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Blaming the parents
One of the big problems I have seen in meeting people with BPD children is that often the mental health professionals believe that the ONLY cause of BPD is childhood abuse. While 75% of adult female borderlines report childhood abuse (and many sexual abuse), what if those are the only ones that seek treatment? And what of the other 25%? In other words, parents of borderlines – who are confused, angry and scared about the welfare of their children – are often the ones blamed for the disorder by mental health professionals. A good corollary is the reactions of health care workers when someone appears at the hospital with a…
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The Borderline Child
I’d like to talk about “The Borderline Child”. Most professionals would say that the Borderline Child does not exist. I recently spoke with a woman I know who has a daughter who has given her a great deal of trouble. The girl, who is only 14, cuts herself, drinks her own urine, has risky sex, does drugs, has run away from home and exhibited a number of other “borderline” behaviors. When I mentioned the diagnosis to the mother, she spoke with professionals who told her that her child was “too young” to be diagnosed with BPD. OK, so what is the cut-off? This is a quote from an article I…
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All Therapists are Jerks
A funny note from a DBT site: The therapist is asked to adopt a non-defensive posture towards the patient, to accept that therapists are fallible and that mistakes will at times inevitably be made. Perfect therapy is simply not possible. It needs to be accepted as a working hypothesis that (to use Linehan’s words) “”all therapists are jerks””. About the responsiblity of the therapist in DBT.http://www.priory.com/dbt.htm No related posts.
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Oppositional Defiant Disorder
Here’s an article about ODD and Conduct Disorder (CD) in children and the correlation to adulthood personality disorders: Borderline Personality Disorder is called this because patients have many traits from different psychiatric disorders. They have very unstable moods, like bipolar disorder. They often have strange experiences, like people with schizophrenia. Their relationships with others are usually quite unstable. They often don’t have much of a sense of who they really are or where they are going. They often cut themselves. Most of the people with this problem are female. If you have ODD/CD and are female, you have approximately a 15% chance of getting this. There is also info about…
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Diseases of the Mind
This is a quote from “Decartes’ Error” by Antonio Damasio: The distinction between diseases of the “brain” and the “mind”, between “neurological” problems and “psychological” or “psychiatric” ones, is an unfortunate cultural inheritance that permeates society and medicine. It reflects a basic ignorance of the relation between brain and mind. Diseases of the brain are seen as tradgedies visited on people who cannot be blamed for their conditions, while diseases of the mind, especially those that affect conduct and emotion, are seen as social inconveniences for which sufferers have much to answer. Individuals are to be blamed for their character flaws, defective emotional modulation, ans so on; lack of willpower…
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Princess Di and Borderline Personality Disorder
The Publisher’s Weekly review of Diana in Search of Herself : Portrait of a Troubled Princess by Sally Bedell Smith: Devotees who remember Princess Diana as a beautiful, warm-hearted mother dedicated to good works, whom an adulterous husband and the British Royal family unfairly victimized, will find little comfort in this treatment of her life. Smith relentlessly but convincingly portrays Diana as a woman with severe psychological problems (characterized here as a “”borderline personality””) who never overcame a serious eating disorder and was unable to sustain relationships. Based on research and interviews with Diana’s friends, Smith (Reflected Glory: The Life of Pamela Harriman) carefully presents Diana’s childhood as darkened by…