How Old Is Everyone?

[Wanting2BNormal]

How old is everyone here? Do you find that over times it gets easier to fight this BPD?

I'm twenty seven years old. I have found that over time things do get easier. Like some of my symptoms are much better than a few years ago.

[Momokani]

Hi W2BN...I've improved in some areas. I would attribute that to experience which comes with age obviously as well as absolute tenacity.

At age 14 onwards I was just a blithering emotional mess with NO SOCIAL LIFE accompanied by paranoia. I'm almost forty now. Yet I felt in my thirties I had made some improvements. Now I feel I have more of a handle on life COMPARATIVELY speaking. I still screw up. I'm not in a good place at the moment because of my emotional paranoid over reaction to things that have happened but that has triggered me to get a referral to see a T again.

Hopefully one day I'll be able to put the lid on my challenges.

Yes age DOES seem to make a difference

Momokani

[sophhee23]

Hiya, im 24 and for me my BPD has gotten worse so far, im only a million heavy dose meds that seem to do nothing, but ive DBT sometime this year so im hanging all my hopes on that really!

xxx

[Ubix]

Unfortunatley I find I react to life situations so mainly it doesn't go away, although the psychs say it does in males especially! 42

[Roses]

Hi, I'm 34 x

[bonii]

i'm 23 and i seem to be more of a mess now than ever :(

[Hayz]

i`m 22 and nothing is getting easier for me just worse

[just.me]

Im way old and I only became ill with MH issues in the last 6 years. I had a breakdown at work in 2003, been taking Anti-d's since then. The BPD descriptors have been present since I was 16.

My condition has worsened in the past year, the worst time was end October last year.

Am going thru a crying period at the moment, am awaiting my diagnosis on BPD if the doc ever sends me to a shrink as opposed to calling it depression/anxiety and some emotional issues. Asshole.

I am 45. Having had BPD since 16. The longer you have it the harder it is. I reacted to something last night, and I have no idea because of the length of time I have had this 29 years, if I will ever be cured. Gutting.

I don't look 45, I certainly don't feel 45, I am still waiting for a decent life, some happiness. Real upsetting to think I might never get it and its bollocks to think I was put on this earth just to suffer.

[Ocean Wolf]

I think it depends on the person. For example, I am going to be 22 in April and things have gotten better (still have problems, but not as bad). My dad is in his early fifties and he has just been getting worse.

[pepsimeg]

Im 42......i think i have got more stable over the years.....up until now

[donnam]

hi i am 30, but things have gotten worse not beta, but i react to what everyone says, does and situations extremely sensitively. to the point vof someone for eg not saying bye to me hates me and makes me sui! i just cant win. lol

[snowman]

I am 37....getting worse every day...every year.....

[just.me]

The longer you have it the harder it is to change, 30 years is a darn long time to be a particular way. But, thus far nothing has beaten me because I am still here.

I am working on it.

[karnakbabe]

I'm 40 and truthfully it feels like it's getting worse daily. I was diagnosed just over a year ago with BPD but can recognise symptoms from years ago. Maybe it's because I was diagnosed so late and my treatment has been so all over the place ie: getting passed from piller to post. I'm hoping every day that this day will be the breakthrough but so far nothing has helped. I'm also on a hyper and have been for weeks although they say it's not BiPolar, (go figure), they have refused meds,(no addiction history), for me and basically just left me to it. I have my second CPN assessment tmrw and I'm so nervous which is not helping my hyper mode and the other day I got an appt for this Thursday with the new PDoc,(no6 and counting), The CPN assessment a couple of weeks ago was trully strange so I'm kind of skeptical over what tmrw will bring. It's gonna be a tough week so I just hope that I can keep control of my Alter Effie during these appointments or all hell will end up breaking loose. Ah well, lets hope I can hold it together but honestly, it feels as though I have got worse over time and not better so I really don't hold out much hope for a full recovery but even a partial one would be a welcome relief for me and those who have to suffer my outbursts

Amanda

[starryeyesee]

hi

i've just turned 39 and i think things get easier with age although i am now on meds and in therapy after having symptons since i was 14.

starry xxx

[AveMaria]

I'm 22 and although I don't think I have gotten much better, I have been able to figure out many of my triggers and have found some better coping strategies.

xxx

[Marchmadness]

Hey -

101 or 102 for myself, at my age hard to keep up with the

numbers. I do think that as we age it becomes easier to

deal with only due to the fact we are learning more about

ourself along the way. The better understanding you have

about your emotions and your triggers the better it is to

deal with them as they come up.

Marchmadness

[**Hope**]

I am 26.

I definitely feel i can be more rational now than befoe but probably never to the level of a person without BPD.

I can look at situations slightly differently now and possibly react better somtimes. But the impulsivity and the insecurity doesnt go at all. I just hide it better now i suppose. That and realising that acting this way gets me no where and i really need to get it under some control at least?

Dont know if that makes any ense to anyone.

[profound1]

I was wondering about this myself just recently and nearly posted the same question.

I am 40 and on good days feel good but on bad days well I just feel rotten to the core . I deal with things differently now but the worst thing is I never used to know why I am like I am, now I have a better understanding but am frustrated to bleedin death because I cannot control some of my behaviour and emotions despite therapy .

For me age makes things different but not necessarily better. I feel increasingly angry and frustrated that I still have probs and the future often feels daunting, but I keep trying. I am reluctant to accept that things will not get much better but deep down I believe that its too late for me to change and that I am doomed :(

[just.me]

Im self diagnosed and until my doctor realises I don't just have emotional issues, with depression and anxiety, I await with baited breath a Psych appointment.

In the meantime, I am now out of a relationship, and will be taking the next year away from men, and hope that I can get to be me again.

I am not recognisable to the person that I was five years ago, fun loving, bubbly, laughing all the time.

I could live with the BPD when that was all there was, but add the depression and anxiety, makes it real hard.

Every day is a new day though, so also a new beginning. Tomorrow is my first day at college, and I have sent off my application for funding for the OU, it's a start.

[autism-bpd]

i am 20 years old with a dx of autism and BPD-paranoia and psychotic. I were dx last year may 2009 so i dont really know alls i know where i been in mental health labels since i were 12 years old and by 12 years old i noticed each year got worse for me never got better.

[jillv]

I also was thinking about this recently.

I am 53 and was diagnosed at the grand old age of 51.

From the age of 16 I have had depression, and I now recognise I have displayed bpd behaviours since then. I was first diagnosed with post natal depression after the birth of my first child, then reactive depression after my divorce 18 years ago. I had a spell in hospital after an o/d.

After that it was constant crises, o/ds, cycling depression. I had cbt and various other counselling sessions. Nothing made much difference.

Finally I screamed at the GP that there was more wrong than just depression/anxiety, and was referred to a psych (again) who eventually diagnosed bpd. She said I had slipped through the system!

I think perhaps bpd is more widely recognised now than 30 years ago. I am high functioning, and have always managed to work, and appear to live a relatively normal life. I had no knowledge of bpd, so didn't push for a diagnosis. Never had obvious addiction issues, or SH, so it went undiagnosed.

Had I been diagnosed earlier, and had appropriate treatments, maybe by now I would have seen some improvements, but as it stands, I am no better now, than in my twenties. Like Sioux I wonder if the patterns are so ingrained that I will never see a big change.

Over the last year or so I have in fact got worse in many ways, but I think that can be attributed to the fact that I have become more aware, have started group therapy, and am now dealing with issues that have been buried since childhood.

I can only hope that eventually life will be worth living.

[doormouse]

I'm 26, been in "the system" since I was 15, dx BPD when I was 19 or 20.

Lots of things are better than they were when I was 19 - though I do get sick of people telling me that a significant proportion of patients with BPD no longer meet the diagnostic criteria 15 years later - or to put it another way, you'll grow out of it!

I guess I look at it a bit like being an alcoholic (no offence meant to anyone stuggling with this) in the sense that I may be "sober" ie able to cope with things better than I could before, but it will always be there, and some things will always be harder for me than if I didn't have BPD.

Lots of things have changed me over the years though - I really don't think its just about age. I've learned a lot, but I think its from things I done, like going on regular retreats thats helped more than just getting older.

My psych put it a good way actually - she said I had come a really long way, and was doing incredibly well, but that I was still vunerable. That makes sense to me - I could live with being that way, but there is no way I could have survived the way I was before. Kinda a miracle that I did, I guess.

[sarey92]

17 yrs old here.

been struggling with my MH since i can remember.

(first attempt of suicide was at 8 yrs of age)

been seeing camhs since i was 7.

also had all of the bpd symptoms as long as i can remember.

to be honest with age ive found i want to die even more and get the hell out of my head.

doubt this will be taken seriously as im 17 but whatever, your choice.

x

[Amybaby23]

Hi , Im 28 soon to be 29 .....i think age helps the understanding of things ans stuff from my past i kinda think now i know wht the problem was a big massive ''OH THATS WHY...!' doesnt stop the daily struggle but my age helps with my understanding of my condition somewht . However some days i am 28 and some days im 16 again ..x