Hi, I'm new to the forum and could do with some advice.
I already have a diagnosis of Borderline Personality Disorder and dyslexia but have always thought that some of my symptoms just don't fit with my BPD diagnosis. My handwriting is awful, I will start off relatively ok and then after a couple of mins it is unreadable, this combined with dyslexia when I was studying made marking my work quite a challenge for teachers and tutors. I don't actually consider myself to have a writing style as it changes every time I pick up a pen. I also get really bad pains in my hand and start to cramp up after writing for about 15 mins and can't hold a pen in the same way for too long.
I am very clumsy and drop things a lot, go off balance and have the running joke of "I tripped over my trousers". I can never walk straight and if I concentrate on walking in a perfect straight line I loose my balance.
I also have no volume control and my partner often has to tell me to be quite when I am yelling in the supermarket. I don't even realise I am doing it at the time.
On the mental health front I get confused and forget things all the time. I completely misinterpret people's body language and don't notice when I am talking about something and everyone has stopped listening ages ago. I find it really hard to put myself in other people's shoes and am often confused when someone says I have upset them because I don't know why. These are things that are not symptoms of BPD which is why I have mentioned them.
For quite a while now my partner and I have been convinced that something more is going on. My partner things I might have Aspergers but I think it might be Dyspraxia. If anyone could give me some advice on what to do it would be appreciated. I have just started doing DBT for the BPD and I am worried that the other problems I have could interfere with achieving my goals in therapy.
Thanks in advance.
BPD and posible dyspraxia
Moderator: Moderator Team
Re: BPD and posible dyspraxia
The kinds of coordination problems you describe make it seem as if you could definitely have dyspraxia. I'm wondering what makes your partner think you have asperger syndrome?! Is it because of social/communication issues? If it is, that doesn't necessarily mean you have asperger syndrome, as having dyspraxia or ADHD can also cause these kinds of issues. People have in the past suggested that I might have asperger syndrome, but I doubt that I have it because I am pretty good at reading facial expressions- there's a good test for this in the back of Simon Baron Cohen's book The Essential Difference. You might also find some facial expression tests online.
I don't know if you know this, but ADHD often exists alongside dyslexia or dyspraxia- several of the things you've said make me wonder if you have this. Talking too loudly is a very common symptom of ADHD, and people with ADHD often have problems being aware of other people's body language (they become so absorbed in what they want to say that they don't realise when other people have lost interest). I was reading about borderline personality disorder and some of the main symptoms also made me think of ADHD, as it's very common for people with ADHD to have unpredictable or uncontrollable emotions. I'm currently reading a book called More Attention, Less Deficit by Ari Tuckman, which has been an eye opener for me. I am fairly sure that I have the inattentive subtype of ADHD (you might be interested to know there are a few subtypes, not all of them involving hyperactivity). I was officially diagnosed by a psychologist as having dyspraxia but I believe that, based on my results in the assessment, I could also have been diagnosed with attention deficit disorder.
I don't know if you know this, but ADHD often exists alongside dyslexia or dyspraxia- several of the things you've said make me wonder if you have this. Talking too loudly is a very common symptom of ADHD, and people with ADHD often have problems being aware of other people's body language (they become so absorbed in what they want to say that they don't realise when other people have lost interest). I was reading about borderline personality disorder and some of the main symptoms also made me think of ADHD, as it's very common for people with ADHD to have unpredictable or uncontrollable emotions. I'm currently reading a book called More Attention, Less Deficit by Ari Tuckman, which has been an eye opener for me. I am fairly sure that I have the inattentive subtype of ADHD (you might be interested to know there are a few subtypes, not all of them involving hyperactivity). I was officially diagnosed by a psychologist as having dyspraxia but I believe that, based on my results in the assessment, I could also have been diagnosed with attention deficit disorder.
Re: BPD and posible dyspraxia
I think that the dignosis is not correct - what your describing is more dyspraxic issues then anything else.
BPD is simmiler to dyspraxicia but this is a mental helth condition raver then a ND issue. However it is possable to be digignosed with BPD as well as dyspraxicia as mental helth difculites and dyspraxicia are closley related and people who are dyspraxic often suffer form ill mental helth often this is axianty and / or depreshion.
When I was first re-discovering my dyspraxicia and was frankly a compleate mess I belived that I had BPD as its simmiler to dyspraxicia.
What symptions are you having regarding your BPD
BPD is simmiler to dyspraxicia but this is a mental helth condition raver then a ND issue. However it is possable to be digignosed with BPD as well as dyspraxicia as mental helth difculites and dyspraxicia are closley related and people who are dyspraxic often suffer form ill mental helth often this is axianty and / or depreshion.
When I was first re-discovering my dyspraxicia and was frankly a compleate mess I belived that I had BPD as its simmiler to dyspraxicia.
What symptions are you having regarding your BPD
The real Mr Potato Head
Re: BPD and posible dyspraxia
Thanks for the replies, much appreciated 
AlleyCat, My partner thinks asperger syndrome because I am not good at recognising emotions in other people, I'm not too good with keeping eye contact and I get fixated on things. I did one of those online tests for aspergers (I know those test are just for fun) and I scored pretty high but then a lot of the questions relating to social stuff also apply to BPD.
Tim G, I was origionally DX with chronic depression when I was a teenager and it was only in my mid 20s I had a proper assessment done and was DX with BPD. I do believe this is accurate as I have pretty much all the symptoms listed in the DSM. Chronic feelings of emptiness, SH and suicidal thoughts, intense relationships with irrational fears of abandonment etc. The stuff I mentioned in the OP though I feel can't really be explained by BPD, I often feel very confused about how I am feeling because I will do things and not realise, other people will get mad at me (or at least I think they are) and then I get defensive because I feel bad and think they will leave me. One of things that I do which my psych just kind of shrugs off is that I SH in a few different ways (I won't go into details). One form is pure BPD where I feel desperate and out of control if something bad happens. Another is when I dissociate and I don't feel real but there is another which is more violent and it happens when I am confused and there is too much noise. Through all the stuff I have read I have never seen this mentioned for a PD, only ever in children with neurological disorders.
The thing that worries me the most is that all this other stuff could interfere with the dialectical behavioural therapy I am doing at the moment. If there was something else going on and I got it DX then I might be able to figure out ways to get the most out of therapy. Unfortunately my MH team aren't that good, it took me two years after DX to get this far and I can't see them looking into this any more promptly.
AlleyCat, My partner thinks asperger syndrome because I am not good at recognising emotions in other people, I'm not too good with keeping eye contact and I get fixated on things. I did one of those online tests for aspergers (I know those test are just for fun) and I scored pretty high but then a lot of the questions relating to social stuff also apply to BPD.
Tim G, I was origionally DX with chronic depression when I was a teenager and it was only in my mid 20s I had a proper assessment done and was DX with BPD. I do believe this is accurate as I have pretty much all the symptoms listed in the DSM. Chronic feelings of emptiness, SH and suicidal thoughts, intense relationships with irrational fears of abandonment etc. The stuff I mentioned in the OP though I feel can't really be explained by BPD, I often feel very confused about how I am feeling because I will do things and not realise, other people will get mad at me (or at least I think they are) and then I get defensive because I feel bad and think they will leave me. One of things that I do which my psych just kind of shrugs off is that I SH in a few different ways (I won't go into details). One form is pure BPD where I feel desperate and out of control if something bad happens. Another is when I dissociate and I don't feel real but there is another which is more violent and it happens when I am confused and there is too much noise. Through all the stuff I have read I have never seen this mentioned for a PD, only ever in children with neurological disorders.
The thing that worries me the most is that all this other stuff could interfere with the dialectical behavioural therapy I am doing at the moment. If there was something else going on and I got it DX then I might be able to figure out ways to get the most out of therapy. Unfortunately my MH team aren't that good, it took me two years after DX to get this far and I can't see them looking into this any more promptly.