- Joined
- Oct 19, 2024
Not something that a lot of people understand, but yeah.
Personality Disorders almost always involve mixed traits, which is why a little under half of all diagnosed cases are actually coded as PD-NOS. Research psychology suggests that "Personality Disorder" may actually be a single diagnosis with dimensional qualities rather than several discrete conditions, a theory accepted in modified form by a recent edition of the ICD. Somebody with BPD who has mixed traits of other Cluster B conditions (Petulant and Impulsive) is going to behave very differently than someone with a heavy admixture of Cluster C traits (the Discouraged or Self-Defeating subtypes). Attempts to define a "pure" Borderline type usually look like more like the latter, but I think defining subcategories is already an attempt to lump together highly idiosyncratic pathologies. "Pure" BPD probably just doesn't exist in any meaningful sense.
That's not to say that Discouraged or Self-Defeating Borderlines can't cause issues for other people. It absolutely fucking happens, because anyone with any form of Cluster B pathology has the potential to be destructive, but they tend to be the groups more likely to be labeled as having c-PTSD or given some other absolute nonsense label by non-specialist clinicians (I'm personally very, very skeptical that Pathological Demand Avoidance, an odd class of extremely high-functioning ASD characterized by emotional lability and socially manipulative behavior - described by its own originator as "a personality profile" - is distinct from comorbid ASD/Discouraged BPD; that's a whole other discussion, though). They're generally seen as more sympathetic by both professionals and the public as a whole, because it's a lot easier to tolerate someone who seems lonely and sad than someone who gets up in your face screaming about suicide.
This is not saying that one group is better. I think it's extremely important that I clarify this given that there's a very real potential for bias. BPD is always a collection of unhealthy and destructive coping mechanisms for stress, and anyone with BPD is capable of doing irreparable harm to friends and loved ones and likely has done so (intentional or not, it doesn't really matter), with no exceptions. One group is definitely less likely to wave a kitchen knife around while yelling that you've always hated them, though. Bare minimum tolerability is still an improvement over whatever the fuck Sam's doing in those text messages. Even I think she should fuck off after what she said about her children.
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