AUTISM (ASD) VS BORDERLINE (BPD) VS COMPLEX-PTSD (CPTSD)?

This video describes similarities, differences and overlap between BPD Borderline Personality, CPTSD Complex PTSD and ASD Autism Spectrum Disorders.

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[kimbercoleman]

My friend always tells me to stop living in the past..I had a really hard time expressing the reality. I just heard something that I think will help me express it. "I am not living in the past, The past is living in me". I am so thankful for this paradigm shift.

[raven]

I really appreciate you telling people that if they suspect they might be ASD, to specifically see an autism specialist. I was misdiagnosed with BPD by a Dr who totally didn't care at all, resulting in 7 years on horrifying meds. I'm still affected by that. I self diagnosed ASD after much research at the age of 51, and then was confirmed by an autism specialist. I also have CPTSD, and found your comparisons of all these things very interesting. Thank you for talking about this.

[syntaxsoulbender]

Hi, autistic person here, and I have an interesting observation that me and many autistic people discuss within the community and I'd love to hear your opinion on this possible phenomenon.

Many teenage autistics (especially those late- or undiagnosed) go through a "phase" that often looks very similar to BPD. This typically happens especially if your parents either don't know you're autistic and therefore hold you to neurotypical standards or aren't very accommodating of you and don't take time to teach you valuable social skills.

When teenage years are upon you as an autistic person, you likely already have developed an insecure attachment style via issues with your parents, kids at school, etc. Studies have shown autistic kids are almost universally bullied.

We are also going through big hormonal changes (we hate change) that impact our feelings, emotions, etc. Everything is new, scary, overwhelming, and confusing. We have big emotions that we've never felt before, and we don't know how to express or process them in socially appropriate ways yet.

We develop crushes like anyone else and can sometimes come across as stalkerish because we make that person into a new special interest. Usually the people we like are some of the first people to show us any kindness. We become obsessive and catalog details about them.

Over time, we tend to grow out of this because we learn via specific examples and receiving lots of raw data. It takes time to collect the data and develop a system to generalize knowledge. As we get older, we often have healthier attachment styles.

As someone who was misdiagnosed as having BPD before my correct autism diagnosis, I often wonder if BPD is actually more closely related to autism than we may think.

After all, those with BPD share many things with autistics. Such as mood issues, systemizing, low empathy, higher rates of comorbid ADHD, social problems, paranoia, etc.

[jsishy]

My grandmother had bpd. My mother was a covert narcissist. My father was violent and emotionally immature. I was diagnosed with cptsd last year. I was that child that fell through the cracks. My mom would switch me to different therapists as soon as they got wise to what was going on. I am now a child and adolescent therapist and I love what I do.

[restlessmosaic]

You described the autism childhood experience - the repeated increase in trauma opportunities - perfectly. Thank you for that validation.

[Excitingnoise]

I missed out on a lot of very important, life changing help due to a misdiagnosis as BPD. We have since found out I am a severely traumatised autistic person. It has set me back years.

[mlr]

This is by far the most comprehensive and helpful video - perhaps the only video - I've seen address this overlap. It needs to be shared with clinicians in the field. Most of us are doing the work ourselves and bringing it to the attention of therapists lol.

[ixizn]

Looking forward to watching this as someone who’s been diagnosed with all of them. One of my favourite quotes related to this is from Autism On The Inside here on youtube who said something along the lines of “we embrace our autism, and we heal from our trauma” to separate the two. That’s really stayed with me.

I don’t meet the criteria for BPD anymore as I was fortunate to go through DBT at a pretty young age, but with BPD my feelings would be extremely intense 24/7 and I would seek a lot of external validation to (try to) help regulate my moods. With my CPTSD my intense emotions come from more specific triggers and I numb myself down and isolate way more to keep myself “safe”. Those are just my observations so far from life; I’m still trying to figure it all out.

Anyway, actually going to watch the video now lol! Thank you always for all that you share with us, it’s so appreciated 💕

[valdmertheii]

Thank you for this video, it clarifies disagreements I've had with my mother and why they came about. It came out recently that she always believed I was autistic and treated me as such throughout my childhood. I would avoid her and refuse to speak to share my emotions with her from an early age because of her suicidal threats and three times she actually attempted to kill herself and us when I was 7 and 9 by driving into oncoming traffic while screaming bloody murder (we only survived because I somehow managed to tear her hands off the wheel and swerve us away the first time, the second two she stopped herself in time). I also appeared obsessed with computers in preschool and kindergarten, but truthfully I felt it was the only way to connect with my dad who worked graveyard shifts and was asleep for most of the first years I knew him (he also liked to mess around with basic code on our floppy disk mac, what a throwback eh?).

When she found out I was reflecting on our past interactions in consideration of this new bit of news and had *gasp* feelings about it, she pulled a big family meeting at the dinner table (a lot like that scene in hereditary, which some might consider scary if you didn't grow up around a borderline) to yell at me for daring to feel bad about it, "oh how unfair you are to me, how cruel!"
Anyway it brought up a lot of other memories of other "family meetings" where she shouted at us for having any feelings she hadn't allowed for us to have.

Sorry for the long speal, it just felt good to get off my chest, and I felt right at being offended that her belief justified her talking down to me all these years in her eyes (it stings more that she was a social worker and later a special education teacher, yet still misunderstood it for her gain, whether it was intentional or no).

[Dancegeek]

Sensory issues happen in both autism and any type of PTSD.
I would also put sensory issues as an absolute top trait in ASD, even more that repetitive behaviors or social issues. The reason for that is that the sensory issues are a primary driver in the other behaviors.

In ASD, some brain areas are overdeveloped and others are underdeveloped. This causes the specialization of interests. And it actually causes visual and auditory information to become misaligned in processing. Slow processing of auditory speech reception and verbal speech production are common. When these things happen, it seriously interferes in the social experience. A person is just going to get frustrated and disconnect and fall farther behind socially as the developmental years pass. I'm sure there are other factors involved.

But sensory issues are just such a crucial part of the problem they can't really be left out.

Repetitive behaviors and sameness are more in more severe autism. But I wouldn't say those are crucial issues in all autistics. Some of the older descriptions are to blame for autistic girls being overlooked as they don't present the same way as the boys do.

Yeah, sensory issues are usually a top problem in all autistics. But they usually have differences in how their specific senses are affected.

[dancingnthedge]

I have cptsd and can certainly see the difference between me and my sister who has bpd

[covert_warrior]

It's not easy but I have found inner child work done closely with a trauma therapist has been a huge help. I still have a long way to go but not giving up. I fit in so many different categories.

[argent-wolfman]

Once any employer I have finds out about my ASD I'm abandoned and thrown away despite my merits and ability to work

[draganie]

I was raised by a narcissist father and my mother who enabled him, and once I got past the gaslighting and realized they were abusing me (at 30 years old, I'm ashamed to say) I was sure that all my issues were cptsd based. I worked hard to heal, but certain elements of my life still felt broken in incurable ways and I got very sick with burnout and chronic fatigue syndrome from a fried nervous system. I eventually managed to escape their house at 32 and was welcomed into an incredibly safe and loving environment away from them. I started healing and relaxing, and as I let my guard down to my surprise I actually started displaying neurodivergent behaviors! After some research I realized I probably had autism, and as I learned more about the spectrum my life suddenly locked into focus in a powerful way where everything made so much sense. My mental health is so, SO much better now, but I still have moments of doubt about my self diagnosis, since cptsd and autism overlap. Watching your video helped a lot and really reinforced my belief that I am autistic, and that I have some cptsd as well but that it's lessened over the last couple of years now that I'm safe. Thank you so much for making this video!

[joeminella]

I have been in the confusing junction of these three conditions seemingly forever. This video has given me a lot of helpful info. I will rewatch it for sure. Thank You.

[JenniferMeinel]

Great video! I think videos like this are very needed especially with how prevalent self-diagnosing all 3 of those are currently. There are so many nuances and overlaps that people really need to understand that if they think they have 1, 2, or all 3 of those, it really is in their best interest to seek out a professional to explore their symptoms. Most people only see lists of symptoms written out, but professionals who specialize in those 3, see it play out in countless people's lives.

[huagrapo]

I have ASD, yet when I'm in a highly stressful, high-conflict, relationship (in my case 2 NPD exes) it's as if my body is taken over by someone else and I start exhibiting very covert borderline traits the like of which I never do with anyone else. Then, once it's all over I'm looking back at it all as some kind of movie I watched, as opposed to something that actually happened to me. Totally stunned in disbelief that I acted the way I did.

[devianzaconiglia]

Thank you for making it more schematic. I'm Autistic with a complex Adhd and cptsd (and also chronic diseases). I can tell that my good eriod are related to the feeling of being able to provide to my personal needs, such as having a good job, enough money, a safe place to live. This is always my n1 check list. Of course I need love and friendship to live, but it's not something that I pick up as first need if you ask me roughly. In the past I couldn't understand how much friendship and an healthy community around was fondant for me, this happened basically because I never fitted in. Therapists had always diagnosed me as "artist". So I developed the idea that was just me not fitting anywhere and that my whole life was impossible to make pleasurable. Finally I've got diagnosed by a specialist in autism and my life is changing so much in better. I'm so grateful that many people are talking about it more and more, so many lives can be changed and so many hearts healed ❤️

[CSittig]

This is a fascinating comparison for someone who has been dealing with this tripple overlap for most of their lives.

[joycealdrich]

I have all three of these, so it's been very diffucult and confusing.