Anything to Stop the Pain - BPD and Non-BPs

I found this review on Amazon as a review for the book “”Understanding the Borderline Mother.”" This excerpt says a lot about people’s understanding of borderlines:

Perhaps it is true that the borderline personality is a real disorder in various ways, but I know for a fact that there are borderlines who can control their negative behaviours when they really want to, and that is the most frightening thing of all, that a grown adult can still act so immaturely and continue to destroy other people willfully. I think that someone needs to write a book about this too. Also take in mind that some people who were once classified as “”borderlines”" often improve with age. For this reason, I do think that it’s possible for borderlines to change somewhat, if they really want to.

So, what do we have here?

1. It is not a real disorder (perhaps).
2. Borderlines can control their negative behaviors (when they really want to).
3. A grown adult can act so immaturely?
4. A person can destroy other people willfully?
5. They can change (if they really want to)

Hmmm… I guess she feels that borderlines don’t really want to change. They enjoy what they do. Do you feel this way about your borderline?http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/customer-reviews/0765703319/102-3120581-1484128?customer-reviews.start=33

bon :: Jan.31.2006 :: Anger :: No Comments »

An article on DBT training for family members of borderlines:

Individual DBT has addressed the problems of the individual’s emotional vulnerability (high sensitivity, high reactivity, slow return to baseline) component by intervening directly with the individual patient. Although interventions with family members are briefly noted in the original treatment manual, standard DBT does not directly attempt to affect the second component of the etiological model for BPD and related disorders, namely, that of the invalidating environment. There are several levels of adapting DBT that are possible. First, one could simply apply DBT essentially intact to new populations (for example, to battering men; Fruzzetti, Rubio, & Thorp, 1998). Or, one could use the existing treatment to augment outcomes with borderline clients (like teaching the original DBT skills to family members or partners of borderline clients; Fruzzetti, Hoffman, & Linehan, in press). Finally, one could also develop new interventions (skill modules and/or treatment strategies), consistent with the transactional model, to intervene specifically at the level of the environment (say, a family or a residential center; Fruzzetti et al., in press). All three of these approaches have been initiated and are presently being evaluated.

http://www.middle-path.org/DBT/Article_Archive/dbtfst.html

Bon Dobbs :: Jan.31.2006 :: DBT-FST, DBT :: No Comments »

Invalidating Environments

Although there are many examples of invalidating environments, all share three characteristics: (1) individual behaviors and communications are rejected as invalid; (2) emotional displays and painful behaviors are met with punishment that is erratically administered and intermittently reinforcing; (3) the environment oversimplifies the ease with which problems may be solved and needs met. Most of us have encountered such environments at some point in our lives and we commonly deal with them by changing our behavior to meet expectations, or by changing the environment so that it is no longer invalidating, or, ultimately, by simply leaving the environment. The dilemma for the borderline patient occurs when the individual is unable to meet expectations, cannot change the environment or cannot leave, thus experiencing what has been called a “”double bind.”"

bon :: Jan.31.2006 :: Validation :: No Comments »

An article about the many manifestations of shame.

…study of James Masterson’s work on borderline personalities, as well as my experience with watching his working films, convinces me that there is minimal difference in the treatment of some toxically shame-based people and his treatment of the Borderline Personality.

Don’t see shame in your borderline? Look more carefully.http://www.soulselfhelp.on.ca/tshame.html

bon :: Jan.30.2006 :: Shame :: No Comments »

A study reviewed by the National Institutes of Health on DBT effectiveness:

Pre-post-comparison showed significant changes for the DBT group on 10 of 11 psychopathological variables and significant reductions in self-injurious behavior. The waiting list group did not show any significant changes at the four-months point. The DBT group improved significantly more than participants on the waiting list on seven of the nine variables analyzed, including depression, anxiety, interpersonal functioning, social adjustment, global psychopathology and self-mutilation.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=pubmed&dopt=Abstract&list_uids=15033496&query_hl=18

bon :: Jan.24.2006 :: DBT :: No Comments »

A link between chronic pain and BPD/PTSD:

Over the years in treating BPD or PTSD I have observed a syndrome that my fellow clinicians now refer to as the “”Bellman Syndrome”" a title I modestly [accepted]. It is simply stated thus; chronic pain and medication addiction are directly associated with BPD or PTSD in a complex interaction.

bon :: Jan.08.2006 :: Pain, Borderline Personality Disorder :: No Comments »

Interesting article from a former sufferer of borderline personality disorder on healing versus stopping the pain. A quick blurb:

So, in healing, it is necessary to face the pain of your past, the pain that you are currently in and the pain that you will come to know when you can see how the choices you’ve made to protect yourself have effected not only your life but the lives of those around you, especially the lives of those who tried to care, to love and to help you. There is a profound grief that must be waded through in the quest for one’s authentic self.

http://www.borderlinepersonality.ca/borderhealing.htm

bon :: Jan.06.2006 :: Pain :: No Comments »