Especially if it comes with effective treatment. For instance, borderline personality disorder tends to respond very favorably, and dissipate in symptoms, if the person goes into Dialectical Behavioral Therapy. Outcomes tend to be very good and down the track, they are greatly improved in mood and relational outcomes.
My youngest son was diagnosed with complex PTSD with bpd traits, amd only after a year, he is greatly and significantly better. His suicidal ideation is nearly non existant now and he is much happier. He is only 18 but recognizes his bpd traits. It has been a very hard road but he is doing well. He said to me the other day "Mum, I think I'm always going to be in therapy", which, I was, actually happy about, better that, than being utterly miserable, and denying one's problems.
It was me that figured out that he is also autistic and "twice exceptional" (2e), and he figured out his ADHD and helped me figure out mine. Some people who are diagnosed with bpd actually have complex, developmental, childhood trauma, Autism and/or ADHD and are not being recognized as such. This is a problem, because if the diagnosis is wrong or incomplete, it doesn't get treated right. This happened to me.
I have an older son who almost certainly has bpd but also complex trauma and undiagnosed and unrealized ASD and ADHD and he lives with his (very narcissistic) father. He is very depressed, 28, and has been turned against me. My 25 year old son (I have 5 sons) says "Dad doesn't believe in labels (aka diagnosis') for anyone but you, mum" and my take is, if you don't understand what is happening, and what the problems, actually, are, how can you address them?
And my kid's Dad doesn't believe in accurate diagnosis, he just likes to gaslight me. Which is not the same thing as getting an accurate diagnosis. It can take a lot of research to figure out what is what, but, adequate research gleans adequate answers. Most people don't do that though (except a lot of Autistic people, who often tend to be exceptional researchers), even doctors can get things wrong and miss things. You only have to look at how so many of us older women missed being accurately diagnosed with Autism when we were younger. Many of us eventually got diagnosed with bpd, depression, anxiety, but not ASD. So many of us are late diagnosed or self diagnosed with ASD and have suffered a lot, not knowing, for so long. So it's important to establish whether ASD and/or ADHD are behind the personality disorder, co morbid with the personality disorder, or the real issue and not, in fact, a personality disorder. Perhaps it is complex trauma AND neurodivergence and not, in fact, even a personality disorder at all.
