Borderline and other personality disorders may be a
secondary diagnosis describing the underlying characterological functioning of
a patient who exhibits more acute and prominent symptoms of a state disorder. Several studies show a high
prevalence of BPD in patients with Dissociative Identity Disorder may be
even as high as 82%! Dissociation is a common experience for
people with borderline personality disorder (BPD).
Do you sometimes
feel as if you have "zoned out?"
Do you have times
when you feel "unreal" or when things around you look strange or
unfamiliar? Do you sometimes lose periods of time or
have chunks of the day that you do not remember? Do
these experiences usually happen when you are under a lot of stress? These are all forms of dissociation which can range from mild
and transitory to severe and chronic.
While dissociation is also a symptom of
borderline personality disorder, usually the dissociation seen in BPD does not
happen as frequently or as severely as in DID (i.e. other personalities do not
emerge). Someone with the symptoms of
DID and BPD may receive a diagnosis of both disorders. You may also be similar to me- My primary diagnosis is DID, but one of my alter personalities
has BPD, so BPD is my secondary diagnosis.
How is this possible? In people
diagnosed with DID, individual alters may harbor knowledge, talents, or
illnesses otherwise unknown to the original personality or other alters as well
as different memories. In the case of
Sybil, one of her alters knew how to play the piano while the others could
not. In another case I read about in a
book called ‘Am I a Good Girl Yet?’ One
of the author’s alters had significant visual impairment requiring glasses and
the others did not. One of my alters
only speaks the Indonesian language.
