- Hey everybody, happy Thursday.
Now, today, we're gonna talk about the difference
between BPD or Borderline Personality Disorder,
and C-PTSD or Complex Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.
But before we get into that, are you new to my channel?
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But let's jump into this topic.
Today's question is:
"Kati, I was wondering if you could do a video describing
the differences between CPTSD and BPD in regards
to the diagnosis since they have such similar symptoms.
I've been told by my therapist that I have CPTSD,
(is that even a diagnosis in the DSM V)
with DID features, yet the therapist and psychiatrist
from the residential center told me that my diagnoses
are BPD, DID and PTSD.
I don't usually get hung up on the labels
but I do find it confusing since these two conditions
are quite similar.
I'm sure others have had a similar experience,
so please explain.
Thanks!
Let's start by defining the terms.
Now CPTSD or complex post traumatic stress disorder,
occurs when someone is repeatedly traumatized.
This could happen if someone grew up
in a really abusive household or if they went to war.
Either way you can see that
they're being repeatedly traumatized.
And it can make relationships
and life afterward very difficult.
They state that those who suffer from Complex PTSD
have more issues and they're comparing this to people
with PTSD versus complex, just so you kinda know
what they're differentiating between.
They say that people with CPTSD have more issues
with emotion regulation,
forgetting traumatic events completely,
meaning they have no recollection of things
that happened to them, self-perception,
so they'll feel ashamed and guilty for struggling
with this and maybe not feeling okay like everyone else
that that they know.
Four, they'll struggle with distorted perceptions
of their perpetrators.
Many people I know, especially my patients who've been
traumatized as a child and abused repeatedly
often care for the people who harmed them and love them.
They could be parents or other members of their family
and it's really difficult for them to rectify what happened
versus how they feel about it.
And the fifth is relations with others.
Many isolate or struggle to trust people in general
because if you think about it, in the past,
people haven't been very trustworthy.
And six, their own sense of meaning.
Many say that they feel hopeless and they struggle
to have any faith in people or life.
Now, treatment is pretty much the same as it is for PTSD,
however, there is an intense focus
on interpersonal difficulties.
They focus on this because those with repeated trauma
have more trouble trusting, not lashing out, feeling safe,
and managing their feelings of shame and guilt.
Now BPD or Borderline Personality Disorder
is a pervasive disorder where we can show patterns
of instability in our relationships.
We can struggle with self image
and have a lot of impulsivity.
In order to be diagnosed with BPD, you must have five
of the following nine criteria.
The first is fear of abandonment.
This means that we'll make frantic efforts to avoid real
or even imagined, abandonment.
Two, we may have a lot of unstable relationships.
Three, we'll have an unstable sense of self,
which can lead us to change jobs quickly and frequently
or break up with people, get together on a whim,
change all the ways that we define ourselves.
This could even be our sexuality, career focus,
religion, etc.
Number four, we can be really impulsive
and utilize self destructive behaviors.
Five, we can have recurrent suicidal behavior,
gestures or threats or even self injurious behavior.
This is why a lot of people attach any type of self injury
that we may struggle with with this diagnosis.
But we know now that there are efforts
to make self injurious behavior its own separate diagnosis,
which I believe is a step in the right direction.
And number six, we can have extreme mood swings.
Our emotions can be all over the place.
Number seven, we can have chronic feelings of emptiness,
just wondering what it's all worth and if we're even
doing anything that we love or people even care.
Number eight, we can have inappropriate or intense
and explosive anger.
And number nine, feeling suspicious of people
or out of touch with reality and I believe
that this comes along with severe dissociative symptoms.
By simply going through the two diagnoses,
you can see how much symptom overlap there is,
unstable relationships,
difficulty with emotion regulation, etc.
Therefore, many people get misdiagnosed with BPD
when it should be CPTSD and vice versa.
Also many people could meet the criteria for both diagnosis.
A recent study showed that 24% of those with PTSD
also had BPD and 30% of those with BPD also had PTSD.
So you can see the symptoms overlap
and many people struggle with both.
Now let's get into the main differences between the two.
Number one, BPD does not require a traumatic event
to be diagnosed and CPTSD does.
That's a very big differentiation.
Number two, the treatment plan for CPTSD is to focus
on healing or processing through the traumatic events
that occurred, while BPD's goal is to resolve
any injurious urges and learn how
to better manage our emotions.
And that, in and of itself, is so important to note,
the second differentiation,
because if treatment is gonna be different,
it's vitally important that we get the proper diagnosis.
The third difference is that while both diagnosis
do show symptoms of emotion dysregulation,
they are expressed very differently.
In CPTSD, it's expressed through emotional sensitivity,
reactive anger and poor coping skills.
Many people with CPTSD struggle with drug or alcohol abuse.
But BPD, on the other hand,
while it may show some of those signs,
it's much more common for someone with BPD
to struggle with suicidal thoughts
and self injurious behavior
when experiencing emotion dysregulation.
So it's almost like those with CPTSD can lash out more,
more quickly maybe, than those with BPD.
They often have anger in first, before they explode outward.
And number four, in BPD, most patients do experience
some fear of abandonment.
That's the most common symptom that I see.
That has no part of any criteria associated with CPTSD.
I could honestly go on and on about the differences
and the similarities between the two,
but the important thing to remember is
that only you know your symptoms best.
So keep track of them.
Bring that information into your next appointment
with your therapist or your doctor.
That way, we can ensure that you are getting the treatment
that is right for you, because, just as I mentioned before,
the goals of treatment for BPD versus CPTSD
are very different.
Therefore, we need to make sure our diagnosis fits.
Also, if you're worried that you struggle with BPD,
please look into dialectical behavior therapy,
otherwise known as DBT.
If you're concerned that you may have PTSD,
please look into seeing a trauma specialist,
that could be talk therapy based, trauma based CBT,
EMDR, schema therapy, etc.
This video has been brought to you
by the Kinions on Patreon.
If you would like to support the creation
of these mental health videos,
click the link in the description and check it out.
And I also have a lot of videos about different types
of treatment related to BPD and CPTSD,
so I'll link those in the description.
And as always, let me know what your experience has been.
Have you been misdiagnosed?
Do you think CPTSD and BPD are more alike than we think?
Please let me know in those comments down below
and I will see you next time.
Bye!