Shelley---I have repeatedly stated that I don't believe the primary diagnosis for JA is a Narcissist although it is a personality disorder and they often overlap or "bleed" into eachother periodically. And of course, Shelley...Narcissists believe they are winning but they're not my type of people to be around; unless you like swimming with the sharks!
My post was just to simply explain a recent study that I read about how Narcissists really believe they are superior and entitled and the Narcissist does not feel there is any need for a cover-up for low self-esteem. Anywhoo......I believe JA has Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) with comorbidity/overlap.....which is also in the same Cluster B, Axis II.
With all Personality Disorders, there will be overlaps so in other words, some symptoms of others will be symptomatic (for example: Histrionic Personality Disorder, Anti-Social Personality Disorder, Narcissistic Personality Disorder, etc.). They are like a salad mix at times.
Either I'm not fully understanding what you're getting at or I disagree or it's not complete or I may just be out of my ****ing mind. lol (sarcastic humor
)
When it comes to mental illness many symptoms can overlap..ie.. suicidal gestures/ideation could be related to bpd or major depression and/or several other disorders. When it comes to common traits/symptoms, whether for a mood disorder or personality disorder, the context in which the symptom/trait manifests itself has to be looked at. I'll use bpd as an example (I'm not saying that she has it).. Let's say a person has intense anger/rage, and suicidal ideation it may mean something or it may mean nothing when it comes to a personality disorder (or whatever other disorder). What has to be looked at is the context in which it's presenting itself. In terms of bpd the question that would need to be asked is does the person have a
history of instability in interpersonal relationships? If the answer is no then you'd look at other disorders whether it be mood or personality. A person with bpd is going to have a
history of unstable pattern of interacting with others, a person with hpd is going to have a
history of attention seeking behavior or having to be the center of attention, a person with npd is going to have a
history of grandiosity or need for admiration and a person with aspd is going to have a
history of disregard for others. These are the insecurities that these personality disorders are based around, with the possible exception of aspd, and history is the keyword. I have bpd, and if I become friends with someone at some point my insecurities are going to kick in and that friendship will be no more. What that means is my insecurity will lead to arguments, neediness, clingyness and they will become overwhelmed and eventually tell me to **** off. This is not a one time occurrence this is unfortunately a long long history with me going back as far as jr high.. **Now for a rant**.....It is incredibly frustrating for me when I see posts (not so much here.. most of you have been very kind) that blatantly say were evil or take joy in this or that it doesn't bother us. That could not be further from the truth with the majority of us. Do you think I enjoy losing a friend? We experience pain and frustration too.. It's just from a different perspective. We hate the fact that we emotionally hurt someone that we liked/loved, we hate ourselves, and we hate the intensity of the emotional turmoil that we are experiencing internally which is the key component of bpd. **end of rant** It's likely that my traits may overlap with some of the other pd's, but I'm bpd.. My problem is a persistent pattern of unstable relationships. I respect peoples rights, I don't need to be the center of attention and I don't need unrealistic admiration. I'm not saying it's not possible to be co-morbid, because it is, however the whole history of the person has to be looked at to determine that.
Most, if not all, pd's are going to use manipulation to some extent. With the help of dbt I've become pretty good at spotting mine and I'm able to make sure my motives are sincere. I do believe improvements, with the right kind of therapy, can be made to interpersonal relationships. I have not mastered that, but there's reasons for that and that's a whole other story.
The point in me writing this and being open is that I want people to be aware of what it really means to have bpd and we're not these evil little aliens.
