• Biology,  Borderline Personality Disorder

    Risky brain, safe brain: MIT charts neural pathways involved in decision-making

    The findings could help researchers discover new ways to treat psychiatric disorders that feature impaired decision-making, such as depression, schizophrenia, and borderline personality disorder. Risky brain, safe brain: MIT charts neural pathways involved in decision-making Every decision we take is influenced to some extent by emotion, and choices that offer both negative and positive elements – such as picking a higher paying but hazardous job or a safer but less profitable one – evoke them the most, particularly anxiety. Researchers at MIT have now identified a neural circuit that they believe underpins decision-making in situations such as this, and have started looking into mice’s brains to better understand the biological…

  • Biology,  Borderline Personality Disorder

    Interview with Talya Lewis Author & BPD Sufferer

    Interview with Talya Lewis, author of The Boom Boom Retreat: A Memoir and Borderline Personality Disorder sufferer (in the past). It’s worth a listen and her book is worth a read, especially for people with BPD. “Shame is the core experience of someone with Borderline Disorder” – a quote from the audio. It just confirms that what I wrote in When Hope is Not Enough is true. I write of shame as the fuel of BPD, with emotional regulation being the engine. A quote from my book: “Emotional dysregulation is the engine that drives the train of BPD. Shame and impulsiveness also contribute no doubt (maybe as fuel and throttle…

  • Biology,  Emotions,  Other Disorders

    Brain Surgery To Remove Amygdala Leads To Woman’s ‘Hyper Empathy’

    “Emotional empathy refers to feeling another person’s emotion,” Richard-Mornas said. “While cognitive empathy is the ability to adopt the other person’s point of view, or ‘put oneself in his/her shoes,’ without necessarily experiencing any emotion.” Brain Surgery To Remove Amygdala Leads To Woman’s ‘Hyper Empathy’ By Bahar Gholipour, Staff Writer In a strange case, a woman developed “hyper empathy” after having a part of her brain called the amygdala removed in an effort to treat her severe epilepsy, according to a report of her case. Empathy is the ability to recognize another person’s emotions. The case was especially unusual because the amygdala is involved in recognizing emotions, and removing it…

  • Borderline Personality Disorder

    Overactive Midbrain and Stress Tolerance

    From Nora Gedgaudas’s latest book “Rethinking Fatigue”: CHRONIC MIDBRAIN OVERACTIVATION When the reticular activating system is stimulated, it fires off in different directions, and at times particularly strong emotional reactions to events can become stuck in a self-perpetuating feedback loop. In other words, particularly pronounced reactions to traumatic or stressful events can cause the brain to become hardwired for stress. This can also lead to long-term anxiety-related issues. The overactivation of this area of the brain, say by a particularly upsetting, traumatizing event, can lead to a chronically exaggerated stress response. A person may become hypervigilant and have an exaggerated startle response or possibly other symptoms similar to obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD).…

  • Biology,  Borderline Personality Disorder

    Does Borderline Personality Develop in the Womb?

    Cornelia E. Schwarze of the Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy at the University Medical Center Mainz in Germany led the study that looked at the prenatal conditions of 100 individuals with BPD and compared them to 100 participants with no history of BPD. Does Borderline Personality Develop in the Womb? August 28th, 2013 Contributed by Jen Wilson, GoodTherapy.org Correspondent Research on borderline personality (BPD) has explored various avenues in search of risk factors. But according to a recent study, some of the biggest risk factors for BPD may develop in the womb. Cornelia E. Schwarze of the Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy at the University Medical Center Mainz in Germany…

  • Biology,  Borderline Personality Disorder,  Emotions,  Validation

    Ambiguity is the greatest threat

    In 2009, I attended the International Society for the Study of Personality Disorders (ISSPD) in New York. Dr. Glen Gabbard, MD, a psychiatrist and clinician that treats people with Borderline Personality Disorder (#BPD). About halfway through his presentation, Dr. Gabbard said: “Ambiguity is the greatest threat.” He was speaking in the context of a clinician treating someone with BPD. Many studies have show that people with BPD react to neutral facial expressions as if the person is angry. People with BPD interpret neutral faces as angry. I once saw a woman with BPD view a picture of a neutral face and she said, “He’s angry with me.” Dr. Gabbard was suggesting to…