Originally Posted by
pdm22 
I often wonder if some people who are labeled as “borderline” really don’t have reactive attachment disorder.
I believe that there is a lot of correlation between attachment issues and Cluster B personality disorders.
People who are fearful avoidant tend toward borderline personality disorder characteristics as you move out along the fearful avoidant spectrum. That "I hate you, don't leave me!" trait.
Dismissive avoidants tend to have more self confidence than fearful avoidants, and further out on the dismissive avoidant spectrum you go, the more narcissistic traits you find.
Anxious Pre-occupieds (the attachment type of many who post in Friends and Family) tend toward codependency the further along the spectrum one goes.
Attachment theory is a fascinating subject. The whole codependency thing came up as a way to explain how partners could be just as sick as the addicts that they love, back in the 1980s and 1990s. A lot of work has been done in attachment theory since then, and it has done much to deepen my own understanding of how we can get so wrapped up in the drama of relationships with addicts. Anxious and Dismissive are on opposite ends of the attachment spectrum, but really we are like different sides of the same coin. There is a deep attraction between the two, but it usually ends in misery.