What are the primary differences between borderline personality disorder and Post Traumatic Distress disorder.

Question

how cah you diagnose between these two?

Answer 1

A person with BPD may experience intense bouts of anger, depression, and anxiety that may last only hours, or at most a day. These may be associated with episodes of impulsive aggression, self-injury, and drug or alcohol abuse. Distortions in cognition and sense of self can lead to frequent changes in long-term goals, career plans, jobs, friendships, gender identity, and values. Sometimes people with BPD view themselves as fundamentally bad, or unworthy. They may feel unfairly misunderstood or mistreated, bored, empty, and have little idea who they are. Such symptoms are most acute when people with BPD feel isolated and lacking in social support, and may result in frantic efforts to avoid being alone.

People with BPD often have highly unstable patterns of social relationships. While they can develop intense but stormy attachments, their attitudes towards family, friends, and loved ones may suddenly shift from idealization (great admiration and love) to devaluation (intense anger and dislike). Thus, they may form an immediate attachment and idealize the other person, but when a slight separation or conflict occurs, they switch unexpectedly to the other extreme and angrily accuse the other person of not caring for them at all. Even with family members, individuals with BPD are highly sensitive to rejection, reacting with anger and distress to such mild separations as a vacation, a business trip, or a sudden change in plans. These fears of abandonment seem to be related to difficulties feeling emotionally connected to important persons when they are physically absent, leaving the individual with BPD feeling lost and perhaps worthless. Suicide threats and attempts may occur along with anger at perceived abandonment and disappointments.

People with BPD exhibit other impulsive behaviors, such as excessive spending, binge eating and risky sex. BPD often occurs together with other psychiatric problems, particularly bipolar disorder, depression, anxiety disorders, substance abuse, and other personality disorders.




People may get PTSD after living through a disturbing or frightening experience. It can be treated with medicine and therapy.
You can get PTSD after you have been:

* Raped or sexually abused
* Hit or harmed by someone in your family
* A victim of a violent crime
* In an airplane or car crash
* In a hurricane, tornado, or fire
* In a war,
* In an event where you thought you might be killed, or
* After you have seen any of these events.

If you have PTSD, you often have nightmares or scary thoughts about the experience you went through. You try to stay away from anything that reminds you of your experience.

You may feel angry and unable to trust or care about other people. You may always be on the lookout for danger. You can feel very upset when something happens suddenly or without warning.

For most people, PTSD starts within about three months of the event. For some people, signs of PTSD don't show up until years later. PTSD can happen to anyone at any age. Even children can have it.

Some people get better within six months, while others may have the illness for much longer.

Answer 2

Post Traumatic Stress Disorder is a psychological injury, in falls in the category of anxiety disorders and begins after a traumatic event. Indicators of PTSD are things like continually re-experiencing the traumatic event, avoiding stimuli that remind the person of the event, increased arousal (like being easily startled, having difficulty falling and staying asleep etc.) and these symptoms interfere with the person's daily functioning and persist for a long period of time (more than a few weeks).

Borderline Personality Disorder is characterised by feelings of emptiness, unstable self image, frantic efforts to avoid abandonment, episodes of self harm, unstable personal relationships that vary between extremes of devaluation and idolisation, intense anger and impulsive dangerous behaviour.

The website below is helpful at highlighting the difference between the two.

Answer 3

Check out (http://www.reducingstress.net ) there is a lot of great content, information articles, expert advice and links on the subject there.