Posted by Sarahmarie on May 18, 2002, at 11:38:11
In reply to Re: Borderline Disorder. . .or just traits? » Sarahmarie, posted by Zo on May 18, 2002, at 2:51:33
> People toss around this whole personality disorder thing waay too easily. A personality disorder is NOT on the same spectrum as neurosis, or "having issues". . .and it is NOT a genuine response to genuine trauma. It is its own thing, fixed and rather untreatable. One HALLMARK of whether you have a PD is whether or not the question occurs to you! PDs are indentifiable by a marked absence of the observing ego. There is not the same internal questioning process; in fact, PDs are largely without the capacity to self-question.
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> You can have borderline TRAITS, or narcissitic TRAITS, and they can be pretty damn severe. . .but if someone has a PD, my way of thinking about is, that person is Hard Wired that way. Which is not to suggest compulsion as much as, this is their universe, the way they are, their reality from the ground up. . .so what's to change? They may--and do--inflict on the rest of us, but whatever they do, they are particularly bound by their own universe. . .whereas "normal" people know we live in a somewhat fluid state. That life is ambiguous. You wanna know who has BPD? Someone who can *only* see things in black--or white.
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> It's hard to imagine, if you ain't got it. . .and if you do, you haven't the ability to imagine anything else.
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> Zo
Thanks for the input. I guess why I have a difficult time believing this is my diagnosis is the fact that I always seek multiple alternatives to solve a problem. I think there have been times when I thought in what is termed "black" and "white" thinking -- that had a lot to do with my ex-husband, who was very abusive. However, I just do not seem to have the anger trait which is suppose to be so prevalent with this problem. Also, I can see options for solving problems that are not limited to my own ideas. Does this make any sense? I will be taking this subject up with my therapist again this week. Otherwise, this seems like a pretty grim diagnosis, with little hope, if any, of this problem being treatable, which just puts me in a cycle of depression. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
poster:Sarahmarie
thread:24005
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/social/20020517/msgs/24045.html