Personality disorder service user help and support from Emergence

Recently there has been some discussion of how Aspergers, a form of autism, is not being picked up and diagnosed in girls and women and how often it can be misdiagnosed frequently as Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD).

The reason women are often not diagnosed is that historically the criteria used is based on how it manifests in boys and men and women will present differently. New research is showing that it is often picked up later in girls who are better at masking it and is not diagnosed until they are teenagers or adults often following a breakdown.

At one time a diagnosis of borderline personality disorder (BPD) was seen as a diagnosis of exclusion, as it was said to be untreatable.  Today that attitude can still linger as the diagnosis carries stigma both in and out of the medical profession and carers will often encounter this attitude - one common example being in A& E departments where carers have often experienced an attitude of contempt for those that have self harmed.