Reddit reviews Sometimes I Act Crazy: Living with Borderline Personality Disorder

I'm reading "Sometimes I Act Crazy" right now and thought this passage might give you some comfort:

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"Trapped in a maze of inconsistent images, the borderline is unable to form a constant, predictable sense of self and the world; unlike the healthy child, the borderline is unable to establish a healthy object constancy -- a reliable, comforting, internalized image of her world -- that she can use to soothe herself in time of stress. Instead, she needs the presence of others to reassure and comfort her."

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The passage also has an anecdote about a woman named Arleen (who has BPD) where she is quoted to say, "I feel I really couldn't be myself without another person to reflect on."

I Hate You, Don't Leave Me and Sometimes I Act Crazy are another couple of good books to read. Also, look for stuff by Marsha M. Linehan. She pioneered treating BPD with CBT/DBT. Might as well get info straight from the source.

I suggest reading "Sometimes, I act crazy".
http://www.amazon.ca/Sometimes-Act-Crazy-Borderline-Personality/dp/0471792144

Bipolar seems to me like it's more about the "what" and BPD is more about the "why". What I mean is that people with BPD might have mood swings and experience ups and downs, but the reasons why these things happen are completely different. While the symptoms can look so similar at first, if you have a good psych who's willing to look past the actions and moods themselves to see why they happen, he/she'll know how vastly different BPD and BP can be.

I get personally a bit irritated by the comparison, not because one is worst than the other, but because I think there would be far less dx confusion is more therapists and p-docs actually took the time. Do you know how long it took an ER nurse and a doc to stick me with that diagnosis (BPD) originally on top of my long-standing BP diagnosis? Barely 20 minutes. I call BS on that. I finally have a p-doc who was willing to listen and who reviewed my dx and struck BPD out of my record (as much as it's possible).