Bipolar disorder and borderline personality disorder (BPD) are two serious mental health conditions that can drastically affect a person’s ability to lead a happy, healthy life. Both disorders can cause mood swings, impulsivity, and difficulty maintaining relationships.
Because they share overlapping symptoms, it’s common for them to be confused with one other. However, the conditions are very different in their causes, patterns, and treatment approaches. Misdiagnosis can delay the right support and care, so understanding the difference between bipolar disorder and borderline personality disorder is essential.
In this article, you’ll learn:
- What bipolar disorder is
- What borderline personality disorder is
- How the types, causes, symptoms, and treatments differ
- Why an accurate diagnosis is important
- Where to get help for either condition
If you or someone you love is experiencing the signs of bipolar disorder or BPD, you’re not alone. The team at Renewed Light can help you understand what’s happening and guide you toward the best treatment plan. Reach out at any time to ask questions or to learn more about our various programs.
What Is Bipolar Disorder?
Bipolar disorder is a mental health condition that causes a person to experience intense emotional highs and lows. These are known as mania (or hypomania) and depression. When someone is in a manic episode, they often are full of energy and feel on top of the world, as if they’re invincible.
Once they swing into depression, though, they experience deep sadness and emptiness. These sudden, unpredictable mood swings can negatively affect the person’s relationships, self-esteem, work, and everyday life.
Types
There are multiple forms of bipolar disorder, which include:
- Bipolar I: Involves at least one full manic episode, often followed by a depressive episode.
- Bipolar II: Includes cycles of hypomania (a milder form of mania) and depression, but not full mania.
- Cyclothymia: A pattern of chronic but less severe mood fluctuations that lasts two years or more.
- Other types: Those that don’t fit into these categories may be classified as “other.”
Causes
While there isn’t a single cause of bipolar disorder, research suggests that the following may play a part:
- Genetics: Family history is a major risk factor. Bipolar disorder often runs in families, passed down through generations.
- Trauma: Experiencing traumatic events or immense stress, especially during childhood, can make a person more susceptible to the disorder.
Scientists generally agree that a combination of factors leads to bipolar disorder. Substance use, lack of sleep, and other environmental factors can change the brain’s chemical makeup, triggering the onset of the condition.
Signs and Symptoms
The main symptom of bipolar disorder is alternating periods of mania and depression, which can last weeks, months, and even years. Other signs and symptoms depend on whether the individual is feeling manic or depressed.
Manic symptoms can include:
- Irritability
- Decreased need for sleep
- Racing thoughts
- Rapid speech
- Inflated self-esteem
- Risky behavior (unsafe sex, gambling, etc.)
Depressive symptoms may involve:
- Difficulty concentrating
- Persistent sadness or hopelessness
- Loss of interest in previously enjoyed activities
- Fatigue or low energy
- Thoughts of death or suicidal ideation
Treatment
The main treatments for bipolar disorder include:
- Medication: Mood stabilizers, antipsychotics, or antidepressants may be prescribed.
- Therapy: Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) and other forms of therapy are often useful.
- Lifestyle changes: Getting enough sleep, eating a healthy diet, and exercising regularly can support long-term stability.
What Is Borderline Personality Disorder?
Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is a condition that affects the way someone thinks, feels, and relates to others. People with BPD often have unstable emotions, intense fears of being abandoned, and low self-esteem. Their mood swings can change by the hour or even minute, and they’re often due to outside situations, like conflict within close relationships.
Causes
Some of the potential causes of BPD include:
- Trauma: Many people with BPD have a history of childhood abuse, neglect, or instability.
- Family history: Having a close relative with BPD or another mental health condition can increase one’s risk of developing it.
- Brain chemistry: Some studies suggest changes in areas of the brain involved in emotion and impulse control.
When more than one of these factors is present, the risk of BPD goes up.
Signs and Symptoms
Some common signs and symptoms of BPD include:
- Intense fear of rejection or abandonment
- Sudden mood changes, usually triggered by seemingly small events
- Unstable relationships marked by extreme closeness or conflict
- Ongoing feelings of emptiness
- Dissociation, or feeling unconnected to their bodies or to reality
- Aggression
- Paranoia or delusions
- Emotional outbursts
- Impulsive behavior, like substance use, reckless driving, etc.
- Self-harm and suicidal thoughts or attempts
Treatment
Treatment for BPD looks different depending on the person, but typically involves a combination of:
- Therapy: Dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) is one of the most effective therapeutic approaches in the treatment of BPD. It focuses on four key areas, which are mindfulness, distress tolerance, emotion regulation, and interpersonal effectiveness.
- Medication: There are no standard medications for BPD, but clinicians may prescribe mood stabilizers, antipsychotics, or antidepressants to help with mood swings.
Bipolar Disorder vs Borderline Personality Disorder
It’s important to understand the difference between bipolar disorder and borderline personality disorder. Though both conditions involve emotional instability and impulsive behavior, there are key differences:
- Diagnosis type: BPD is a personality disorder, whereas bipolar disorder is considered a mood disorder.
- Mood patterns: Bipolar disorder causes longer-lasting episodes of mania or depression, while BPD causes fast, intense emotional reactions that can quickly change.
- Relationship difficulties: While both conditions can affect relationships, BPD tends to involve more intense and unstable relational patterns.
- Treatment focus: Bipolar disorder treatment focuses on medication and therapy, while treating BPD usually relies on specialized therapies, like DBT.
- Triggers: Mood changes in those with BPD are usually caused by rejection or conflict within relationships, whereas they can be random for those with bipolar disorder.
- Sense of self: People with BPD often struggle with identity and self-image, which is less common in people with bipolar disorder.
When bipolar disorder is misdiagnosed as BPD, or vice versa, people can end up with the wrong treatment plan. For example, someone with bipolar disorder might go without the mood stabilizers they need, while a person with BPD may not receive the right kind of therapy to learn emotional regulation. That’s why it’s so important to get a thorough assessment from a mental health professional.
Receive Mental Health Support at Renewed Light
At Renewed Light, we understand how confusing it can be to sort through different mental health symptoms, especially when they overlap with multiple disorders. Our team specializes in the assessment and diagnosis of mental health conditions like BPD and bipolar disorder. Contact us today to see how the correct diagnosis and the right support system can lead to healing in your life, or that of a loved one.
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