Female Aspies= Borderline personality disorder??

Post Reply New Topic

By talking to other people with Aspergers I have realized that most of the girls who are diagnosed later in life are first diagnosed with Borderline personality disorder, including myself. Personally the only thing I could think of that would lead to that diagnosis would be my meltdowns that tended to look like a major mood swing. Any other experiences with being misdiagnosed with borderline and your thoughts on it?

Nope. I just got slapped with the usual anxiety and depression.

I was originally diagnosed with depression/anxiety at age 10. They started me on every med in the book. I was thrown on pills like Lithium (which made me go insane and i wound up being hospitalized). I was finally diagnosed properly at 17 and have not received any sort of help with Aspergers. The only medication that has helped me is Adderall. It makes me wonder how many other girls are actually misdiagnosed...

Medical science and practice are not designed to take girls and women seriously. Read The Mismeasure of Woman, by Carol Tavris. The part about testing breast cancer treatment was an eye-opener. The mental health field is at least as bad, if not worse. I wish I could remember the titles and authors for the best two books I ever read about that. The history of it, though, is pretty horrific. It's been bad for everybody, but mental health institutions, for example, ended up being where independently minded women were put when they weren't being burned alive anymore. Far too much of it is about sociopolitical control, and far too little is about actually trying to help anyone. And that's before you even get to the mistakes made by well-meaning professionals.

I don't mean to belittle the experiences of men, which have also been terrible. But the historical pattern has been that, even before someone was considered a non-person for having a physical or mental health issue, a woman was not considered a person to begin with.

If you search the archives there are various threads on the subject.

Apparently, certain ASD behavior can be misinterpreted as "manipulative." Also, lots of social failures might make someone frantic when a relationship is falling apart (especially if they don't know why).

Oh and also, I've heard that self-injurious behavior (cutting, picking, burning, etc.) and being female can 'automatically' result in a "borderline" diagnosis, due to stereotypes that exist in the psych world.

Personality disorders are much more common than ASD, so the pros tend to think about PDs as explanations first.

If a psych has the preconceived notion of diagnosing personality disorders, then it seems that an autistic person could get diagnosed with various personality disorders, not just borderline, depending on which autistic traits are emphasized as indicative of that personality disorder, while other autistic traits are de-emphasized because they don't fit that personality disorder.

I was first diagnosed with generalized anxiety disorder. No one ever mentioned personality disorder.

I was only diagnosed with depression and anxiety as a teenager, though I know they were trying to find something else. As soon as I mentioned it in my 20s though, not one doctor has since doubted it. (I am not an Aspie, but still not diagnosed until adulthood).

http://www.tonyattwood.com.au/index.php ... Itemid=192

More from Tony Attwood's site...

http://www.tonyattwood.com.au/index.php ... Itemid=720

I did have a guy who is a psych student tell me that my tendency to imitate others to learn social behaviors was a sign of BPD and not autism.

I don't talk to that guy anymore, though, because he actually is a complete arsehat.