Can You Have BPD and Bipolar: Although it is not formal, the medical community has embraced border polarity, according to Mark Zimmerman, MD, professor of psychiatry and human behavior at Brown University and the head of outpatient psychiatry and the partial hospital program at Rhode Island Hospital in Providence.

The cause of the increase in interest? It is not unusual for medical professionals to encounter patients who have received a diagnosis of both bipolar disorder and borderline personality disorder (BPD). According to a study that Zimmerman co-authored, which was published in Dialogues in Clinical Neuroscience, around 20% of individuals with one of these illnesses are also diagnosed with the other.

What is Bipolar Disorder?

It is essential to be able to distinguish between bipolar disorder and BPD in order to identify the signs of borderpolar.

Extreme mood swings, from ecstatic emotional highs to severe depressive lows, are symptoms of bipolar disorder. The symptoms vary depending on the kind of mood episode a person is going through. A person may experience extreme happiness, optimism, irritability, or energy during manic episodes and hypomanic episodes (which are milder forms of manic episodes), according to the Mayo Clinic. Additional indications of hypomanic and manic episodes include:

• Excessive chatter
• arrogance, or excessive self-assurance
• Lowering the Demand for Sleep
• Hazardous or impulsive actions like gambling, reckless sex, or going on a buying spree
• Racing thoughts

Experts at the Mayo Clinic note that a depressive episode, in contrast, is characterized by profound grief, emptiness, or hopelessness. Additional symptoms of a depressive bipolar episode include:

• Exhaustion
• Oversleeping or insomnia
• A person no longer enjoys doing the things they used to like.
• restlessness or sluggish motions
• A substantial, unintended increase or decrease in weight
• Thoughts or actions related to suicide

What Is Borderline Personality Disorder?

People with BPD struggle to regulate their emotions and behaviors, as well as maintain stable, healthy relationships because the condition alters how they see themselves and others. Here is a list of the following symptoms of BPD:

• Stress and loss of touch with reality are sometimes associated with paranoid episodes.
• excessive dread of rejection or abandonment and difficulty being by oneself
• Frequent experience of tumultuous, intense, or explosive relationships
• extreme and inappropriate rage, such as physical altercations and outbursts of rage
• Actions that are impulsive or high-risk, such as drug usage, gambling, or unprotected sex
• Consistent sentiments of emptiness
• Changes in self-perception, such as seeing oneself as negative or nonexistent, may occur rapidly.
• deliberately destroying one’s own achievements, like leaving a new position
• Thoughts or actions related to suicide

Bipolar Disorder and Borderline Personality Disorder

Due to the similarity of their symptoms, Zimmerman states that researchers have sought to identify the distinctions between these disorders. He claims that both diseases are linked to:

• Participating in dangerous or spontaneous activities like gambling or unprotected sex
• Changes in one’s emotional state are extreme.
• Inability to carry out everyday tasks
• regularly looking for mental health support
• Low self-esteem (the most visible sign of which is depressive episodes in those with bipolar disorder)
• Disorders related to substance usage
• Thoughts or actions related to suicide

According to Zimmerman, the difference lies in when and why particular actions take place. For example, as a way to deal with unpleasant feelings like sorrow, rage, or emotional discomfort, those with BPD often engage in risky behaviors like gambling or having unprotected sex.

However, individuals with bipolar illness are more likely to exhibit these behaviors when they are experiencing a manic or hypomanic episode than when they are depressed or empty.

Why Is Borderpolar Difficult to Identify?

You’re not likely to be diagnosed with both bipolar disorder and BPD at the same time. For those with borderpolar, it is not uncommon to be diagnosed with one ailment before the other, as happened to Godfrey. Sometimes, people who just have one of these illnesses are first wrongly diagnosed with the other.

The reason for this is that the symptoms of bipolar disorder and BPD are comparable. Because one illness frequently hides the other, making it challenging for doctors to identify them both at once, neuropsychologist Sanam Hafeez, PsyD, the head of Comprehensive Consultation Psychological Services and a faculty member in Columbia University’s PhD program in clinical psychology in New York City, explains.

What Treatment Is Used for Borderpolar?

According to Hafeez, therapy can be challenging but is by no means impossible. Even though the term “borderpolar” indicates the union of bipolar disorder and BPD, if a person has both illnesses, they should be treated as distinct health issues. Fortunately, those who have the concurrent ailments can lead productive, happy, and fulfilling lives with the correct therapy.

Treatment for Bipolar Disorder

According to Zimmerman, mood stabilizers and other medications are prescribed to individuals with bipolar disorder in order to lessen the frequency, severity, and duration of their symptoms, as well as the likelihood of subsequent mood episodes.

According to the APA, psychotherapy is another frequent therapy for bipolar illness. The National Alliance on Mental Illness states that the following therapies may be especially beneficial for those with bipolar disorder:

• CBT teaches those who have bipolar disorder how to recognize the events that cause their mood swings and how to control those episodes with positive thoughts and behaviors.
• By creating daily schedules, like eating meals, going to bed, and getting out of bed at the same hour every day, interpersonal and social rhythm therapy (IPSRT) helps people learn to manage their symptoms and lessen their exposure to triggers that cause stress.

People with bipolar illness who experience manic episodes sometimes need hospitalization, according to Hafeez. “Manic episodes that go along with bipolar disorder combined with the suicidal tendencies sparked by BPD can cause a person to attempt to take their life and are very dangerous,” she cautions.

Borderline Personality Disorder Treatment

Psychotherapy, commonly referred to as talk therapy, is the first-line treatment for BPD, according to experts at the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH). The most frequently used psychotherapy for BPD is dialectical behavior therapy, which teaches people how to regulate extreme emotions, improve their relationships, and reduce any self-destructive tendencies.

To sum up, the Food and Drug Administration has not yet authorized any drugs for the treatment of BPD. However, according to the NIMH, doctors occasionally prescribe medication to help alleviate some symptoms of BPD, such as mood swings or depression.