Alcohol and BPD

[confusedinWI]

How much does drinking affect someone with BPD? My ex girlfriend had anxiety, I know this because we both talked bout it. I used to take medicine for it, she did at least the two years I was dating. But I also see now she has a big drinking problem, and even at the end I would discover bottles of vodka hidden under her side of the bed.

She didn't really know how to cope, she had problems with her anxiety so she used drinking. I didn't really pick up on her BPD until the end of the relationship.

How much does drinking affect BPD?

[Irish Pride]

How much does drinking affect someone with BPD? My ex girlfriend had anxiety, I know this because we both talked bout it. I used to take medicine for it, she did at least the two years I was dating. But I also see now she has a big drinking problem, and even at the end I would discover bottles of vodka hidden under her side of the bed.

She didn't really know how to cope, she had problems with her anxiety so she used drinking. I didn't really pick up on her BPD until the end of the relationship.

How much does drinking affect BPD?

In my case, a shyteload. And, from what I've read, we're not alone. My ex is on some anti-depression/anxiety meds, plus klonopins for when she has her anxiety attacks. But when she drank, which was a LOT and often, it could become WWIII in a blink of an eye. The littlest things could set her off. It was one of the biggest arguments throughout our relationship. My arse puckered tighter than a frog's bottom whenever she drank. Gave ME anxiety when she did. Not to mention, her oldest son went to rehab for alcoholism and her father was an addict. During out 1st break up (of the several) she texted me to come over and not talk. Being a dum-dum, I went. She was loaded on Fireball whiskey, unbeknownst to me. She never drank hard liquor before, as far as I knew. Long story short, she got on top of me (not the way I wanted it) and pinned me down by my arms. The look and sheer anger/rage (her teeth were even bared) reminded me of a dog about to bite. No lie. I've never been so scared against another human, before. I don't know what would've happened if she did something to hurt me. On the flip side, she was much more sexual when drinking. Much more... .kinky. I know alcohol blocks the inhibitors in your brain, but she was night and day between sober-sexual and unsober-sexual.

[confusedinWI]

Oh man the arguments we had when she was drinking, she would amp up her verbal abuse towards me, she would go from happy to rageful in a split second. She broke things. The sad thing is she would at the end have some of those drinking episodes on the nights my children were over, and I would get so nervous would something set her off that she would yell at me about. She even once kicked me in the drinking arguing episode of course she didn't remember it the next day.

I'm not a big drinker myself, and I didn't really notice it until we moved in together. When I would go to her apartment when we lived apart she would have a drink but she made me a drink as well. I should've really seen the red flags because she's 32 now, when we first started dating she was 30 and she was honest with me and told me in her mid 20's she had two dui's. I was a little worried but more understanding because mistakes happen. She knew I'd check her name since I have kids. I was just happy that she was honest.

Plus I'm the son of a recovering alcoholic so I don't like to lose control. It just always hurt when she drank a lot around my kids because it made me feel like is it that stressful that you have to drink? I know it's a disease and it will affect her going forward as well.

Now that I'm starting to come out of the fog I see it all but still hurts because I did love this woman you know

[zundertowz]

Oh man the arguments we had when she was drinking, she would amp up her verbal abuse towards me, she would go from happy to rageful in a split second. She broke things. The sad thing is she would at the end have some of those drinking episodes on the nights my children were over, and I would get so nervous would something set her off that she would yell at me about. She even once kicked me in the drinking arguing episode of course she didn't remember it the next day.

I'm not a big drinker myself, and I didn't really notice it until we moved in together. When I would go to her apartment when we lived apart she would have a drink but she made me a drink as well. I should've really seen the red flags because she's 32 now, when we first started dating she was 30 and she was honest with me and told me in her mid 20's she had two dui's. I was a little worried but more understanding because mistakes happen. She knew I'd check her name since I have kids. I was just happy that she was honest.

Plus I'm the son of a recovering alcoholic so I don't like to lose control. It just always hurt when she drank a lot around my kids because it made me feel like is it that stressful that you have to drink? I know it's a disease and it will affect her going forward as well.

Now that I'm starting to come out of the fog I see it all but still hurts because I did love this woman you know

My first red flag was when she got drunk and had a tantrum like a 3 year old... .alcohol seemed to make the illness worse.  She was a daily pot smoker and that seemed to lower her anxiety alot... .I always wondered how bad she would be without pot.

[fromheeltoheal]

Any psychoactive chemical will change anyone's personality, temporarily, in fact one of the criteria for the diagnosis of a mental illness is that it is not caused temporarily by a substance; clean the substance out of the system first and then diagnose.

Sidebar: psychotic traits and behaviors can be caused by too much caffeine (been there!), and obviously they will go away if the speed freak stays out of Starbucks, as long as there isn't an underlying psychological issue.

Alcohol is the world's most popular anti-anxiety drug, and you've got it right, alcohol is the solution, not the problem, although it creates problems of its own.  How alcohol affects a person with a personality disorder is variable and random, unpredictable, except to say it won't help and will probably make the behaviors more extreme, since the core of the disorder is an inability to regulate emotions, and as we know alcohol certainly helps emotions become dysregulated.