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My wife, whom I'm separated from at the moment, recently switched psychiatrists and she is certain that my wife is a severe BPD with minor schizophrenia. I think I already know the answers but can she still have any success with BPD and get any better? Or are things just gonna get more difficult for her?

This news has just killed me, I can't imagine what it's doing to her and her family.

Hi Mase11


I'm really saddened to hear about your wife's recent diagnosis.  I would imagine you're experiencing a lot of different thoughts and feelings right about now.  Have you had a chance to discuss this more in depth with your wife's psychiatrist?  Is your wife taking medication?

What are the more pervasive behaviors she's exhibiting?

How are you doing today, Mase?

I haven't spoken to her psychiatrist yet. She is now on medication but I'm sure what kind and how much. She's supposed to continue to increase the dosage until she feels tired during the day, then take a step back. She's still adding to it.

She called this moring and last night she was hearing voices, she thought someone was in her condo. She had nightmares and woke up screaming. These symptoms of hearing voices has gone on daily this year and off and on for two years. She was too embarassed and scared to tell anyone and it's worse when she's by herself. Now that I think back, she never liked being alone, especially for the night.

I don't know much about schizofrenia except what it can eventually become, something that takes over your life. I realize that this is probably not the case most of the time but with severe boderline I'm not sure how it would be manageable.

She's doing ok for now, so she says. I couldn't imagine what that must be like, and once again I just want to help her. I really feel her pain more now than when we thought we were dealing with just BPD. I never thought I'd ever say this but I wish it was only BPD we were still dealing with. It'll be a painful 2014 because I know what I have to do, but I'm not exactly sure how a severe pwBPD and schizofrenia will be able to handle it.

Mase11

I'm so sorry for the diagnostic. As my husband had a lot of hallucinations I was worried about schizophrenia as well and still I'm not sure if he has it very mild or not but I'm sure his BPD is very sever. I don't know about schizophrenia that much but I've been told schizophrenia is much more manageable with the right medications and therapy but his severe BPD is a bigger issue. Does she self harm too?

Hi Mase11,

it was certainly a shock to receive this diagnosis  . But then there is at least now a diagnosis and focused targeted treatment. Both BPD and Schizophrenia are to some degree treatable. She may suffer severe symptoms right now but this is early in the treatment and it is not clear how persistent some symptoms are. At least for BPD when you look at the board it often seems that the severity of the symptoms are more correlated to the lack of boundaries and how invalidating the environment has become (usually caused by the pwBPD getting everyone around upset). Also keep in mind that BPD is a fairly confusing illness and getting a stable diagnose of it and differentiating another illness on top is going to be challenging. She has an initial diagnosis now and her having these labels attached helps getting treatment started. It is easy to get hung up with these labels. Whether these labels will stick in the long run probably nobody can say with certainty.

Wish you a peaceful    in this difficult year,

a0

She tried to commit suicide in August (12th attempt - 100 prescription pills right before bed) and sliced her wrists in October to relieve pain. She has struggled with self harm her entire life.

How is the relationship been since your husband has been diagnosed? I know once the medication kicks in then short term things should get better.

She has stuck with DBT since August, just a refresher as she went through the program in 2006 or 2007. She's doing very well with the borderline, I think. This diagnosis scares both of us especially with the voices and nightmares.