapid cycling bipolar person from borderline pd. You need long-term history. Borderline personality d/o is a longstanding, pervasive, and inflexible pattern of internal experience and behavior marked by instability in sense of self, relationships, and mood. Fear of abandonment, and primitive defenses like splitting. Between episodes, bipolar people r normal.

Answered 6/28/2015

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Borderline: Intense fear of abandonment, being manipulative, impulsivity, a tendency to think of people and things in all good or all bad terms, self mutilating behaviors, drug and alcohol abuse, sexual impulsivity, a profoundly disturb sense of self, and extreme emotional volatility. Bipolar disorder is characterized by extreme mood swings from deep depression to the stratosphere of mania.

Answered 4/6/2015

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Can be confusing: The difficulty is that people with bipolar can have a few of the same symptoms as people with borderline personality (bpd). Also, the names are similar and someone can have both disorders! one sign of bipolar (vs. Bpd) is a positive response to mood stabilizing medication without a pathological fear of abandonment and chronically chaotic relationship patterns.

Answered 1/21/2017

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Borderline: Intense fear of abandonment, being manipulative, impulsivity, a tendency to think of people and things in all good or all bad terms, self mutilating behaviors, drug and alcohol abuse, sexual impulsivity, a profoundly disturb sense of self, and extreme emotional volatility. Bipolar disorder is characterized by extreme mood swings from deep depression to the stratosphere of mania.

Answered 4/8/2015

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