Hi! I am new and hope I am in the right place.

My research has shown that my wife possibly suffers from BPD, but I cannot be sure. Many of the symptoms seem to apply to most people surviving in modern western societies. However, I am not sure what symptoms to highlight, since she appears to have some, and others not.

How do I deal with this, and how do I get her to at least investigate it? She suffers from an eating disorder, or have in the past (she is very good at keeping things secret). She has always had a poor self-image, even though she is highly intelligent and successful at work. She is a pharmacist.

Any advice or guidance will be appreciated.

Thank you

Jo

Hello, Johann, and Welcome to NeuroTalk.

We have a sister forum called PsychCentral that is more mental health oriented. I think you can check there too, as this forum tends to have more general medical support.

I am going to respond to the fact that your wife is a pharmacist.

I know many female pharmacists, and am one myself, and over the years females have come to dominate this profession in my state.

In my opinion, borderline behavior is not common in this profession. The rigors of schooling for this and the daily job demands just are too difficult for a borderline person to handle IMO. I have met a few Bipolar pharmacists (more male than female) and a few Narcissists however (both genders).

I think good pharmacists tend to be conscientious, somewhat detail oriented (can't make mistakes) and obsessive to be successful.

There is a wonderful book that explains borderline personality along with many other types.
http://search.barnesandnoble.com/The...+self+portrait

Dr. Oldham gives personality profiles and explanations of the extreme versions of them, which then are called character disorders (more serious and impairing). Borderlines are the extreme form for the mercurial personality.
http://www.ptypes.com/mercurial.html

Dr. Oldham has written professionally at length about Borderline disorder. If you Google him, there are many papers to read, and they can be hard to understand and apply. In his Personality Inventory, the language is targeted to the layman and much easier to follow...he gives examples of relationships etc also which helps understand it.

Eating disorders (anorexia) are often linked with borderline, but I don't think it is a 100% thing. I will say, that people who have anorexia, can become very low in essential nutrients, and suffer from THAT.
B12, folic acid, essential fatty acids especially DHA, may become very LOW and cause the brain to not be able to function. Other nutrients recently found to help depression are
B6, magnesium, and Vit D. I specialize in the support using nutrients to regain normal functions when they have become low. There is also a condition called Pyroluria, which causes the body to lose B6 and zinc. Emotional outbursts, excessive anxiety and tendency to self medicate with alcohol are signs of this. It can be tested for (special urine sample) and easily responds to B6 and zinc.
http://www.drkaslow.com/html/pyroluria.html

So there are many things that can impact your wife IMO.
Job stress for me was the biggest. I think pharmacy today is very demanding, physically and emotionally, and the responsibility placed on the Pharmacist's shoulders can be immense in some cases. I retired after 40+ yrs, and I can say I love not working anymore!

Feel free to look around and visit our mental health forums here and also the Vitamin Forum, where there are some very interesting posts with alot of data on them.

Here is PsychCentral's forum:
http://forums.psychcentral.com/
And this is the link to their Borderline forum:
http://forums.psychcentral.com/forumdisplay.php?f=75
They have a different staff from us, but also they have blogs with wonderful information and all sorts of other nice things to check with. You are free to post here or there, whatever you choose.

Your wife is lucky to have you to try and help and understand.