Hmmmm, yes, I understand. This would be something of a sticky wicket, though, as this practice would be admitting that people are being misdiagnosed intentionally. I really don't think we're going to find much in the professional literature to officially verify that, lol. It used to bother me a great deal until I had enough friends in the profession explain to me that diagnosing a person bipolar rather than BPD was in the highest interests of the patient because they could then get therapy and needed meds whereas personality disorders did not qualify for insurance coverage.
While for obvious reasons, I cannot link a verifying source, I will say that this my "opinion" based on personal, in depth conversations I have had, usually in my own home with friends who hold/held these positions:
-- former Clinical Director of the public mental health facility in my community who now teaches at the university and supervises all the graduate clinical social workers doing internships in the field, friend of 30+ years, plus I had the extra special delight of being present at his son's birth as doula
-- a psychiatrist with a practice in a neighboring state that also teaches at a university, friend of 30+ years
-- oldest and dearest friend of 30+ years who is a psychologist in private practice in the state of Oregon. Her practice specializes in borderline personality disorder
-- friend's husband who is director of outpatient treatment center for mental health services, also supervises program for community job placement of patients with severe personality disorders and mental illnesses
-- younger friend and former fiancee of my son's who was clinical social worker at inpatient facility for adolescent girls with, you guessed it, borderline personality disorders, lol (now director of adult autism program)
-- younger friend (mid 30s) who was psychiatric social worker and RN in hospital unit treating mostly >>>>>>drum roll<<<<<< BPD when I first met her, moved to my state to direct clinical inpatient day school therapy program for children with mental illness/personality disorders and is now entering her final semester to become a certified psychiatric nurse practitioner and currently diagnoses and prescribes for patients with mental illness/personality disorders through her internship at local psychiatric hospital
Geee, I realize this looks like I am deeply enmeshed in this stuff, huh? But it's worse than all that. I also have several CLOSE family members who benefit from professionals in these fields as they carry their own diagnoses for bipolar type I with schitzo-affective, borderline personality disorder, and narcissistic personality disorder with 4 hospitalizations, 3 involuntary and 1 voluntary, and a hospitalization for a severe post-partum psychosis involving harm to infant, whereupon I moved to care for my grand baby for her first year of life.
So most of this information comes from personal conversation with close friends in the field sitting at my dining room table or on the patio in fair weather, and they have ALL stated that this practice is common among professionals. But I don't think we'll be seeing that anywhere in print. Patients with these symptoms need their medical care, as does society at large need them to have it, whether it is for mental illness OR personality disorder. What should it really matter if the behaviors and risks to themselves and others shake out to be the same either way?
On a positive note, yay! I've been told by my soon-to-be psychiatric nurse practitioner friend that PARENTAL ALIENATION is to be added to the new Diagnostic Symptom Manual and will therefore qualify for medical insurance coverage. That's something to celebrate!!!!!
(((Exhausted from typing and reliving memories)))))