Sociopathic multiple identity mood dysregulation disorder

http://loquaciouslyyours.com/2010/08/01/dont-call-me-borderline/

I totally agree with this person's blog post.  However, her stories seem a little too dramatic, depicts herself as self-proclaimed civil rights activist, seems a little too sappy and sensational, so I wonder if all of it is real and if she isn't slipping in her grip on reality sometimes.  Some people don't like to be required to "keep it real" or be confined by that annoying thing called "reality".  But if it is true, at least about the court case, I am very sorry that this happened, and glad that she won - but I wonder what "winning" meant in this case, and how and why did she get into a situation where a -pair- of therapists tied her down and stuffed a piece of paper with the letters "BPD" down her throat? :)

No, I get it... Although it would seem that unless you are constrained in a mental hospital against your will, you have the right to walk out of the therapist's office... but the more horrible truth is that this happens every day because it's really a great power trip for the budding sociopathic and insecure therapist who wants to be "cool" and label someone with the newest thing so they can try out th newest thing, Dialectical Behavioral Therapy.  Oh yes, they do not have a "crazy people filtering" process for people who are smart enough to make it through social work school, counselor programs, PhDs, or medical degrees, and some schools don't even require you to be so smart.  Some people get a PhD in calling other people crazy so they take the focus off of themselves and acquit themselves of all wrong doing and create a perfect infallible image for themselves.

Anyway, it happens like this: you go for therapy because you want to make your life better or you are so anxious from trauma and abuse issues that you think you are crazy, and you tell them some things that have been stereotyped as mistakenly belonging only to 1 particular disorder in the common people's psychology that most good psychologists don't follow...  and as a result of this 1 hour interview, 1 time, never seen you before, hasn't talked to anyone else in your family, just going on the story of someone with huge amounts of guilt for something that's not their fault, depressed, hopeless or desperate (you can do some strange things when you're desperate), brain-washed, manipulated, forcefully coerced (this is why I think she was probably not in this situation by her own choosing), traumatized person who has been groomed to take all blame and blame nobody else and believe they are crazy, and made to be completely dependent (or else bad things will happen to them from the abuser), and never mind the essential criteria... which you only have to have 5 of the 9 to fit the diagnosis...  which is a pretty broad and variable system compared to most others, and as I've said before, shouldn't include things that are better explained or found in many other disorders (although nobody will admit they did this too)... and wham...

This diagnosis means nobody can help you, ever, so definitely if that therapist can't fix it, no medications will help you (in fact, if the medications aren't helping you, it's a SURE sign like a wart on a witches nose, even though the drug failure might be because you didn't take them the right way or were prescribed conflicting counteracting drugs, or had allergies to them), then it's not THEIR fault and nobody can help you (did you check how many people that therapist ever did really help?).. and it is a problem of your own cause and under your own control (because you are really "sane", just evil), and you are evil incarnate and poison to everyone around you, and they believe you had a bad childhood, sure, but not all neglected or abused children end up crazy, so you must just have been crazy already or chose to become crazy. 

And trust me, you will have no empathy for these real borderlines when you end up on the receiving end of their lavishing of negative attention.  So much attention is given out to others, in fact, that I think it's a problem of where your center is - it's another personality disorder characteristic probably more commonly acknowledged in Asian medicine.

She is right about the abuse and trauma causing much of the symptoms that are often mistaken for BPD.  There is another DSM-IV category called "trauma or abuse victim, or PTSD".  And there is another one called "Dependent personality disorder", or you could have some "traits" of one or both.  The 2 combined together are VERY often mistaken for Borderline personality disorder.

Oh - and this is a GOOD one - the DSM-V (next one coming out) is proposing (as of 2011) to drop like 5 personality categories but somehow keep "borderline".  Their reasons?  Because it can be explained in other disorders instead.  Uh, no.  Not true.  They were even proposing dropping narcissistic personality disorder and dependent personality disorder.  I'm Ok with dropping schizotypal or schizoid - it never did make much sense.  But just because current practitioners aren't using them as much as more "popular" ones, doesn't mean they aren't prevalent and thus not important, like the U.S. is saying.  If anything this supports the case that there are some greedy, horrible diagnostitions in this country and a lot of idiots who take Medicaid or Medicare who are contributing to ripping off the government.  What the hell?  Ok, fine, just drop them all please...  and focus on the essentials behind all of them.  Give out labels like on the personality tests:  Oh, I'm an INFJ.  Oh, I'm a "don't care for boundaries on ego size or self-love, emotions, identity, empathy for others, existence of others, and impulsivity".  They don't even believe in personality disorders in Germany - they say it's a abnormal variation of psychic life.  Well, I can't stand it any longer... this whole "personality disorder" was completely a psychoanalytical creation based on Freud and others around his time in 1910.  There is also Theodore Millon.  He is a God in the study of personality disorders, and without its existence he would have nothing else to do.  He is still alive, so we still have personality disorders.  In fact, I have no doubt that it's because of him that we aren't using the ICD-10:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theodore_Millon

And a lot of people believe that "cutting" is the tell tale heart of this disorder -  and like a sink or float test for witches, it's pretty baseless and stupid.  Self-harm happens in many different situations, from depression to full blown all encompassing personality disorders.

The other problem is, as other bloggers have noted, you could momentarily appear for a short period of time as something if you don't take into account the requirement for 6 months of knowing the person.  Again, the DSM-IV says 6 months.

And you don't have to have a full blown definition of "dependent" or "PTSD" to have something that mixes together in a critical moment at the time of the evaluation - and if you have a therapist who is apparently out for blood because they were pissed off or insulted by something that happened before you even got in there, or a disgust for anyone who doesn't walk around naked through the halls, drool and scream incoherently, and bow their head down like a zombie in the mental hospital, and wants to be a part of the BPD craze...  and WHAM.  YOU obviously didn't know how to play that game!  OOPS!  YOU lost.

Anyone can look momentarily like they have just about any particular disorder if you don't follow the criteria and are dealing with something that the psychological community think is a fun new way to get rid of whiners by blaming and accusing the victims like it is a 17th century New England WITCH hunt.

There is no doubt that there is something VERY wrong with a "disorder" that is mostly given to women - 75% of the diagnosed are women.  That is a red flag of bias and stupidity to me.  The real essence at the bottom of this disorder is what is common in all personality disorders:  unwillingness to respect boundaries for emotions, ego, reality, other people and animals, substances, and self-identity.  THAT is another blog - I will find that blog I'm referring to soon.. promise...  Men are usually diagnosed as "narcissists" (for alcoholics and assholes usually) or "anti-social personality" (that's reserved for drug addicts usually, and robbers)... when their instability in their self-image and emotional control is more easily hidden or more easily excused as acceptable testosterone issues or addiction problems.  Women are naturally more flamboyant and emotionally expressive, and would have relationship issues that would be harder to hide because that is really important to most women and they will talk about things like that more easily.  And it's a societal thing - in other cultures, it's different ratios for many different types of disorders because of how society influences our behaviors.  And we just somehow associate "borderline" with females, but I know there are males with "borderline personality disorder" aka "emotional and self-image disregulation (and sociopathic tendencies) trauma complex"... but it's at a prevalence in men that is not high enough, but is WAY over diagnosed in women.

Why do the 'personality' disorder diagnosis anyway?  It is supposed to be reserved for the very serious cases where functioning is severely compromised and the person clearly does not want to help themselves or stop their behaviors.  All personality disorders are supposed to be a diagnosis of DOOM - and just referred to in whispers as the "thing that should not be named"... except by those wishing to dismiss the person's actions as a total crazy person, a hopeless cause.  Like this situation: "why is THIS guy in here (ie. locked high security mental hospital)?  Oh, whenever they let him out, he goes home to his mom and then robs a bank.  He has narcissism."  Psychology is supposed to give out smaller, more specific, and more accurate diagnosis of "reactive attachment disorder" or "trauma/ abuse" or "dependency issues".  Good therapists will do this. 

And stop throwing it around like it's the new cool thing to call yourself too- that makes it seem "OK" and not what it is: a damning witch hunt to protect the therapist's ego and their denial of the existence of emotional and physical damage from trauma and abuse - THAT is another blog.

But the disorder still does exist and really is from abuse and trauma but with a major and very important sadistic angry narcissistic twist where they take on the persona of REAL people around them, not imagined people.  See, these people were not deprived of interactions with others, although they were deeply damaged, and continued to be damaged and damned under this extreme rejection and abuse throughout their first 25 years of life.  They just don't think anyone wants to see the real them.  Trying to be somebody else is like driving the car from the passenger's side.  I have nightmares about that, so I wouldn't try that either. Yeah, that's another blog.

Nobody seems to care much for the DSM-IV rules on diagnosing or the definitions of the disorder, however.  It is much more similar to multiple personality disorder - the real definition of it is a problem with their "personality rutter" or the stability of their self-image.  It is a problem created by their expectations (world view): that everyone will eventually neglect them, or deprive them of love or interaction, and at some dark point they believe they deserve it, unless they take drastic measures and attack first and drop others before they are dropped, or control and manipulate to keep it all suffocatingly close.

And there is a problem with how important reality is to them - it isn't- they pretend to be some dramatic false projection ALL the time until even THEY don't know where their real center is, and can go flying off the handle in any direction and very quickly because that other character doesn't have to follow the normal boundaries of emotions or human interactions.

And if all their attention is put on filling a void within themselves where they lack a stable self-image and genuine self-confidence, AKA the thing that allows you to not be completely taken down to a puddle of mitochondrial mush at the bat of an eyelash in the wrong direction or upon noticing any negative emotions or blemishes in their over blown ego, they are not centered or grounded in themselves, and are instead act like someone trying to stand still on a slippery soapy floor.  At the center is calm - it is "live and let live", it is generosity, it is pure love, acceptance and letting go.  Visualize it as your mental backbone, the center of your body.  Instead, they go in a "bad" direction and when they don't like it, it doesn't seem appropriate, or they realize they're dangerously teetering on the edge of hysteria with their forcing of their grand illusions and denials on those around them (a realization and act of self-control which doesn't happen quite often enough)... then instead of "calming down" and re-centering, they try another "personality" or "perspective" on for size.  Oh you want something else?  What do you want to see?  Certainly you don't want to see ME - because even I don't want to see the REAL me, right?  And because I'm not even in touch with that real me anymore, since it was so abused and traumatized that it never fully developed and matured.  And I have distanced myself from it completely and it's nothing more than an angry dream now, unless I'm pretending to be my abuser or someone similar from that dream.

And they have the gall to think they can copy you accurately, and it's often demeaning and shallow, mocking image of their own creation because they dismiss anyone as having an individual soul that can't be imitated.  There should be a copyright on certain personal traits and expressions.  God or Nature or whatever... we were all created individually.  Even kids know to say "don't imitate me" and know it's annoying.  But borderlines take their talent on the road - they use it against you if you take one wrong step to cross them in a slight way - and start imitating anyone who might have some potentially useful attitude and happens to be in a position of control or power over you, while going into hyper active sensitive mode to any potential validations of their fear of abandonment.  Oh it's true, it's true, it's true, they are really horrible and evil, destroy them (oh yes, they want you dead or destroyed at that point when it's for self-preservation) - But oh my GOD, you MADE it happen!  Problem is, anything can start their obsessive ruminations cycle going - once they start to feel some self-doubt about anything and get a little depressed and obsessive. 

And there's a boundary problem in a certain way in the division between themselves and others:  Unlike the narcissist, who sees himself in all others but does not have a mirror image for "others" in his mind and hence no boundaries there since you don't really exist except to uphold his perfect gleaming image (or else all is dark)...   the borderline thinks you exist as non-integrated "vignettes" or "skits", pieces of a person just as they see themselves, who are there to fulfill their insecure needs for attachment and control of their perfect image (or else all is black), and they believe that to achieve this unrealistic level of constant symbiotic attachment, they should flatter you with their impersonations of you or anyone important in your life that you have recently described to them, and bombard you with attention and gifts, forcefully, because it's a way to keep you on a short leash, and if you don't appreciate it the right way you are damned to their own home baked version of borderline abuse, and that will give anyone diabetes and want to crawl in a cave for months afterwards (unless you're a narcissist and bask in that attention quite naively).

Here is the weak point of the borderline: rejection. http://bpd.about.com/od/glossary/g/abandon.htm
"Abandonment sensitivity is a symptom of Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD). In the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), abandonment sensitivity is described as "frantic efforts to avoid real or imagined abandonment." People with BPD can be very sensitive to any cue (real or perceived) that they are being rejected or abandoned. This can include strong reactions to seemingly minor rejections by others (e.g., becoming terrified or enraged when someone cancels plans)."  BUT NO IT IS NOT THE SOLE DEFINING CHARACTERISTIC.  Just their Achilles heal, got it peeps?  This is what sets them off.

Here is the problem of the narcissist- the Achilles heal of narcissists is their actually quite vulnerable and insecure self-esteem.  That is how they are set off:  http://www.mentalhealth.com/dis/p20-pe07.html
"Vulnerability in self-esteem makes individuals with this disorder very sensitive to criticism or defeat. Although they may not show it outwardly, criticism may haunt these individuals these individuals and may leave them feeling humiliated, degraded, hollow, and empty. They may react with disdain, rage, or defiant counterattack. Their social life is often impaired due to problems derived from entitlement, the need for admiration, and the relative disregard for the sensitivities of others. Though their excessive ambition and confidence may lead to high achievement; performance may be disrupted due to intolerance of criticism or defeat. Sometimes vocational functioning can be very low, reflecting an unwillingness to take a risk in competitive or other situations in which defeat is possible. Individuals with this disorder have special difficulties adjusting to growing old and losing their former superiority. "   

And many borderlines them also being simultaneous narcissists, they will lie, intimidate, and attack in a psychotic assault of emotional or physical abuse and rage if anyone questions them (in this case, that rage IS under their control, since their personal rage to protect themselves IS just about the only real part about them and is also actually an act like turning on a switch, that they can turn off).

And it's just so funny when someone who apparently is a psychologist or psychiatrist goes on a rant against their own family members in the guise of a scientific study.  They get a little too detailed and off on tangents too.  You know it's happening when their story confirms that all of their description of this "story" is characteristic of that borderline person, but you know for a fact that it isn't, and that person has some real issues:  http://www.primals.org/articles/hannig03.html   
Here is a piece of this guy's bullshit, for shits and giggles: "Trauma during gestational attachment creates disordered adults who have difficulty connecting emotionally with other people. The bad, rejecting, destroying uterus is a real threat. The BP is constantly seeking a connection with the good womb in order to escape or avoid the death womb." Yep, he's on crack!

The other real part about them is a very deep morbid self-centered sadness, an occasional sorrow that might be perceived as guilt and which they might say "sorry" during but is not really about YOU or anyone else at all, but is instead a frustrated rejection of all people and attachments in response to the perceived failure to fill their void of self-validation and self-love through the only ways they know how.  Oh but beware, they will have the memory of a goldfish, and the ability to forget or turn to "distant memories" this most recent failure, and soon they'll go back to turning against anyone and everyone, and will again manipulate and laugh in your face the minute they feel it necessary (which is usually ALL the time). 

This is a quote:
Some therapists really get off on putting people in a box and shunting them on through the system. In the past decade, especially in the court system in every state,  more and more women have been assigned this label and told that they must undergo years of therapy– notably, Dialectical Behavior Therapy or DBT– to even be able to function.
Last year,  in a dehumanizing and unethical ambush attempt by a pair of therapists who should be stripped of all licensure,  I was force-fed the diagnosis of BPD. We fought it out in Court and I won. I won the right of self-determination– to call myself a writer and a human being with a history of trauma. But don’t think that I don’t fight that tape within that says, “You’re a mess. You’re a sicko. You belong in a mental hospital” night and day.
As a civil rights activist, I have advocated and claimed and perpetuated the idea wherever I can that those diagnosed with Borderline Personality Disorder are in fact trauma survivors whose pain must be validated and whose ability to heal must be reinforced. Thank God I am not alone in this fight: