Does it sound like BPD to you?

Dicussion :snoo_shrug:

We broke up 5 days ago. We were together for 1.5 years. She definitely has many BPD traits, yet I know those traits are common on other mental illnesses as well. I don't know why I want to figure this out. But it's something that bugs me, so I would like to hear your opinions. She was diagnosed a few years back, but a new psychiatrist recently told her he didn't think she had BPD.

As I said, some things were BPD textbook. Relation started crazily intense. We both felt as it was meant to be from day one, we were living together 2 months after meeting each other, we had a trip together.

The difference with most of the stories I read here is that she never painted me all black at all. She did have splits, she did have manipulative behaviors and she did have moments in which she seemed to be mad at me for no reasons. But she never ever told me she didn't love me, she never badly insulted me, she never talked bad about me to others, she was never even close to physically hit me. She did try to pick fights on those moments, using passive-aggresive comments that she knew would trigger me. With time we bot learned to control much better those situations. And another key difference is that even after 1.5 years, we were still having more good days than bad days, in fact, most days were just neutral. That makes me think a lot, since neutrality, or gray area, is supposedly what pwBPD are incapable of living or feeling. And as much as it drained me dealing with her bad days (I am an empath so her mood would always transfer to me) and I tend to avoid conflict as it makes me feel uncomfortable, we had tons of neutral days and as much good days than bad days.

For me the main issue with her was alcohol abuse, and it was from day 1 the only thing I knew could separate us somehow. She is pretty much an alcoholic. She is capable of staying many days without drinking, even months, and in many instances she was even able to drink with self-control. But there were some other instances in which she just got hammered, and in those instances, when she was absolutely drunk is when I got to see some aggressiveness and intention to hurt (never physically) that relates more to what I read here daily.

The good news for the past year is that she controlled alcohol much better (first 6 months of the relationship were much more difficult in that regard, and she even tried committing suicide while drunk one alone night) and she barely drunk. During these past 12 months I can count only 3 instances in which she got drunk, and only one of those instances was really bad. Until last weekend, when we had a wedding (one of my best friends) and she got as drunk as I've ever seen her, and proceeded to humiliate badly to a point of no return.

I ended it the day after. We were both devastated, but she accepted it and moved out that same day. Since then, we have been in contact and she has shown a level of maturity that I have never read in this forum. She apologized, told me she felt awful for what she did, for hurting me, told me I am an amazing guy, that I shouldn't feel guilty about ending it, that anyone would have done the same, she said goodbye nicely to my family, she thanked me for how much I supported her during our time together, etc.

Even when I suggested that we could maybe find a way to work it out yesterday, she reacted with such maturity again. She did had doubts but told me she doesn't believe she is strong enough mentally now to try again, that she would be devastated if it didn't work out, that she would always be scared that I could change my mind at any moment, so that her mindset was to move on, that she still loves me, but the best thing is to not get together (of course I agree logically).

Posted May 10, 2024, 6:59 PM UTC

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