How Important is an Official Diagnosis

[mamamonkey5]

Hi,

Can any one give me any insight as to the importance of seeking an official diagnosis for my daughter? Are there reasons to do so? I mean if counseling, and behavioral therapy, learning mindfulness etc, and studying and learning the tools here as parents are what we would seek, and do anyways... .is there and advantage to a diagnosis? Our daughter has been seeing a therapist and she is the one that brought up the BPD.

Thanks!

Our objective is to better understand the struggles our child faces and to learn the skills to improve our relationship and provide a supportive environment and also improve on our own emotional responses, attitudes and effectiveness as a family leaders

[lbjnltx]

Having a working knowledge of the struggles (traits of the disorder) that one struggles with helps guide therapy to the most affective model/issues.

Situations when having a formal diagnoses may be beneficial:

Seeking educational accommodations

Seeking inpatient treatment facilities

Seeking out new professionals that specialize

Seeking specific therapy models

Medication recommendations

Seeking disability benefits

Sharing information between treatment team members


These are some situations that my family has benefitted from having the formal diagnoses.  Others can probably add to the list.

lbjnltx

[AVR1962]

Was it your daughter or the therapist the one that suggested BPD? I could not tell by your post. If your daughter is willing to accept the diagnosis and is willing to receive treatment a diagnosis can be good. Then everyone can be on-board and work towards learning how to accept, understand and deal with the disorder.

If your daughter accepts at first and then stops therapy and believes this is not a fit for her, you can still learn how to deal with the behavior.

In my situation with my BPD daughter, now 34, who was diagnosed at 18, she accepted at first but then rejected the diagnosis. She found another counselor that told her that the first counselor had not had enough time to make the diagnosis and that the problem she was experiencing was me. In this type of situation there is very little we as parents can do but learn how to support, validate, understand and show them we love them without totally being swallowed up in their world. BPs are very needy people and many have a distorted reality where they are the victim. When they place themselves as the victim and hold someone else accountable for their abuse they many times do not take the responsibility of their own actions and that can be very hard to deal with specially if you are on the receiving end of their blame.

There is absolutely nothing you can do to change their reality and my counselors have told me that it is not wise to even try. However that does not mean that you apologize for their perception or false accusations towards you, if that makes sense.

[mamamonkey5]

The therapist is the one that suggested she might have BPD. She does seem open to accepting a diagnosis.

Could a diagnosis get in the way of her goals or plans down the road? Like what if she wants to go in the military, does this kind of stuff keep you out automatically?

[lbjnltx]

It could.

[bpdmom1]

It was really easy to get a diagnosis.  When we finally got my daughter into a psychiatrist, it was a quick bipolar 1 diagnosis and a prescription for lithium because of her extreme moods.  Then 6 months later she ended up in a behavioral hospital for a week and put on more meds.  It was here that they stated she has BPD traits, which I didn't know anything about.  I read up on it and decided that she might not be bipolar that borderline fits better.  Then a year after the hopsital visit she  ended up in an other hospital/RTC for a month and got diagnosed with unspecified bipolar, unspecified depression, unspecified anxiety, borderline traits, attachment issues and don't remember what else.  She is now in another RTC, which is also mentioning borderline traits.

I am most certain it is borderline but she won't get that diagnosis until she is a legal adult, until then I'm just using the bipolar.

Yes, I think it is helpful to have a diagnosis.  I'm not sure it matters if it is borderline or bipolar or unspecified mood disorder.