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Hundreds of mentally ill people in Hampshire are being locked up in police cells rather than being taken to NHS facilities, the BBC has found.
Mentally ill people in Hampshire ‘locked up in cells’ (link)
7 March 2012 Last updated at 16:08 ET
Hundreds of mentally ill people in Hampshire are being locked up in police cells rather than being taken to NHS facilities, the BBC has found.
More than 1,000 people were detained under the Mental Health Act in the past year with 640 taken to cells.
People in custody should be assessed within two hours but in Hampshire the average is more than 17 hours.
Hampshire police said it was making progress to cut waiting times but admitted more needed to be done.
Frances Ayling, who suffers from borderline personality disorder, has tried to take her own life four times in the past year and each time has been arrested and taken to a cell.
She said: “It is literally a metal door, you’ve got a bed and a metal toilet, that is all you’ve got.
“You’re left there looking at four walls basically, you’re stripped of everything you’ve got on you. Continue reading Mentally ill people in UK ‘locked up in cells’ →
The top five must-have books for parents of children with Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD). These are must-reads!
Reactive psychosis is “very uncommon,” usually striking people in their late 20s or early 30s, but it can happen to anyone at any age. Some research suggests people with certain personality disorders, such as paranoid personality disorder or borderline personality disorder are more vulnerable, he said.
Brief reactive psychosis blamed for Kony 2012 director’s outburst: What is it? (link)
By Ryan Jaslow
(CBS/AP) The family of Kony 2012 director Jason Russell says “brief reactive psychosis” caused the 33-year-old’s bizarre naked outburst that led to his arrest in San Diego last week. Russell’s wife says the director of the viral documentary on Ugandan warlord Joseph Kony got the condition as a result of stress from his sudden rise to fame.
“Doctors say this is a common experience given the great mental, emotional and physical shock his body has gone through in these last two weeks,” Danica Russell said in a statement. “Even for us, it’s hard to understand the sudden transition from relative anonymity to worldwide attention – both raves and ridicules, in a matter of days.”
What exactly is brief reactive psychosis?
Dr. Bryan Bruno, acting chairman of the department of psychiatry at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City, tells HealthPop that the disorder is characterized by a period of psychosis that lasts at least one day and up to month that’s usually abrupt or sudden.
“By psychosis, we mean impaired reality,” Bruno said. “People have some sort of delusion or false thinking, hallucinations, severe disorganized behavior – very bizarre behavior.” Bruno is not involved in Russell’s care.
According to the National Institutes of Health, other symptoms include strange speech or language, and the symptoms are not caused by alcohol or drug abuse. Russell’s family said in the statement that the filmmaker’s behavior was not due to drugs or alcohol.
Continue reading Brief reactive psychosis: What is it? →
Some historians believe Mary Lincoln had tabes dorsalis (syphilitic myelopathy) in her later years. Others say she suffered from a bad case of narcissism. Today, she might qualify for a diagnosis of borderline personality disorder. If she was living with bipolar disorder, considering the chaos those symptoms can cause, she did very well for herself.
- Excerpt from Washington Times article. Read the entire article.
By (author) Jean Harvey Baker
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Anxiety sensitivity, or the fear of becoming anxious, has been indicated as a factor in the occurrence of panic attacks for a long time. It is believed that many panic attacks are caused or intensified by the fear of anxiety, a self-perpetuating cycle that can eventually leave the sufferer house-bound in an effort to control their environment. New research indicates that anxiety sensitivity may also be indicated as a factor in the development of borderline personality disorder, or BPD. If this is the case, there may be new hope for treating this severe and destructive personality disorder.
Anxiety sensitivity and borderline personality disorder: a newfound sympathy? (link)
Anxiety sensitivity, or the fear of becoming anxious, has been indicated as a factor in the occurrence of panic attacks for a long time. It is believed that many panic attacks are caused or intensified by the fear of anxiety, a self-perpetuating cycle that can eventually leave the sufferer house-bound in an effort to control their environment. New research indicates that anxiety sensitivity may also be indicated as a factor in the development of borderline personality disorder, or BPD. If this is the case, there may be new hope for treating this severe and destructive personality disorder.
Borderline personality disorder is mostly misunderstood by the general public. It can be hard to have sympathy for those who suffer with this disorder, which causes impulsive, aggressive, or needy behavior, often vacillating between rage and helplessness. Two of the main markers of BPD are splitting and a tenuous self-image. Splitting is seeing people as either all good or all bad. There can be no in-between. If someone does what the BPD person likes, they are idealized; if they make a mistake, they must be completely evil. Those with borderline personality disorder also suffer from an unstable self-image and lack a steady sense of who they are.
A recent study showed that anxiety sensitivity might have something to do with the unstable behavior of someone with BPD. While their behavior may appear destructive to outside observers, splitting and a tenuous sense of self along with all the byproduct behaviors produced by these two markers may simply be the way that someone with borderline personality disorder keeps anxiety at bay.
Outpatients who suffered with borderline personality disorder were compared with those who did not suffer from any personality disorder. They were measured for anxiety sensitivity as well as experiential avoidance, or attempts to avoid unwanted internal experiences such as anxiety. What they found was that there was a noticeably higher incidence of anxiety sensitivity and experiential avoidance in patients suffering with borderline personality disorder.
What does this mean? It could mean that borderline personality disorder is developed partially in response to anxiety sensitivity. Because the borderline fears certain situations and outcomes, they avoid anxiety-provoking possibilities through splitting and lack of a concrete self-image. How would this work?
Continue reading Anxiety sensitivity and borderline personality disorder →
A mother and her teenage son gave a rare insight into the trauma of self-harm yesterday.
Self-harming put world on pause for me, says teen (link)
By Evelyn Ring
Saturday, March 03, 2012
A mother and her teenage son gave a rare insight into the trauma of self-harm yesterday.
Dara and Eoghan — who only wanted to be identified by their first names — said it was talking about the problem rather than medication that had worked best for them.
Eoghan told a major conference on self-injury in Trinity College Dublin, that he first became depressed when he was 15 years old because he was unhappy at school.
He started self-harming about a year later. “I did not know what self-harm was when I first started. I don’t even remember why,” said Eoghan.
“For me, personally, it put the world on pause. It gave me a moment to myself. I just felt everything else had gone away.”
It was many months later that he revealed to his mother Dara, that he was self-harming.
Eoghan, who was being constantly bullied because he was gay, was eventually advised by the principal that it would be better if he left the school.
After leaving school, Eoghan became afraid of leaving his home.
He began cutting himself more frequently and started drinking heavily.
Eventually, he told his mother he could not cope and they agreed a few weeks in a psychiatric hospital would be helpful.
“I was by far the youngest person there by about 30 years,” Eoghan recalled. “I felt exceptionally low and very neglected and had no counselling.”
At one point, he had to strip naked so a medic could check whether he was still cutting himself. “They were more concerned at stopping me from cutting myself instead of asking me why I was doing it.”
At the end of three weeks, a borderline personality disorder was diagnosed.
“For Eoghan to be given that diagnosis was pretty horrific,” said Dara.
A specialist at the hospital later explained that because Eoghan was self-harming, it had to be described as a disorder. Eoghan went back to a counsellor who had seen him earlier and she played a leading role in his recovery. “The doctors were just so detached. They just didn’t get it,” he said.
Dara said it was so important that people like her son were listened to. “Self-harm is not an illness, it is a coping mechanism.
“People self-harm every day of the week by over-eating, smoking or drinking or dangerous activities.”
Eoghan said he had reached a happy ending but was concerned about others who self-harmed.
“The focus on the condition has to move away from the physical act because it is all about your own self worth,” said Eoghan, who is now 18 and completing his education through a Youthreach programme.
Dr Kay Inckle of TCD School of Social Work and Social Policy, who organised the conference, said there was a need for a radical rethink of our understanding and response to self-injury in Ireland. “We need to base our response to self-injury on the stated needs and experiences of people who self-injure, not on remote policy or statistics,” she said.
In his first public appearance since being traded to the Bears, Brandon Marshall naturally thanked the McCaskeys, coach Lovie Smith, former Dolphins coach Tony Sparano, former Dolphins teammates, his agent, his attorney, his wife and Marsha Linehan.
Marshall thanks therapist (link)
Linehan, in turn, credits Bears receiver for being to diligent about treatment
By David Haugh, Chicago Tribune reporter
March 18, 2012
In his first public appearance since being traded to the Bears, Brandon Marshall naturally thanked the McCaskeys, coach Lovie Smith, former Dolphins coach Tony Sparano, former Dolphins teammates, his agent, his attorney, his wife and Marsha Linehan.
Marsha Linehan?
“She’s one of the pioneers for the therapies for borderline personality disorder (BPD) known as dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) that allows individuals to understand their emotions to control themselves as far as regulating them,” Marshall said.
Without the treatment Linehan developed and Marshall underwent last summer after being diagnosed with BPD at McLean Hospital outside Boston, he doubts he could face the future optimistically. Informed of Marshall’s gratitude Friday night, Linehan returned the thanks.
“I very much admire him for what he’s doing and wish him well,” said Linehan, a therapist and researcher at the University of Washington who also has been diagnosed with BPD. “Brandon is such a good role model. It is powerful and wonderful he’s doing it. The most important thing he’s standing up and telling people, ‘I can change, so can you.’ ”
Linehan, 68, explained what she called “the gold standard of treatment.”
“The reason it’s called dialectical is it brings the synthesis of opposites,” she said. “It primarily synthesizes the concept of radical acceptance with change. If you radically accept things you can also change them. It is a skill, like emotion regulation and mindfulness. Stress tolerance has two sets: How do you get through a crisis without making things worse and how do you radically accept a situation that isn’t what you want?”
A Chicago connection: Linehan earned her bachelor’s, master’s and doctorate degrees from Loyola, where she made a transformational breakthrough in the area of radical acceptance. Marshall’s grasp of the terminology and methodology suggested to Linehan that he got the most out of his time at the McLean Hospital last summer.
“Learning new behavior is no different than learning football drills they do,” Linehan said. “You practice, practice, practice and I’m sure that’s what he did because I know the DBT program at McLean.”
Can a patient with Marshall’s troubled past really alter his behavior in the midst of professional upheaval?
“Change could be difficult for him,” she said. “However, change with a lot of support and validation and serious work on doing his skills ought to get him through it. Whatever set off anger in the past probably will set it off in the future but now he is skillful at dealing with it. I would say he’s going to avoid it in the future because he has new skills.”
Copyright © 2012, Chicago Tribune
“Hoovering” is a misleading slang term that some use to suggest that a relationship partner can “suck us back into a relationship” after we break it off
Bon: Skip, over at BPDFamily.com, wrote this article about Hoovering. I find it interesting and I go a bit of a chuckle out of the sentence: “Hope is not enough (on both sides).”
BPD News: Is it a “Hoover” or is it “Relationship Recycling”
9/01/2010 BPDFAMILY.COM 2 COMMENTS
The BPDFamily.com support group reports that “hoovering” is a misleading slang term that some use to suggest that a relationship partner can “suck us back into a relationship” after we break it off. “Hoovering” in this context falsely implies a premeditated malicious effort to hurt their partner on the part of the person with Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD). It also suggests that the partner is somewhat powerless to resist returning to the relationship.
This concept is in conflict with the primary characteristics of Borderline Personality Disorder – most notably that people with the disorder are notoriously impulsive, weak and often too consumed in their own pain to be sensitive to others. This concept also suggests that someone has power over another that they could not possibly have.
Most likely what is happening is relationship recycling by both parties – breaking up, getting back, breaking up, getting back.
Relationship Recycling Takes Two
Excessive relationship recycling, or break-up/make-ups are common in some “BPD” relationships. 70% of our members having unsuccessful relationships report having had 4 or more break-up/make-ups. 23% report an unbelievable 10 or more.
Recycling is about both parties. The real dynamic is that both parties return to a place they feel is safer/easier than being apart. So, in effect, the couple struggles to work together and each struggles in weakness to be apart or alone.
Living with excessive recycling is an unhealthy place to be. When you repeatedly recycle, clearly something is very wrong.
Recycling can become the “norm” in a relationship. with both parties can becoming conditioned to it after a while. Accepting this “norm” is the ultimate boundary violation – you are not treating each other well – you are not treating yourself well.
If you have been through more than 3 break-up/make-ups in your relationship, it’s important to recognize that it is unlikely to get better if something doesn’t significantly change. Repeated recycling will not go away on its own. One person can’t fix it unilaterally (stop the breakups).
Is Recycling Always Unhealthy?
Not always. Let’s break this down. Sixty-two (62%) of relationships do not end at the first break-up. For a wife to have second thoughts about a divorce is normal. Sometimes our own self doubt makes us want to try one more time. Sometimes one partner promises to change something. To reconnect with a person after a break-up 1-2 times is really not all that unusual.
When there are more than 3-4 “break-up/make-up” cycles in a relationship there is something seriously wrong. And when this happens, the likelihood of a positive outcome are greatly diminished.
Why do we get caught up in cycles?
These are the questions we need to answer if we ever want the break-up/make-up cycle to end. Are we returning to this person because we are in love with them and the relationship has a chance, or are we returning to this person because they feel safe?
* Are we afraid to be alone?
* Do we have our own abandonment issues?
* Are we fearful that we cannot find someone as good as them again?
* Are we fearful of the next step (dating, financial issues, etc.) Continue reading Hoovering or Relationship Recycling? →
Using real-time brain imaging, a team of researchers have discovered that patients with Borderline Personality
 Brain Scans and BPD Disorder (BPD) are physically unable to regulate emotion.
Brain Scans Clarify Borderline Personality Disorder (link)
By Rick Nauert PhD Senior News Editor
Reviewed by John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on September 4, 2009
Using real-time brain imaging, a team of researchers have discovered that patients with Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) are physically unable to regulate emotion.
The findings, by Harold W. Koenigsberg, MD, professor of psychiatry at Mount Sinai School of Medicine suggest individuals with BPD are unable activate neurological networks that would help to control feelings.
The research will be published in the journal Biological Psychiatry.
Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), researchers viewed how the brains of people with BPD reacted to social and emotional stimuli.
Koenigsberg found that when people with BPD attempted to control and reduce their reactions to disturbing emotional scenes, the anterior cingulate cortex and intraparetical sulci areas of the brain that are active in healthy people under the same conditions remained inactive in the BPD patients.
“This research shows that BPD patients are not able to use those parts of the brain that healthy people use to help regulate their emotions,” said Dr. Koenigsberg.
“This may explain why their emotional reactions are so extreme. The biological underpinnings of the disordered emotional control systems are central to borderline pathology. Studying which areas of the brain function differently in patients with borderline personality disorder can lead to more targeted uses of psychotherapy and medications, and also provide a link to connect the genetic basis of the disorder.”
According to background information in the article, borderline personality disorder is a common condition, affecting up to two percent of all adults in the United States, mostly women.
Characteristics of BPD include being so emotionally overreactive that they suffer alternating bouts of depression, anxiety and anger, are interpersonally hypersensitive, and are impelled to self-destructive and even suicidal behavior.
Patients with BPD often exhibit other types of impulsive behaviors, including excessive spending, binge eating and risky sex. BPD often occurs together with other psychiatric problems, particularly bipolar disorder, depression, anxiety disorders, substance abuse, and other personality disorders.
The disorder is found in 10 to 20 percent of people in psychiatric care, and about 10 percent of people with this condition ultimately die of suicide. Only recently have researchers begun to identify underlying biological factors associated with the condition.
Source: The Mount Sinai Medical Center
APA Reference
Nauert PhD, R. (2009). Brain Scans Clarify Borderline Personality Disorder. Psych Central. Retrieved on March 9, 2012, from http://psychcentral.com/news/2009/09/04/brain-scans-clarify-borderline-personality-disorder/8184.html
I love him enough to want him dead. I’ve never giving my heart to anyone before and wasn’t really intending to do so ever. My plan was to plan the perfect life and live it… I didn’t really know about all the feelings I was ‘supposed’ to have for a partner. When I learned about this feeling and the vulnerability of love, I realize that it’s a dangerous game. I don’t want to play.
Bon: Interesting article from a woman with BPD…
I Want To Kill You Before There Is A Chance That You’ll Break My Heart (link)
Posted August 14th, 2010 at 3:33AM
I love him enough to want him dead. I’ve never giving my heart to anyone before and wasn’t really intending to do so ever. My plan was to plan the perfect life and live it… I didn’t really know about all the feelings I was ‘supposed’ to have for a partner. When I learned about this feeling and the vulnerability of love, I realize that it’s a dangerous game. I don’t want to play.
I don’t think he realizes that the ‘petty’ arguments and random hurtful comments, that might seem so insignificant in other peoples relationships are not so small to me. You see, now you’re my enemy, you are no longer on my side, you are attacking me. It’s now you or me and for survival I now have to take you out (if I don’t make myself my own enemy and crave my own death again). This constant cloud/battle of wanting his death vs my own is new. I think it’s because I’m in a program to no longer self harm and my intense emotions still need to be expressed and if it’s no longer inwards which was partinally to protect others from me, then I’m left with out wards now.
Sleeping beside him at night, I watch him breath in and out and the throbbing pulse of his neck, he’s so fragile in his sleep and I love him. I love him to death. Continue reading I Want To Kill You Before There Is A Chance That You’ll Break My Heart →
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