I was looking up Borderline Personality Disorder last night because that's what the therapist at Highland Hospital diagnosed me with along with Bipolar. It said that those mental illnesses makes people think they're Trans and it got me worried. I've ALWAYS felt male but I don't know if that's because I've always had Borderline and Bipolar or not. I've felt male since I was a small child and I still do. When I started puberty dysphoria got so intense I started cutting myself but then it leveled out for two years where the dysphoria wasnt that bad and then when I was 15 it started to get really bad and it's gotten worse. I'm just so confused. I read how non gender therapists will sometimes diagnos Trans people with Borderline and bipolar and the therapist at Highland was not a gender therapist at all. I need someones opinion.

Correlation does not imply causation.  Just because the two (gender dysphoria and borderline personality disorder) appear together does not mean one caused the other. 

There are a few studies suggesting that BPD is more common in people with GID/gender dysphoria than the general public.  One even found a correlation with the mothers of the "boys" having more incidences of depression and BPD than the control group. 

A statistic being mentioned on a few of the sites I looked at said that in a study in the 1980s (none could actually list the name of the study or any persons involved in it), that 50% of patients with both gender dysphoria and BPD taking Tegretol (an anticonvulsant used also for bipolar disorder and BPD, among others) had a decreased (or no) desire to transition. 

Personally, I think poor mental health is more common in trans people anyway.  The therapist who diagnosed you with BPD wasn't a gender therapist.  If you feel male, which you've said you do, then you are male.  Beyond that, what does it matter?

I just wonder isnt transgender people more likely to be dignosed than others?

I myself is dignosed from a young age, but to be honest I belive my dignose is based on the fact I really should have been dignosed as transgender but since it wasnt posible they looked at the dignoses and my symtomes and got another answer for it.

I somehow belive it to be the case of a couple people, like when your stressed and ill, but the reason for your illness is caused by stress.

Well, it is kind of unsurprising that we experience a lot more mental illness. Being trans stresses your system a lot. If you are predisposed to mental illness then the pressure of it is likely to bring it out.

I'm bipolar myself. And I am trans.  I really doubt that being bipolar or having BPD can make you feel like a guy you do.

Thanks guys. It's just I also have OCD and when I read something that makes me think. I can't stop thinking about it and I come up with a whole lot of "What ifs"

I would get a second opinion and not worry about it.  Besides, was this therapist also a psychiatrist?  Only psychiatrists are really qualified to diagnose mental illness.  I was diagnosed with Schizotypal Personality Disorder and put on anti-psychotics - by a psychiatrist, no less!  A diagnosis means diddly squat to me without a second opinion.

A really good gender specialist might be able to help you sort all of this out.

My friend is bipolar, and he started T a couple of years ago. No problems.

He does have a strong sort of femme streak, and he identifies as genderqueer at the moment, but he goes by male pronouns.

I guess he is boypolar!

Quote from: Kreuzfidel on April 02, 2012, 08:50:19 PM
I would get a second opinion and not worry about it.  Besides, was this therapist also a psychiatrist?  Only psychiatrists are really qualified to diagnose mental illness.  I was diagnosed with Schizotypal Personality Disorder and put on anti-psychotics - by a psychiatrist, no less!  A diagnosis means diddly squat to me without a second opinion.

While I agree he likely needs a second opinion, therapists are licensed and can diagnose mental illnesses.  They just can't prescribe or manage medications--that's the psychiatrist's job.

It must be different elsewhere because diagnosing mental illness is the psychiatrist's authority in Australia.  Mental health is the realm of therapists and psychologists.

Quote from: Slytherin17 on April 02, 2012, 06:38:58 PM
Thanks guys. It's just I also have OCD and when I read something that makes me think. I can't stop thinking about it and I come up with a whole lot of "What ifs"

if it helps I can say I had OCD as well during a very hard and stressing period of my life but its gone now.
cis or trans people get those.
my advice to get over it is to take your time, I mainly had OCD because I where stressed and fighting every day all the time, so when I got vacation I got a great opurtunaty to relax and take good care of my problem.
only way of threating it is to go agenst your fear and do opposite, if your have to much going on already you simple dont have the focus or energy to do so.

Quote from: Kreuzfidel on April 02, 2012, 10:27:22 PM
It must be different elsewhere because diagnosing mental illness is the psychiatrist's authority in Australia.  Mental health is the realm of therapists and psychologists.

Ah I see.  AFAIK in the States, all three (psychiatrists, therapists, and psychologists) can diagnose you, but only psychiatrists can prescribe medication.  All three can also provide therapy, but it's generally therapists who do that and psychologists mainly do testing.

Just tossing in my 2 cents. I'm schizoid and was curious if there's a higher chance of having a personality disorder (PD) if you're trans. Found this in my hunt:

http://boa.unimib.it/bitstream/10281/7081/2/Prevalence_of_Axis_II_disorders.pdf

"Finally, no differences emerged in the prevalence of any PDs or in the mean number of PD diagnostic criteria endorsed by
MtF and FtM transsexuals."

I posted something similar on the MtF forum a while back, so if you read that one, this is the same article.

Wow, I'm glad someone posted about this. I, myself, have Borderline Personality Disorder. For me, it meant trying on a lot of different faces to 'find myself' [huge personal identity issues] and to please others so they wouldn't leave me. To simplify it. So, when I started doing serious research on the road to recovery, I came across a lot of articles that highlighted distorted gender identity as a possible symptom or result of BPD. Needless to say I was pretty freaked out. And it's been on my mind ever since. I'm almost a year on T, and I'm still occasionally worried that my need to transition will suddenly 'wear off' and I'll have potentially ruined my life.

Now that all doesn't sound very encouraging, but this little comment thread made me feel better. And you know, something that's always brought me back from the edge of ULTRA WORRY is that while I've switched things up over and over persona wise, both male and female presenting- my lady self was always a costume. I returned to it over and over again in an attempt to better my life by pleasing others. Which is a major issue in BPD! I can't imagine living my life as a woman- it doesn't feel right, and it won't ever. I have a hard time justifying myself, because I've got serious issues with self worth, so I second guess everything I do by nature. But when my head's running clear, I'm so confident in my decision it's undeniable.  I think what people said above is absolutely true. Just because BPD can induce gender dysphoria, doesn't mean that's always the case, or even that it's true most of the time. And growing up dysphoric is hell on our fragile minds. It's not a leap to say things like the emotional instability and codependency of BPD come from being trans, not the other way around.