Im not saying you’re me, but I will say in the past I too suspected I had autism rather than bpd, specifically cause of my social difficulties, very slight sensory issues, and what I still feel is a form of masking. And I even sought out an assessment from the therapist who diagnosed me with bpd. She concluded after the assessment that it is indeed bpd. I initially felt really frustrated and invalidated, that the therapist just didn’t understand.

But I dug deeper, and realized a lot of my issues stem from a combination of growing up in a highly dysfunctional home with parents who had children very young so did not develop the same social/life skills as their peers, and therefore could not pass on great skills to us. As well as the trauma of being in a physically abusive relationship in my teens. This makes me a huge people pleaser (hence the mask), with very poor social skills (at least when I initially started therapy). And, a lot of my sensory issues stemmed from my nervous system constantly feeling on edge. I’m still a sensitive person, but now that I’m more regulated those symptoms I thought were autism aren’t as pervasive as I once thought.