Day 4:

Causes:

I will start by saying.... May the fourth be with you.

BPD is likely to be caused by a combination of factors:

*Genes from your parent/caregiver may make you more vulnerable to develop it.

*Research suggests that some people with BPD have a number of regions in the brain with abnormal structure and function.

*Events that happened in your past, such as your relationship with your family and your upbringing appear to play an important role in BPD. Unresolved fear, anger and distress from childhood can lead to a variety of distorted adult thinking patterns. You may have BPD because of one of these factors or a combination.

BPD is often misdiagnosed. It is often confused with Bipolar Disorder. However, with Bipolar, mood changes last weeks or even months but with BPD, mood changes are much shorter and are often within a day! oh joy!

Co-morbidity means that BPD often occurs with other illnesses. This also makes it hard to diagnose because symptoms can overlap with BPD symptoms. Other illnesses include major depression, which I have, anxiety disorders, substance abuse and eating disorders among others. I personally have depression - hence not being diagnosed earlier with BPD, OCD, panic attacks and anxiety disorder. I used to have the cleaning type of OCD but that has developed into obsessive compulsive thoughts and ruminations. These are repetitive and disturbing and often quite horrific. I also have PTSD ( Post traumatic stress disorder) and something as simple as a noise can give me a flashback to a past traumatic event.

BPD is a serious mental illness and it is well documented that mental illness and physical illness can be related. A lot of sufferers have back pain, migraines and fibromyalgia amongst other things.

Sorry this has been a long one..........tomorrow people.