Borderline Personality Disorder.  This is a question about the name of the condition that I'm surprised not to have found answered here yet.  Sorry if it has been.

What exactly are they on the borderline of?

Is it schizophrenia?  Is it depression? 

Ok, one side of the border must be 'normal' (whatever normal is!)  But what's on the other side?

Sorry if this is so obvious, but to call it Borderline Personality Disorder there must be another side of the border, I'd just like to know what's on it.

Thanks if you can help.

Some professionals now would like to rename it "Emotional Regulation Dysfunction"... .or

something like that... .but I think the original theory is pretty good too.

I believe the term "borderline" is well suited as it refers to the person crossing back and forth, in and out of psychosis. That explains why they can appear perfectly normal a lot of the time. True with my exSO.

But when I first heard the term, and when most people think about how the word borderline is used in our language, they think that it is almost something. What is discussed on here is anything but almost a personality disorder.

Sounds like semantics. If acting totally irrational and disassociative is what psychosis is then mine is psychotic.

But, as Bill Clinton once said, it would depend on what your definition of "is" is.

Psychosis means to lose touch with reality... .and BPDs do that on a rather regular basis. They don't always take it to the level that psychosis does, but they CAN.

I guess this is a hot button for me. Disassociation from reality is not psychosis? Losing toch with reality is? Can someone please explain the difference between disassociation and losing touch? Or is psychotic just a word that people on here want to avoid?

Let's discuss disorder. There are so many that show these characteristics that it could be argued that it is a type of personality (albeit not an attractive type) that exists in humanity. Who's to say it's a disorder? There are all kinds of medical conditions pit there that effect quality of life that aren't refered to as disorders. Just part of the human condition.

OK. I get it. Loss of contact with reality is a good, understandable way to communicate the behavior that I experience with what I suspect is a person that has this personality type.

When they rage, cheat, lie, manipulate, (which causes deterioeration of normal social functioning) and do other things that will hurt THEM in the long run it is definately because they have lost contact with reality. So by defination, they are psychotic.

     "Psychosis is a state of reality perception--it is not a person.  You are not "a psychotic," however you can become psychotic.

If someone suffering from BPD loses touch with reality then they become psychotic. So the original question on this thread would have to be answered that they are on the border of psychosis.

I agree.

Samuell, you describe BPDs as having a state of "normal" behaviour & a state of "extreme behaviour".

These behaviour states are very obvious when you are living with a BPD and I very much agree that the term "borderline" sticks from this view... .

But over the years I came to learn that EXTERNAL behaviour is only the tip of the iceberg of the CONSTANT INTERNAL turmoil... .

and "normal" behaviour does not equal "normal" emotions... .

From this point of view BPD cannot be seen as "borderline" between two states, but as a permanent unstable state.

From Wikipedia on BPD

Borderline was the "junk pile" of symptoms that did not fit into diagnostic criteria of the time.  Narcissists (NPD) and Antisocial (ASPD) types typically do not have psychosis. Psychosis can be  hallucinations, delusions, mania, and catatonic symptoms. Disorders such as schizophrenia, dissociative disorders, and Bipolar type I.

The Diagnostic and Statistical Disorders of Mental Disorders (DSM-V) categorizes personality disorders is into three clusters.  Diagnostic criteria for Cluster A (odd-eccentric) personality disorders share some psychotic features.  BPD falls under Cluster B disorders along with NPD and ASPD.  All personality disorders have a neurotic features.

Although there is some debate amongst clinicians with the classification or what constitutes  a personality disorder, as it is hard to pigeonhole a plethora of traits into one sole category. For this reason, there is a broad spectrum of personality disordered behavior. The intensity or maladaptive behavior can range from highly to mildly impaired. Also, many of the traits can overlap.  For example, someone diagnosed with BPD can exhibit NPD traits as well.

There is nothing wrong with asking questions.    If people did not ask questions or seek to find an answer then no one would learn anything.

Is there anything specific that you are unsure about?

I really really hate that this is the best the PhDs have come up with.

Our lives are already hard enough to deal with our BPD family... .could they come up with another name for it?  Especially if we are to have any hope of talking with them about it. 

I don't like the word "Borderline" at all.   It already sounds too close to Bipolar Personality Disorder.

Maybe we can come up with a better name.  Please list your ideas below if you are game.

Mine is:  Super Sensitive Person  -  SSP 

"honey, you seem to fall in the spectrum of what they call a "super sensitive person"... .   maybe that wouldn't go over so well after all... . 

I thought Borderline was a fairly old clinical term used to describe a group of patients that didn't quite fit into neurotic or psychotic illness categories because they possessed quality of both.  They were borderline.  In my experience I thought that was pretty accurate, especially in regards to the psychotic.  Emotional regulation plays a big part, but it does get at the deeper warpness.

Some in the therapeutic community have pushed complex PTSD as an alternative where trauma might be involved to reduce the stigma, but the stigma is not really attached to the dx.  It is attached to the behaviors.  Change the name might only give small respite.  For many people a substance abuser and a bum/junkie are pretty much the same.