Do you experience intense periods of happiness, impulsive behavior, lack of sleep, and restlessness? Do you also go through times of deep sadness, guilt, difficulty concentrating, and thoughts of death? Is it challenging for you to maintain relationships, and do you often worry that people will leave you?
Do your self-perceptions change frequently? Are you dealing with intense feelings of sadness or anxiety? If any of these experiences resonate with you, you may be experiencing Bipolar Disorder, Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD), or possibly both.
What are Bipolar Disorder and Borderline Personality Disorder?
Bipolar Disorder is a mental health condition characterized by periodic, intense emotional states that impact energy, mood, and functionality. Each period can have someone experience intense happiness or irritability, called manic episodes, fluctuating with intense sadness or apathy, referred to as major depressive episodes. These can last for days to weeks, leading to changes in behavior that impact their ability to perform daily tasks. People with bipolar disorder will have periods of symptom-free time as well.
Manic episodes can include decreased need for sleep, increased speech, uncontrollable racing thoughts or quickly changing topics while speaking, distractibility, increased activity, and increased risky or impulsive behavior. Hypomanic episodes can occur, which are less severe manic symptoms that last only four days.
Major depressive episodes include feelings of worthlessness or guilt, fatigue, increased or decreased sleep, increased or decreased appetite, restlessness or slowed speech/movement, difficulty concentrating, and frequent thoughts of death or suicide.
There are two subtypes of bipolar disorder: Bipolar I and Bipolar II.
- Bipolar I is characterized by manic and depressive episodes alternating with periods of symptom-free time.
- Bipolar II is characterized by one depressive episode and at least one hypomanic episode.
Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) is a mental health condition characterized by extreme changes in self-image, impulsive actions, and challenges with relationships.
People with BPD may experience a pattern of unstable and intense relationships, frantic efforts to prevent someone from leaving them, extreme and frequent changes to self-image, impulsive and self-damaging behaviors, suicidal behavior or self-injury, intense bouts of sadness or anxiousness that a few hours-few day, often feeling empty, intense anger or problems with anger control, and fleeting stress-induced thoughts about someone harming or hurting them or feeling detached from self or the world.
Bipolar Disorder and BPD Overlap
Both Bipolar Disorder and Borderline Personality Disorder have similar experiences:
- Suicidal behavior
- Impulsive or self-damaging behavior
- Extreme mood shifts from high to low mood
Prevalence of Overlap between Bipolar Disorder and BPD
- The frequency of BPD in patients with bipolar disorder was 16%.
- In twelve studies with patients diagnosed with bipolar I disorder, the prevalence of BPD was 10.7%
- In seven studies with bipolar II disorder patients, the prevalence of BPD was twice as high (22.9%)
- The rate of Bipolar I or Bipolar II is 19.1% in patients diagnosed with BPD.
Suspecting You Have Bipolar Disorder and BPD: What comes next?
If you’re curious about Bipolar Disorder and Borderline Personality Disorder, looking for support, we’re here for you! Book a consultation with our compassionate team. We’re committed to making sure all minds feel seen, valued, and supported—just as they are.
