BPD vs CPTSD

I'm Kati Morton, a licensed therapist making Mental Health videos!
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[Meowziez]

I think of CPTSD as a multi-layered cake of trauma.

[torbs]

I don't think fear of abandonment should necessarily be considered a BPD-only symptom. Children who experience emotional abuse or emotional neglect can also develop C-PTSD, despite nothing obviously "traumatic" happening. Children who have experienced neglect often grow up to fear abandonment, because they internalize that their needs are too much for people, that they are not worthy of love because their caregivers did not properly care for them, etc.

I'd be curious to know how many people with BPD were neglected as children though. Many of the symptoms sound like pretty logical jumps for children who did not learn emotional regulation from their neglectful parents and had to go to extremes to get their parents' attention.

[hanellaaa.]

I can’t express how much I appreciate her saying “our” and “we”...

[Relmyna]

I have cptsd and I basically just want to be left alone. I don't actively seek out anything other than casual acquaintance relationships and my husband and I are essentially roommates.

[amandab]

I’ve self isolated for the past 3 months. Ignored friends. No therapist. Skipped assignments and class. I’ve been struggling with suicidal thoughts (not actions). I was always unsure whether I was cptsd or bpd. There’s so much stigma around the two illnesses I don’t tell anyone for fear they’ll google and find all the incorrect conjecture. Thanks Katie for sounding so forgiving and accepting. This video made me feel less alone. I wish you were my therapist!

[starrystarrynight]

This is really interesting. My ex-husband was diagnosed with BPD, but that was more than 20 years ago. But this is making me wonder if he had CPTSD instead. He had all the symptoms, and it doesn't line up BPD all they way. He had a drug and alcohol problem. He had a fear of abandonment. He also had a traumatic childhood. But sadly in the end he took his own life, almost 7 years ago this month. I wonder if he had been diagnosed with CPTSD instead, if he would have gotten the help he needed.

[zonderbaar]

The overlap between CPTSD and BPD is so huge that I am quite sure they are the same thing. They do have a different history goal coming from different schools of thought and teaching in psychotherapy. The Borderline diagnosis stems from a time where there was not much understanding for trauma. In later studies it was found out that over 85% of borderline diagnosed patients remember severe multiple or ongoing childhood traumas. Also we know that a very deep trauma can be completely removed from conscious memory and surface only much later in life.

[Kaizykat]

It took me 19 years to come upon C-PSTD. I've been in therapy since I was 6. It took opening up to new friends who didn't know me as a kid to make me realize a lot of what I went through as a kid was NOT okay.

For example, they had to tell me that it was NOT normal to run and hide from your parents when they were angry. Or that it was NOT okay for my father to get into a full on fist fight with me when I was less than 10 because he was angry with me.

They also had to put the fact that a child psychologist told my parents to say that if I was bad I would be put into an institution and that I would never see them again. The psych also told me this directly at 6-years-old.

My "formal" diagnosis (after taking a 200+ question test with a psychologist) is as follows: Generalized Anxiety Disorder, Major Depressive Disorder, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, Avoidant Personality Disorder with Borderline features, and Dependent Personality Disorder with Borderline features.

I can tell you right off the bat that I have neither APD nor DPD. The diagnosis doesn't fit. I don't have problems with things like making decisions for myself and avoiding social interactions.

No one wanted to tag me with BPD because of its stigma and that I'm a "nice girl". Meaning that I'm not hellish to work with like a "typical" Borderline patient (which is bull). So symptoms that I've had for years had gone unaddressed.

I really wish that C-PTSD would have been incorporated into the DSM-V. It'd make it so much easier to get some kind of help.

And if anyone else has had the same problems I've had: I'm sorry. You did NOT deserve what you've been through.

[crystalblue]

I have C-PTSD from my abusive childhood. It has wreaked absolute havoc over my entire life. Everyday I want to rip my damaged brain out of my skull & hurl it out the window.

[ketsuban]

LOL all my therapists can't tell if it's BPD or CPTSD they are so similar.

[ladysovere]

I have both CPTSD and BPD, I have found family systems therapy, sensorimotor therapy, and attachment theory focused approaches incredibly helpful. Symptoms have decreased, and I’m able to experience a sense of boundary of my self and what it is to be a human being.

[jakesmitham]

I came out of a coma, with no memory, and went through years of misdiagnosis. There was depression, bi-polar disorder, BPD, there was just no help. And bit by bit I built up a partial personal history through many severe flashbacks. I learned that I had gone through sexual torture and rape, from birth on, then sexual and ritual abuse by 4 different adults. Nothing helped until I was diagnosed with C-PTSD. I am now working one couple of books, one a work of fiction based on my experiences, the other dealing with C-PTSD, its causes and symptoms, as well as tips to work through these. I never had a normal 'self, ' but am finally coming to a sense of normalcy.

[Shy__wolf]

I hate having bpd. I find I can't get the help I need because I have bpd. I also find there's just as much stigma surrounding bpd within mental health professionals as there is with your average jo

[boring_cringename]

I never felt as good described as you did in the first two minutes. Some sentences felt like a bullet, directly hitting my heart, although I’m totally not used to people(but my mother, here in a negative way) being able to hit my feelings or even understand. So thanks for making me feel more comfortable with the feelings I have.
I will go cry now because it’s goth.

[CoyowolfFoxCoywolfFox]

I have CPTSD and I always found it weird that I attract so many BPD people in my life, but it makes a lot of sense. The biggest thing I’ve noticed is that if trauma is involved, they’re usually a lot younger and it’s sort of an emotional neglect situation and mine were more circumstantial

[tetrahexaeder]

I got a diagnosis of BPD 5 years ago while being in a DBT program. It sure helped and at the same time it was damaging to my self-perception.
I constantly had the subliminal feeling that I was put in a box that didn't fit me.
I am not a violent person that lashes out at others and I am not manipulative through self-destructive or suicidal actions. I never threatened anyone with ending a relationship. But therapists treated my like that. Whenever I discussed a negative relationship with them they tried to find my wrong perception about other people (a.k.a. splitting) and told me that my reactions were over the top to what horrible friends or partners did to me.
I've already been completly unsure about my self-worth and felt like no one cares for me or stand by me, and on top of that I was painted as the bad person.
I feel like a horrible, evil person since then even more than before the clinic. I guess the BPD diagnosis reduced my self-worth even more and my traumas weren't even considered as an explanation for my behaviour then. I couldn't trust my own perception for four years! Whenever I thought about someone negatively (for a perfectly reasonable reason) I was afraid that I was 'splitting' on them.

I'm glad that I found a therapist that works with me on the traumas and changed the BPD diagnosis into a CPTSD diagnosis instead.. feels much more fitting and helpful to me.

[pishwa]

Thank you for this!! I recently got diagnosed with BPD by a psychiatrist who believes that and CPTSD are the same thing and this helps cement for me that it was the wrong diagnosis, I’m definitely going to be seeking a different mental health professional.

[legendofayda]

I love your videos relating to BPD. Your channel is what lead me to firmly feel like I had BPD. I sought out help and I’ve been doing sessions with a psychiatrist since then and she diagnosed me. Thank you so much!

[Lillie-mae.Edwards]

I asked this on twitter too! Thank you as always Kati. I have CPTSD as you know. I still love my family despite everything. This was so helpful. I’ve never been diagnosed with a personality disorder but seen people been diagnosed with one or the other despite having recurrent trauma. Forever showing people on my course these videos. Future paramedics of the U.K. are well informed with mental health. ♥️

[DShinesforhim]

Thanks so much for doing this. Spouse has BPD, and I learned that I have C-PTSD from watching these kinds of videos. Both of us are in therapy, and this info is so helpful.. it's saving our marriage. So grateful for what you do! TY!