The Queen And King Of Personality Disorders- Cluster B

[_FallenAngel_]

Haven't we met before?- an amazing puzzle of Cluster B

♡♡♡ The Borderline & Narcissist Couple ♡♡♡ - A great read I found on net & thought could be a subject of interest to others & may want to share their thoughts.

As they say scratch a borderline & find a narcissist. Around one third of those with BPD also struggle with NPD. Individuals with this condition need near-constant affirmation, unique treatment and reinforcement of their own superiority. Part of narcissism is an inability to empathise with others. Sympathy is the ability to feel with or for another person, while empathy is the ability to put oneself in another person’s shoes and imagine life from their perspective. This is quite beyond the person with NPD. When you meet someone with NPD they may initially appear exceptionally confident, but this is a ruse. They will verbally inflate their own skills while minimising the contributions or abilities of others, but the truth is their arrogance is a mask for shatteringly low self-esteem. The narcissist is overly sensitive to any perceived slight and cannot bear with being directly or indirectly challenged by others as they are so desperately insecure. It’s easy to see how this could seriously aggravate the symptoms of interpersonal inadequacy that go with BPD. They can get together so well, there can be much acceptance but no peace. Borderline Outburts and Narcissistic Rage has many symptoms in common with narcissism. In fact, many psychiatrists believe BPD is the child disorder of NPD and hence the two disorders can overlap to large extent and can cause a lot of confusion in the diagnosis for the health professionals, spouses and partners of these people as they go from seemingly normal & ok and you start thinking well, maybe they aren’t a narc, maybe they were just having a bad day. As with anything in life, sometimes narcissism comes in shades of grey. In actual truth, the Narcissist is no match for the Borderline (rolling eyes). It doesn't matter how smart a narcissist is, someone with borderline is much more manipulative and keeps an upper hand & has the ability to turn narcissist's world upside-down to where a narcissist could lose his/her entire fortune, acquire a serious disease & literally become a shadow of his/her former self. Often in a relationship, the Narcissistic perfectionist believes; "If I'm feeling bad in a relationship, it must be MY fault." The Borderline believes; "If I feel bad in a relationship, it has to be YOUR fault."

[BlueGrass]

Very interesting read, Angel.

I'm wondering if maybe I haven't been diagnosed correctly, but then, so many disorders overlap and intermingle...makes life ....interesting, doesn't it?

[_FallenAngel_]

Getting diagnosed makes life little simple knowing you have it, now you can work getting rid of it 🙂

[BlueGrass]

Many years ago, I found a site , think it was called Anxiety Online. (run by Swinburne tafe). Through that, I realised that my depression was pretty much my reaction to anxiety, and vise versa, and knowing that, it has helped me to break some of the downward spiralling, but still a long way to go.

I've been diagnosed as depression, one gp reckons major (he's pushy for meds), but counsellor (I work well with) says a mix of anxiety and depression, not major depression.

However, I know there is something underlying that is the real issue, and counsellor is helping me. As much as anything, she's helping me deal with the obvious, which is getting me to a better place to uncover the hidden.

Once I find out what that is.......:D happy chappy (maybe) (oh I do love the smilies, or whatever they are called)

I tend to blame myself, I do have perfectionist traits...but...I'm screwed up hahahaha

I don't know if this ramble belongs here, not used to this site yet

[james1]

Hello FallenAngel,

Thanks for posting that. I think it raises an interesting point about the purpose of these blog type posts about mental disorders.

I generally don't like them because I find they often purport to be factual, or at least giving insight of some sort, but they dehumanise the people.

For example, by using words like, "the Borderline" or "the Narcissist", they treat people suffering from BPD and NPD as the diagnosis rather than the person. BPD and NPD are just collections of many criteria and if you satisfy enough of them, in any combination, you can be diagnosed.

This just means that if you take one "the Borderline #1" and another "the Borderline #2", they could have wildly different symptoms.

But even if we just treat them as generalisations which are largely true of a majority of people diagnosed with BPD or NPD, I don't understand what the blog is trying to do. It's explanatory without being specific to people, or to treatments or coping mechanisms.

Anyway, I just find them to be quite dehumanising and not very useful. I mean, we never refer to people suffering from depression as, "the Depressed". Happy to see what others think though - perhaps I'm just missing the point of them!

Thanks for the post.

James

[BlueGrass]

Hi James

I didn't see what you saw at all. I found it to be interesting, enlightening even. I don't see anything wrong with objectivity at all, actually, it is easier sometimes to step back and "observe" than always be subjective, "inside of the situation" all the time.

I also took Angels comments to be his opinions rather than quoting facts.

Have I, in turn, missed something here?

[james1]

Hi BlueGrass,

Fair enough.

I thought the comments were the blog's, not FallenAngel so I'm sorry if that's confusing.

I think objectivity is useful too, I'm just wary of making generalisations about mental disorders.

I'm glad you found it enlightening.

James