Heard from a colleague and friend yesterday, and we chatted for awhile. He said, "I couldn't let this holiday go by, without calling you!" I was touched. He has 3 sons with his wife, and I figured his family was immersed in Christmas festivities. It made me feel all warm and fuzzy that he'd made time to phone me. Good friends are everything to me.
We chatted for quite some time, sharing work experiences (which I like to call "war stories") and did some general catching up. He brought up the topic of Obsessive-Compulsive Personality Disorder in reference to one of his clients. He's an addiction specialist who deals with a potpourri of human dysfunction within his realm of expertise.
OCPD has acute earmarks of Borderline Personality Disorder, as do Histrionic PD, Antisocial PD, Social Anxiety PD, etc. IF a diagnosis has the term "personality disorder" attached to it, it sits under the (much broader than we think) BPD umbrella. At least, that's how I've always seen this stuff.
Anomalous behavior can all be categorized as BPD traits, in my view. It's just that as a clinician in practice, there are a plethora of diagnostic terms and their corresponding 'codes' to choose from to describe a specific set of symptoms, so BPD has been broken down into myriad subsets, which make it easier on therapists submitting forms to insurance companies for reimbursement of services rendered.
On one hand, I think making clinicians ultra-define their patient's symptoms this way, is an absurd waste of intellectual energy. On the other hand (and to our great misfortune), centuries have passed without ANYONE recognizing BPD, coming even close to understanding What it is, Where it starts or How to fucking treat it. This tragic reality holds true, even today!
My article, "Borderline Perfect" borrows an excerpt from an article written by a man who describes in detail, the symptoms of OCPD. As you read it, you can't help but feel that he's filled in the blanks for ya, and helped you connect the dots with regard to your vast confusion about a partner's disturbing behavior patterns. My hope has always been that the 25 articles I've written about BPD have provided the same distinctive level of understanding for people reading them.
Borderline Personality Disorder is and always will, present as an extremely complex set of behaviors that are light years beyond any definition you might find in your diagnostic manual, whether it's volume IV or V. The etiology of this disorder is always the same, but how it manifests in one's personality, is so very intricate and often subtle, it's frequently overlooked by society~ and even, those closest to a borderline disordered person.
A client I once worked with was terrified of eating certain foods, for fear they might be toxic for her~ and the list was very long. At her baseline, was Anxiety Disorder~ a very common symptom of BPD. She'd simply categorized her anxious feelings into specifics, to contain and control them. Her presumption was, if she stayed away from "dangerous" foods, she might survive.
There was no rhyme or reason for these determinations, these fears of "allergic reactions" to various things ingested, these behaviors were simply made-up parameters that helped her feel a little safer in her world. Definitely the most pronounced set of BPD symptoms I've seen in all the years of my practice.
Surviving and Thriving are two very separate and distinct energies. One cannot Thrive, when they are perpetually anxious about a litany of events, encounters or ingestible materials they'd normally be exposed to as they navigate thru their daily life. Can you imagine how terribly confining that might feel to YOU??