Thoughts about autism and BPD

Hi everyone,

I came across a thread on here talking about autism (particularly female autism) and borderline personality disorder (BPD). I noticed a few posters felt very indignant that they had once been diagnosed with BPD and felt that, once they got their diagnosis of autism, this eclipsed their BPD diagnosis and made it defunct. They didn't seem to think that one could have both at the same time. They think I've got BPD; the diagnosis was confirmed after a crisis where I had to spend the night in A&E, but it had been talked about for a while prior to this. I have a theory about it; I'm not a psychologist or any sort of MH professional so I don't know if I'm right, but this is what I have come to think about my own life.

A lot of people think that BPD is caused by trauma in the early part of childhood. I would never say that I suffered trauma...it wouldn't be fair to those who actually have. But I feel I've been damaged by my Asperger's. It caused the adults around me to try and sweep my issues under the carpet (my mum reckoned she knew since that I had autism since the age of 18 months, and yet did nothing to try and help, even though she supposedly loves me. I was just allowed to go around suffering, with no one doing anything to support me). At school, other children constantly abused me, pretty much from the day I started school. I was rejected, isolated and excluded. I was physically hit, kicked, pushed etc on many occasions throughout my school career, but there were. When I was very young, I was at a birthday party (I used to spend birthday parties crying because I felt so frightened and alone, and like my parents had abandoned me there; I also felt abandoned every day when I was dropped at school from my first day at playgroup when I was 3) and a little girl from my class got frustrated with me, agressively snatched off the sticky label I was wearing with my name on it, and tore it up and threw it on the floor in front of me. When I told my mum about this, she said, "It's because (this little girl) wants to be your friend, and you don't play with her when she wants to play with you." I took this to mean: "It's your fault she went for you." There were quite a few other incidents like that. This is how I know that I've deserved the abuse I've had over the years.

When I got to secondary school, I was very overweight and ugly as well as a defective freak. To mock me, boys would make crude comments, shove me against walls or collect around me in big gangs. They would touch me when I didn't want to be touched, sometimes hit or kick me, I was once spat on, I was once hounded into a room and had food repeatedly thrown at me, and, on all of these occasions, I would scream and cry for them to stop. It feels like this happened all the time throughout my secondary school career, however, I never once school refused because for me, that was not an option. Sometimes when I close my eyes at night I still think about school and how hated I was for being less than what other children wanted. Even the kinder children were sharp and cold with me, When I try to talk to people about it, I get told to "move on." I feel invalidated, which apparently makes BPD symptoms worse. I ended up with an eating disorder, but because I was overweight when the restrictive eating started, my mum's friends would say things to me like, "You look amazing; a touch of anorexia never hurt anyone." They'd think they were joking or being complimentary but, as you can imagine, that sort of thing made the problem worse. Then my actual diagnosis happened which was a total nightmare and it was the "straw that broke the camel's back" - I knew I would hate myself forever and ever. Nobody ever acknowledged how much it hurt me.

I can't even begin to write everything that happened, and I'm too tired to try; I'm also kind of physically unwell today with this cold that's been going round. I know I deserved everything I got at school, but still, being different is painful. What I don't understand is why nobody agrees that it's potentially damaging. A friend of our family who is an autism specialist has told me that "growing up with autism is difficult, but it doesn't count as a proper trauma" - a) I never said it was and b) her saying that just felt like more invalidation. I've always struggled with my mental health but over the last year it has deteriorated significantly. I now can't get through a day without becoming very upset, or harming myself in some way. I lose control and have to resort to anti-psychotic medication to calm me down. Obviously being Aspie I find it hard to make relationships anyway, but the ones I have feel insecure and chaotic. I do not know what or who I am, apart from that it's bad. I have been told, and from what I have read believe, that I meet criteria for BPD. The actual term is problematic for some people, but I don't find it so: I found being labelled Asperger's far more humiliating. If Asperger's was a person, I'd love to hurt it. I am broken. I think it has caused my "BPD symptoms".

Does anyone else think this could be true? Not just for me, but for them?

Parents
  • I actually had to remind myself that I was reading your story and not mine, I've gone through almost the same life so I can and i will say i understand you and feel for you. My dad tried to get me diagnosed with autism at 4 years old but the person who came over had piercings and coloured hair so my grandmother kicked off with her saying she was unprofessional and that I was just a miss behaving spoiled child who was seeking attention... I was later diagnosed with bpd at 18. When I went to uni I was out casted and looked at differently but one person stood by me, my autistic friend, I'll her A, A understood me and the things I was feeling she went through alot herself. She would often tell me "your definitely autistic, I see alot of myself in you, you do alot things that are very characteristic." I would just tell her no I'm not I'm just emotionally unstable due to lack or validation and therefore struggled getting close to people... but after a while and her teaching me more about autism in females I started questioning everything in my life. I do believe that there is a very strong connection to bpd sufferes and autism and I think this should be looked into further and more people educated on both disorders.

    Thankyou for sharing 

Reply
  • I actually had to remind myself that I was reading your story and not mine, I've gone through almost the same life so I can and i will say i understand you and feel for you. My dad tried to get me diagnosed with autism at 4 years old but the person who came over had piercings and coloured hair so my grandmother kicked off with her saying she was unprofessional and that I was just a miss behaving spoiled child who was seeking attention... I was later diagnosed with bpd at 18. When I went to uni I was out casted and looked at differently but one person stood by me, my autistic friend, I'll her A, A understood me and the things I was feeling she went through alot herself. She would often tell me "your definitely autistic, I see alot of myself in you, you do alot things that are very characteristic." I would just tell her no I'm not I'm just emotionally unstable due to lack or validation and therefore struggled getting close to people... but after a while and her teaching me more about autism in females I started questioning everything in my life. I do believe that there is a very strong connection to bpd sufferes and autism and I think this should be looked into further and more people educated on both disorders.

    Thankyou for sharing 

Children
  • I wish I had that happen to me too, unfortunately in my case, I ended up being too emotionally laborious, and just as I pessimistically anticipated the one "friend" I had abandoned despite giving that scumbag money out of fear that they will abandon me to prevent my pessimistic expectation from happening, now that it did, and I realized that person is just a user, I am going to screenshot that person asking me for money, treating me like *** and abandoning me and I will send it to all of their friends because ableists deserve to be alone and miserable. I've been plotting this for months and unless they change, I will have no choice, but to their abusive/manipulative side to everyone. I haven't blackmailed them, I'm not that type of person, nor have I told them that I hated, but I do, so, so much. Now that my worst and most pessimistic prediction happened, I want that horrible person to feel how I'm feeling all alone, miserable, being only surrounded by a bunch of toxic people, because that's where I am! I wanna do it so bad, but I feel guilty just thinking of doing it. 

    I just never want to be treated like the way I've been treated most of my life, and because my family is so controlling, I can't even wear gender-affirming clothing because my family is so right-wing, and they've been using the state to control me for years by forcing me to live with 24/hr supervision for years knowing full well I hate authority and that I'm an anarchist. 

    I just hope everything will change for the better now that I'm living on campus and I will start going to therapy for my abuse. 

    I also have frequent and intense daydreams that sometimes last four hours upon hours a day. I know I have autism, as I was diagnosed with autism when I was three. The autism alone was so hard for me because of sensory issues, but then tack on all the abuse I endured, it's a miracle I'm still alive today, and I still pace in my rooms during these daydream episodes and stimm and it's when I'm happiest.