what constitutes a personality disorder?

@palindromordnilap that does seem pretty definitive. I was wondering if you maybe had delusional disorder or brief psychotic disorder or maybe depression/bipolar with psychotic elements + autism, which I think would look an awful lot like STPD. but the fact that anti-psychotics don't work is probably an indication that you're, well, not psychotic. also, your ideas of reference don't sound quite severe enough; the nature of your magical thinking, while it could be delusional, is characteristic of STPD; your "vague feelings of something being there" sound like perceptual alterations, not hallucinations; you're paranoid, which, although it could also be a delusion, is again characteristic of STPD; and I'd say that the disorganized speech doesn't sound autistic so much as it sounds "loose, digressive, or vague, but without actual derailment or incoherence," which is again STPD. in my experience autistic difficulties with expression are more like... not being able to come up with the word for something, and then having to talk around that? and when you're nonverbal you can't find the words for anything. but you sound like your ideas get their wires crossed on the way from your brain to your mouth, which I don't think would be autistic.

@Lib yeah, of course! sorry if I went a little overboard with contesting your usage there; I get very pedantic if Something Is Not Right. I didn't mean to malign you or cause offense.

 

@esotericPrognosticator Oh, I also totally get that kind of speech issues as well, but I felt it wasn't exactly relevant here.

 

yeah, so you're definitely sounding like you've got STPD + autism, which sounds like a fun time. do you think your psych (if you've got one) is the type to be willing to let the DSM's assertion that STPD and autism can't be comorbid, or are they more of a rules-stickler and probably will refuse to diagnose you? I mean, do you even want a formal diagnosis? but in any case I'd definitely recommend bringing this up to a professional and seeing what they say, because I for one am just a Random Internet Person and honestly if I've understood something in the DSM wrong I probably gave you shit advice. and beyond that, do you have any plans for the future? what are you going to do now that you think you've got STPD? I'd hope that knowing you have it would be helpful in some way, but I don't know what that way is, exactly.

 

Honestly? I don't want any personality disorder diagnosis, even though I'm now pretty sure I have BPD and STPD. There's way too much stigma and mental healthcare in my country sucks. But at least, putting a name on it helps, and it allows me to find the right resources to help me cope with that.

 

fair enough! doesn't mental healthcare suck everywhere, though? (that's a rhetorical question, and I do recognize that there are varying degrees of suckage.) and I definitely agree with the resources/coping strategies thing. also I think sometimes a common label can definitely build a sense of community among its users, even if the label isn't a positive one, so I hope you'll be able to access that. I'm curious, though—can I ask what kind of stigma against personality disorders you've seen? in my experience nobody even knows what they are.

 

BPD is the most obvious example, with people seeing it as systematically abusive and manipulative. And a diagnosis of STPD would land me firmly in "Crazy person, do not believe" territory. Even psychs do this a lot, there was an experiment somewhere where they had two groups of psychiatrists interview people with anxiety disorders, one group having been told the patients had been diagnosed with BPD, and that group didn't believe the patients actually had anxiety.

 

but isn't anxiety, like. a symptom of BPD. or at least specific types of anxiety. or do you mean they just thought they were lying? ah, ableism.

 

Yeah, they thought they were Making Shit Up For Attention™, which is also a BPD stereotype.

 

oh Jesus dogfucking Christ. >:[ sorry that type of shit is applied to people like you. I mean, I get that you have to maybe keep that possibility in mind when dealing with someone with BPD, but for fuck's sake, take someone's word unless you have proof to the contrary.