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Diary Drawings: Mental Illness and Me
In 1996 the artist Bobby Baker was diagnosed as having borderline personality disorder. Her subsequent struggle to overcome severe mental and later physical illness lasted for 11 years, and was unknown to anyone outside her close family, friends and colleagues. The 158 drawings and watercolours in this book, selected by Bobby from the hundreds more that she created daily as a private way of coming to terms with her experience, are an astonishing record of her slow and harrowing journey to eventual recovery. Moving, startling, shocking and hilarious in turn, these diary drawings reveal the stark realities of living with mental illness and of society’s lack of understanding. No…
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Therapy keeps negative emotions in check
Diagnosed with a borderline personality disorder which has negatively impacted her relationships with others and led to repeated suicide attempts and incidents of self-harming, Johnson said she is resolute in learning how to cope with overwhelming emotions. Therapy keeps negative emotions in check (link) Rolling up her sleeves, Phyllis Johnson reveals the scars she had inflicted upon herself in the past. Known simply as “P.J.” to her friends, the Sioux City woman would often cut herself as a way to release the pain she was feeling in her life. Diagnosed with a borderline personality disorder which has negatively impacted her relationships with others and led to repeated suicide attempts…
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To Fix Your Body, First You Must Fix Your Soul
This pattern of impulse control failure had manifested itself most obviously in various unwise moves I’d made with regards to my career, online. I’d posted scathing letters and blog posts about my employers or business associates, for example, over the past decade, and though I’d incredibly thought at the time that such actions would help me to gain sympathy, these things always turned around to bite me. In the end, the only person who ended up hurt by my public tantrums was…me. An article from Alsia Valdes about BPD and her relationship. To Fix Your Body, First You Must Fix Your Soul by Alisa Valdes 1/24/2012 It’s funny how things…
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Study on the Lethality of Suicide and Borderline Personality Disorder
Recurrent suicidal behaviors in patients with Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) are often considered communicative gestures; however, 10% complete suicide. This study seeks to identify risk factors for suicide within a BPD sample by comparing patients with High- and Low Lethality attempts. BPD attempters (n = 113) were assessed on demographic, diagnostic, and personality variables: clinical symptoms, suicidal behaviors; childhood, family, and treatment histories; social adjustment; and recent life events. Forty-four High-Lethality attempters, defined by a score of 4 or more on Beck’s Medical Lethality Scale, were compared to 69 Low-Lethality attempters. Discriminating variables were entered in a multivariate logistic regression model to define predictors of High-Lethality status. High-Lethality attempters were…
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New approach could more effectively diagnose personality disorders
Personality disorders could be more effectively diagnosed by identifying and targeting the disrupted neurobiological systems where the disorders originate, report Cornell researchers. New approach could more effectively diagnose personality disorders (link) February 20th, 2012 in Psychology & Psychiatry (Medical Xpress) — Personality disorders could be more effectively diagnosed by identifying and targeting the disrupted neurobiological systems where the disorders originate, report Cornell researchers. The way that these mental illnesses are now classified — based on particular patterns of thought and behavior — is misguided and has little hard evidence to support it, reports Cornell neuroscientist Richard Depue and his colleague in a special issue of the Journal of International Review…
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Demi Moore and BPD
When I read the People Magazine article about Demi Moore, while I was waiting to get a haircut, I thought of Borderline Personality Disorder. I guess I wasn’t the only one. Here is an “open letter to Demi Moore” from Alisa Valdes, the author, about BPD and being lovable. An Open Letter to Demi Moore By Alisa Valdes 1/26/2012 Dear Demi, I don’t know you. So I ask you to forgive my false familiarity. We have New Mexico in common, and I know of people who knew you growing up in Roswell. From what I’ve heard, you had a rough start in this world. So I guess I we have…