Dr. Jameca CooperForensic Psychology Consultant, Emergence Psychological Services · Board Certified Counseling Psychologist and Forensic Psychology Consultant

Is it BPD or Bipolar? #mentalhealthmatters #BPDawareness #bipolar #BPD #mentalhealth #moodswing

24 Oct 2024 · 1 min

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In this segment Dr. Jameca Cooper explains a key diagnostic distinction between Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) and Bipolar Disorder. She notes that mood swings in BPD are typically precipitated by interpersonal conflicts—such as feeling ignored or rejected—leading to unstable relationships and impulsive behavior. In contrast, mood swings in Bipolar Disorder arise from internal biological factors, like neurotransmitter fluctuations or seasonal changes, and are not directly tied to interpersonal events. This contrast highlights how the underlying triggers and associated behavioral patterns differ between the two conditions, providing clinicians and viewers with a practical framework for differentiating them.

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One of the hallmarks though, and one of the big differences in a person with bipolar disorder and a person with borderline personality disorder is that usually when you have the mood swings for borderline personality disorder, those mood swings are triggered by some type of interpersonal conflict. So in other words, such and such didn't call them back. So now they're having a mood swing if they're borderline personality disorder, whereas if you suffer from bipolar Bipolar disorder, and you have a mood swing, is typically not triggered by an interpersonal conflict. It's really triggered by something chemical, something neurotransmitter, or if you have a seasonal version of it, it could be seasonal qualities as well. So those are the main differences. Mood swings in both. One is gonna have one hallmark of more unstable relationships and impulsive behavior, whereas what triggers the mood swings in both categories are very, very different.