-
A therapy that helps to rebuild broken lives- DBT
ANNE* ALWAYS felt she was different from everybody else and, having had a difficult early childhood, by the time she was a teenager she did not think she belonged in this world. A therapy that helps to rebuild broken lives SHEILA WAYMAN Tue, Dec 27, 2011 ANNE* ALWAYS felt she was different from everybody else and, having had a difficult early childhood, by the time she was a teenager she did not think she belonged in this world. “I believed I was invisible – I didn’t think people saw me,” she says. “I was insecure and very mixed up about my own identity; I did not know who I was,…
-
CBT worksheets and Evaluating Meaning
On the BPD Cafe page on Face Book, the owner of the page posted a link to downloadable versions of various CBT worksheets, including some from REBT and DBT. These are really nice to have. There are a lot of them, so I joined the SugarSynch page that allows me to download them en masse. One note about that: if you do that, you’re going to have to “un-select” one of the documents, which appears to be stuck in “synching” mode. The document that is stuck is called PsychosisSelfHelp.pdf. Also, if you want ALL the documents, you have to scroll down to the bottom of the list to make them all…
-
A comment on change vs acceptance
An ATSTP list member responds to a question of whether another’s borderline wife will ever change because of emotional validation: I found validation isn’t as effective until the underlying agenda tilts more towards acceptance rather than change. This may sound strange, but after we accept that the situation may not change (and behave accordingly), it then grows room to change. No related posts.
-
The important difference between lying and bullshitting
An ATSTP List member explains the difference between lying and bullshitting as being about intent: I think the distinction between lying and bullshitting is an attempt to clarify the intent of the person engaged in the act. According to my interpretation Harry Frankfurt’s essay, “On Bullshit” (http://athens.indymedia.org/local/webcast/uploads/ frankfurt__harry_-_on_bullshit.pdf), lying is a conscious effort to misrepresent reality, whereas bullshitting is a conscious effort to misrepresent the person doing the bullshitting. So the purpose of bullshitting is to make the bullshitter seem like a different sort of person than they actually are, or to misrepresent their own mental state. Lying, in contrast, has as its primary goal to deceive another person about…
-
Dialectical Behavior Therapy: Radical Acceptance
For many, reality is hard to accept. Unexpected and overwhelming events like lost jobs, physical illness and financial problems can make us want to give up or refuse to acknowledge the realities of our circumstances. In Dialectical Behavior Therapy, the ability to accept life, the reality of circumstances in which we find ourselves and the painful events that each of us must endure is taught as a skill. These skills can be difficult to teach and learn because the ability to respond to the world as it is, is an underlying attitude towards life. These skills, taught in the Distress Tolerance Module of the skills training group, include strategies to…
-
Jessica Cahill, who attempted suicide a month ago, describes her anguish
Jessica Cahill tried to kill herself a month ago. She is 28 and has lived with severe anxiety and deep depression since she was 12. Cahill has been hospitalized nearly 30 times in her short life. One psychiatrist recently said she has borderline personality disorder. Mental illnesses such as depression and anxiety disorders are complex and difficult to explain to those who haven’t lived through them. Cahill described her afflictions eloquently and with clarity over several hours of interviews. She invites the Star’s readers inside her mind with the hope that it helps at least one person: I want to talk about suicide because no one talks about it. Maybe…