Hi there SlyQQ
I was of the understanding the dsm makes some
reference to improvements with age for BPD
but was wondering if this had been adjusted for the
fact the highly impulsive would already be dead
from suicide drug overdose car crashes etc once a certain
age was reched an thus skew studies?
I understand your point here. If studies would only look at the people with BPD that had actually reached a certain age without taking into account the ones that didn't, this would influence the validity or generalizability of the research results. It is indeed important to consider if the research sample is truly representative of the entire population of people with BPD.
I was hoping someone might throw their hat in the ring as to
what symptoms appear to get better with age
the obvious one is of course impulsivity
I'm gonna talk from my personal experiences here. I am 33 now and as my uBPD mom ages (over 70 now), I have seen periods of calm but beneath the surface the 'old' her was still always there. Five years ago was one of the worst years I experienced with her and I was very surprised because I thought she was mellowing down but boy was I wrong The problem in my family situation was my uBPD older sister who is a major source of stress for my mother. This however doesn't keep my mother from seeing her as the all-good child and always portraying my sister as the 'victim'.
My mother is much calmer when my sister isn't around. I would say my mother's preferred state is that of a 'Waif', whereas my sister's preferred state is more that of a 'Queen'. With both of them, the 'Witch' is just around the corner and when the two of them are together, they really reinforce each other's bad behavior.
There were times that I really thought my mother had mellowed down, but analyzing things now it's more that her behavior changed somewhat without actually getting better. As I got older and more independent, she changed her tactics. Problem with both my mom and sis is that they do not in any way acknowledge that there's something wrong with them and therefor don't seek help. Even when my mother was shortly being treated by a psychiatrist, she portrayed herself as the victim without acknowledging how totally dysfunctional her behavior is.
If there aren't any stressors around, I would definitely say that now that my mother is getting older her normal state is somewhat calmer. However, when there are stressors around, the old her immediately resurfaces. And since my uBPD sis is around a lot at my mother's place and calls her nearly every day complaining about 'how mean she's treated at each and every job she has ever had', there unfortunately are always a lot of stressors around.
