BPD "Trying on" different personalities

[healinggirl]

I have a sister who I believe has BPD.  She has lived in the US her entire life.

She has had a lot of "crazy" behavior such as outbursts and warped perceptions, but nothing truly disturbing.

Until last week.  I received a two minute message from her where she was speaking in a British accent.  Not a hint of an accent that might indicate she'd spent a lot of time there recently.  A full on British accent.

The message was clearly meant for me and obviously my sister knows that I know she's American.

It creeped me out.

Has anyone experienced or heard of something like this happening?

[WhippingGirl]

I have never specifically heard of this, although I just began on this journey so I am certain I have a lot more to learn.  I have read, however, that the BPD is sometimes referred to as a "chameleon" in that they are prone to exhibiting the behaviors and tendencies of those around them?  Perhaps this is an example of that; albeit an extreme one?  Is there a chance that maybe your sister has more than one diagnoses that could attribute to this? I completely understand how this could freak you out!

[healinggirl]

I did some research on the Internet and evidently taking on an accent is something BPD's have been known to do as part of that "chameleon" behavior, especially if they are involved with someone who has that accent.

Before I knew about BPD, I noticed the chameleon behavior in my sister.  She changed her political beliefs, career aspirations, etc. because of people she was around.  Now there is an explanation for the behavior.

[Meadowslark]

My sister would do this, but not with accents. She did this with "cliques", as it were. Like in high school, how there would be different groups of people - the goths, the punks, the jocks, etc. She would cycle through these stereotypes on a fairly predictable schedule (and this started before high school and continues to today. She's 25 now.)

She used to be obsessed with Japanese things and was learning the language and would dress and act like the Japanese rock stars of X era, and would speak bits and pieces of Japanese. Now she switched to German (and dresses like German punk models, I guess. She showed me pictures and she purposefully mimics a few of them in particular, down to the hair color and style) and tried to speak German at us. She would get enraged that none of us knew any German. A friend of mine describes her current look as "street urchin chic" - dresses purposefully like she's homeless but demands the "finer" things in life, like expensive furniture and food.

They're bizarre people. I'm sorry you had to deal with the creepy random-accent-acquisition. That's difficult to deal with!