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Has Depression become a Catch-All Diagnosis?
I believe that it has. Why? Well, there are a number of reasons that depression is a catch-all diagnosis. One certainly is the influence of the pharmaceutical industry given that billions of dollars are spent on anti-depressants each year. Also, doctors who are not mental health professionals (like GP’s) are prescribing anti-depressants if their patients are “depressed”. Unfortunately, sometimes depression is not accurate. Many times when people say “I’m feeling depressed” they are really expressing that they are feeling emotional pain. Sometimes emotional pain is normal, sometimes a great deal of emotional pain is not normal and becomes problematic. When someone is feeling too much emotionally, it is not depression.…
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Emotional Profiles: Are you a volcano?
Some more from “Beyond Boundaries”: Each person has a unique emotional profile. This profile is based on five independent factors. When I say “independent” here, I am saying factors that can each be unique in each individual. The emotional profile factors are: Tolerance. This is the sensitivity a person has to triggering events. Those with a high sense of threat awareness (like people with BPD) are likely to have this factor set at “hair trigger.” Onset. This is how quickly the emotion gets to full intensity. Intensity. This is how intense the emotion affects a particular person. Duration. How long the emotion lasts and continues to affect the person’s thinking.…
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Ok, Bon, what’s wrong with boundaries?
A page from my eBook “Beyond Boundaries”…. In a word, nothing. What I have a problem with is people using only boundaries (also known as “limits”). I have a problem with people thinking that boundaries are the end-all, be-all of relationship tools. I also have a problem with people using “boundaries” that are not really boundaries at all. Let me explain… Many in the Non-BPD support community (loved ones of people with borderline personality disorder – BPD) seem to latch on to boundaries as the main tool for dealing with their loved one with BPD. While boundaries (if understood and used properly) can be an effective tool for you, boundaries…
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Sad story of a young woman with BPD
I stumbled on this sad story of a woman with BPD… Failure of system spirals into family tragedy George and Alice Schellenberg took it as good news when their daughter Laura, just out of high school, coming off a nervous breakdown, was diagnosed with borderline personality disorder. Borderline. How bad could that be? Over the next 17 years, the Saanich couple found out. It was hell. Laura began doing things totally out of character — she shoplifted, got angry, shaved her head twice, began cutting herself, then tattooed the lacerations on her arms. On and on. She worked as a hairdresser and had a doting partner, but the internal demons…
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NIHM Director Thomas Insel considers the name of “Borderline Personality Disorder”
On the director’s blog at the NIMH (National Institute of Mental Health), Director Dr. Thomas Insel discusses the name of borderline personality disorder: Director’s Blog April 19, 2010 What’s in a Name? — The Outlook for Borderline Personality Disorder Thomas Insel In Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet,” the question is posed to illustrate that a name doesn’t define a person’s feelings or intent. In psychiatry, the same may be said of that which we call borderline personality disorder. Noted primarily for symptoms such as impaired mood regulation, unstable relationships with others, and self-harming behaviors, the name “borderline personality disorder,” fails to capture the essence of this serious mental illness. As currently…
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The power of “When you do this, I feel that”
Recently, in the ATSTP group we discussed the power of saying “when you do [whatever], I feel [whatever else].” This formulation of words is very powerful when dealing with an emotional person. It does a couple of things that are important. First, it lets the other person know that you have feelings as well. Sometimes someone with BPD will feel that they are the only one in the world with feelings to be hurt. DBT actually “encourages” this way of thinking IMO. Since DBT is all about the client’s emotions and behaviors, the “other’s” (the therapist) feelings and behaviors are not often taken into account. This situation is not really…