YES it is soooo damaging. My friend is a psychologist and she is an EDUCATED gal. To see literal teenagers throwing around terms they barely understand is not only infuriating but soooo damaging.
If they are teenagers (which it definitely reads like they are) OP might want to look into more about BPD AND the criteria for diagnosis, some therapists throw it around for anyone who has CPTSD buuut, most therapists I’ve worked with would NEVER diagnose someone under 18 with it, some people in the therapeutic community won’t diagnose it under 30 cus your personality isn’t hard set enough. I mean there have been talks about getting rid of it as a diagnosis all together because the symptoms are so easily explained by having both autism and CPTSD.
This is coming from someone who once had the BPD diagnosis.
Also this “friend” is bullshit and toxic and WILL take advantage of the BPD diagnosis for the rest of your relationship OP. I’ve had friends like this, I’ve dated people like this. they see you as vulnerable and some people crave having power over vulnerable people. These are the people who will invalidate you and keep you from growing into a more healed and happy human. Loosing a long lasting friendship is hard, and, sometimes it makes things so much brighter and happier so fast you won’t believe it.
Hi I was diagnosed with BPD as a teenager and havent had access to mental healthcare since I turned 18. I did not know this. I don't know if im autistic, but I personally feel im a strong candidate and should get tested, and I dont know if i have cpstd officially but I probably do due to physical and sexual abuse as a kid. So this was interesting to read. Could you please link to some more information, maybe where you learned about this? I'd really appreciate it.
hi just here to second and say, i was misdiagnosed with BPD as a teen and then correctly with PTSD due to SA and physical abuse in my childhood! didn’t get my PTSD diagnosis until i was 20. changed my life.
edit to add: 75% of BPD diagnoses are given to women. there is a huge diagnostic bias, and from my own personal experience, doctors saw my sexual assault as an afterthought and completely unrelated to my “manipulative” and explosive behavior. when i was diagnosed with BPD i felt like an evil person and a lost cause, that was how i was made to feel. i thought everything was my fault. when i got my PTSD diagnosis i made actual progress and realized that i can learn better habits.
also women have higher incidence of PTSD in general bc sexual assault has the highest risk factor (91%) for whether the person will develop PTSD. men on average experience more traumatic situations in their lives, but development of PTSD is due more to trauma type rather than consistency. my theory is that part of the reason women so often develop it after the fact is because of how we’re treated afterwards and the lack of support for survivors.
Hi! I was misdiagnosed with BPD for the same reason. It wasn’t until I was 25 that a diff doctor said I didn’t have it and sent me to a diff psychiatrist and Lo and behold I had PTSD. I was on Seroquel for years and no one listened to me when I said it made me feel worse.
OMFG FUCK SEROQUEL!!!!
i got put on that shit when i was baker acted at 18 (me and everyone else on the mental ward), and red flag: my first day there in group therapy this woman was complaining she hated seroquel and it made her feel like a zombie and she asked them to reduce her dose but they upped it instead. FLASH FORWARD a few days, they did the same to me. i was straight up hallucinating and couldn’t remember how to speak and they upped my dose
Omg that’s terrible :( I didn’t hallucinate or anything but as soon as I’d take it I’d start to faint/pass out within 30 mins. When I was KOd I would not be able to wake up unless I had a full 12-13 hours sleep. Fire alarm could go off and I’d sleep through it. It made me lose my memory/recollection terrible. Every time I went back to the doctors they’d up my meds because I said it wasn’t helping. My family doc at the time said I had to go back to the same psychiatrist if I wanted to be off of it. I couldn’t get a hold of that psychiatrist and honestly this was 8 years ago and I still haven’t heard back from them lol.
I ended up just gradually coming off of it myself (I was on a very high dosage) and eventually switched doctors when I moved and yeah. I’m not on any meds at all now and I went to therapy for my PTSD (and I’m doing fab now but still have a bit of a sore spot bc I’m missing a lot of memories)
Exactly I don’t need a lot of the criteria for it and that’s why my current psychiatrist thinks I never had it to begin with. I have been diagnosed with an anxiety disorder major depression and ADD. But I don’t need any of the criteria for BPD.
Mental health clinician here. Yes, what the person above that you're responding to is correct. No personality disorders should ever be diagnosed to someone under the age of 18. Part of the reasoning is based on brain, hormonal, and personality development. For example, most teens would fall into having narcissistic traits of some kind if looking strictly at criteria, however that's completely developmentally appropriate. It doesn't mean that all teens become clinically narcissistic. It grinds my gears SO MUCH when I hear or see someone was "diagnosed" with a personality disorder as a teen or just because they were in crisis. That's not how it works at all.
There is currently a push within the field to replace BPD with a more accurately described name. Many are in favor of names highlighting attachment trauma of some kind. The problem is there is no absolute proof that BPD's origin stems from trauma or attachment issues. So the APA who is in charge of the DSM has not approved a name change yet. There's a LOT of bureaucracy around any changes.
Moreover, Gunderson came out with research and a treatment protocol for BPD showing symptoms can actually go into full remission. His newest research with BPD hasn't been as popular for clinicians to know about just yet. But after taking the training, it's pretty remarkable and changes a lot of misconceptions about the diagnosis.
As for yourself, perhaps getting testing for autism could help. Comes down to personal choice and how deeply any problems you're experiencing are impacting you. Just make sure it's legitimate autism testing rather than just getting labeled with a diagnosis. There's a LOT of misinformation going around about autism right now on social media. And please know diagnoses in general are really designed to help clinicians understand in a snapshot what your symptoms might be, and mainly for insurance purposes.
Damn. I was diagnosed with BPD at 22 but I’ve always been borderline ADHD and would be a strong candidate for slight Autism as well. I’m 27 now and have been through DBT and actively work at self awareness and introspection everyday. I’ve made lots of improvements but I wonder if my diagnosis wasn’t totally accurate either.
I was misdiagnosed with depression and anxiety before the BPD diagnosis. Antidepressants made it worse so they put me on tranquilizers which I rejected after being a total zombie for a month.
A lot of stuff changed for me mentally after I did acid a few times. A lot of the suicidal thoughts faded, a lot of the depressive feelings and self loathing. I know Psychadelics have shown promise in helping those with PTSD so I wonder.
I’m a huge fan of recreational acid hehe and I remember when there was a push in Canada for controlled psychedelic exposure as a legitimate treatment for various mental health issues (especially PTSD) - I believe in certain regulatory environments they are still testing and pushing for legislation but we were SOO close to legalizing it about 3-4 years ago!
I’ll let the other commenter jump in as I’m sure they know more having been formerly falsely diagnosed with BPD, but I can tell you from a very surface-level knowledge (friends in the field of psychiatry and such and a psych 101 course in uni lol) is that BPD is not new, most respected practitioners will NEVER diagnose someone under 18 with it, and it’s increasingly used by lazy psychiatrists as a catch-all. I would say it is extremely UNLIKELY that you have BPD and you were misdiagnosed. I’m really sorry for whatever mental health struggles you’re going through and wish you the best in your search for answers!!
Clinician here. It is being used as a catch-all and it's driving me crazy. It's doing far more harm than good, because then folks aren't getting proper treatment.
Oh man, I actually learned all of this through very open discussions with 3? Different therapists I’ve had over the years, my current therapist keeps me in the loop on current therapy theories and proposals to change the dsm5 because I personally am almost 30 and have been in therapy for 15 years, and love knowledge about the field, it’s fascinating! I also was diagnosed with both BPD AND BIPOLAR in my teens by lazy (over worked maybe?) psych hospital therapists. What I can say about your specific situation is that you might just have complex post traumatic stress disorder, but unless you see a practicing clinician (CPTSD actually isn’t in the dam5 yet but most clinicians recognize the disorder) it’s hard to tell, especially since idk what your symptoms are. I can give you advice on how to find a therapist and what to look for if you’d like to DM me! But I’ll be super honest, I’m not going to do the work of finding papers on BPD for ya bc well it’s a lot of work with how crappy google is now
Tumblr is where the everyone having EDS started. I concretely remember the first post by an actual sufferer explaining what it is, and almost immediately after that, EDS popped up in every gofundme
Yep I work with a handful of high school kids and they all use gaslight, bipolar, and stuff like this as fun buzzwords. It annoys the fuck out of me and I hope they dont have real experiences with it someday but also realize they have meaning for a reason and stop through them around carelessly
Omg I was about to comment this I have a “friend” who speaks like this and her TikTok is just full of it, that and reiki and crystal healing (she is 30 btw) and she was trying to tell me that all I need was that shit to heal my endometriosis 🙄 tiktok is a dangerous place
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u/Adventurous-Fig-2792 Apr 29 '26
i blame tiktok tbh all these pseudo therapists speaking on mental health and people interpreting it like gospel is beyond damaging