-
Emotion-Regulating Circuit Weakened In Borderline Personality Disorder
An article about emotional regulation in BPD…. Emotion-Regulating Circuit Weakened In Borderline Personality Disorder Differences in the working tissue of the brain, called grey matter, have been linked to impaired functioning of an emotion-regulating circuit in patients with borderline personality disorder (BPD). People with BPD had excess grey matter in a fear hub deep in the brain, which over-activated when they viewed scary faces. By contrast, the hub’s regulator near the front of the brain was deficient in grey matter and underactive, effectively taking the brakes off a runaway fear response, suggest researchers supported in part by NIMH. The imaging studies are the first to link structural brain differences with…
-
Malaysian Report on BPD in that country
Here the text of a report on BPD in Malaysia… Personality disorder common, says expert By Brenda Lim 2008/10/12 IPOH: Stormy relationships, intense mood swings and suicide attempts are among the experiences faced by Malaysians with borderline personality disorders (BPD). For those living or working with them, the experience is like “walking on broken glass”. “They consume you emotionally. They want to get under your skin and into your mind,” said psychotherapist associate professor Dr Brian Ho Kong Wai at his plenary talk at the Seventh Perak Mental Health Convention yesterday. The usual reaction was to reject a person with BPD, which only reinforced their feelings of betrayal and abandonment.…
-
Emotional Validation with Honesty
A few months ago I posted a piece on the validating statement and earlier today I posted on the I-AM-MAD communication tool. While both recommend validation (actually one is a sub-set of the other), sometimes if you are new to validation the statements and questions that I recommend can seem (as Wandering Coyote put it in her comment) “so trite, so patronizing.” It can seem that way (or rote) if you don’t validate with honesty. If you’re “reading from a script” the validation will seem empty to the other person. The key thing IMO is that you really try and empathize with the other person’s feelings and not judge those…
-
I-AM-MAD communication skill
Last week I wrote an email to someone explaining the value of validation and the stance one “should” adopt when using validation. Emotional validation is valuable when someone is experiencing an “emotionally dysregulated moment” (which in the ATSTP group we call “EDM”). These moments are common when someone has BPD or ERD. Anyway, I posted an anonymous version of my message to the group and one of my group members (thanks Tides!) edited it into what she called the “I-AM-MAD” communication tool. I will post the content of the tool below and upload the PDF…. Oh, quickly… The formatting came out a little wonky. And “IAAHF” means “it’s all about…
-
A personal message about When Hope is Not Enough
Over the weekend I got a personal message about my book When Hope is Not Enough: a how-to guide for living with and loving someone with Borderline Personality Disorder (aka WHINE). It was so touching to me, I thought I would share it everyone. Here is part of the message: Your book in all honesty, out of close to $400 worth of BPD materials I bought, gave me something really concrete to work with. Whether or not it works is up to many factors but, I feel confident that I have the tools I need to work off of, and that is something not even my therapist has given me…
-
Amy Winehouse Threatens Suicide
Well, Amy Winehouse is in the news again. This type she supposedly threatened suicide. Some times it makes you wonder if she or Pete Doherty will be the first U.K. celeb with (possible) BPD to burn out completely. Here an article from “Now” (who knows how much truth there is to it though): Amy Winehouse threatens to kill herself Singer on 24-hour watch by worried friends Monday, 6 October 2008 Amy Winehouse is said to be on suicide watch after she allegedly threatened to stab herself. The singer is thought to have been pushed further downhill after her husband Blake Fielder-Civil rejected an offer of parole last month – because…