Borderline Personality Disorder -

[mzteris]

Anyone have any experience, knowledge, advice on this?

[mopinko]

1. this dx was entertained for my daughter.

i think that this disorder is not really firmly understood. but this is what my understanding is, based on what was talked about regarding my kid-
there is some thought that this is sort of the extreme end of the bipolar spectrum. it is not a mental illness, as that term is understood- not a neurochemistry that is out of balance, that can be treated with drugs. it is a configuration of personality traits that do not add up to a mentally healthy person. it tends not to respond to drugs, or to talk therapy. i think it is accepted that it does respond to dbt, something i don't really know much about.
one thing that i would like to emphasize from my experience- this dx should never be given to a child or adolescent. this is, in part, because it is normal for adolescents to be very self centered, to disregard consequences, to tell stories, to have a distorted reality, etc. so, until someone is mature, you cannot really say if they are going to mature into a regular person, or whether they are going to carry these adolescent traits into adulthood. this is also a dx that should only be given after much consideration, and in the context of a long therapeutic relationship.
although my kid is not the most centered and stable person, she has matured into someone who has normal relationships and emotional attachments. at 21, she has managed to grow out of a great deal of the troubles she had.

if you have more specific questions, maybe i can answer them.

[qb]

2. I know first-hand that Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT) is an effective treatment.

A loved one controls his BPD with this method. Whenever he begins to feel threatened or vulnerable he goes through his "steps" to keep his emotions from spiraling out of control.

[no name no slogan]

7. THIS ^

I went through DBT at one of my many various treatments, and it is very effective for emotional "triage", to help you get centered and find your balance. It focuses on living in the moment, and looking at your emotions from another perspective.

And even though I'm not BPD (I have bipolar disorder), I found it quite helpful.

[qb]

8. My therapist just decided to start me on DBT too... based on the family dynamics of my childhood.

My issues are depression and anxiety but he thinks this will help.

[Dorian Gray]

3. I have a friend who is in the process of DBT

and it is helping, but she's very resistant to the process. She's been diagnosed with BPD along with Bi Polar disorder and severe depression. She's been working with a DBT therapist and a psychologist who is handling the pharmaceutical end of her treatment.

She allowed herself to become homeless, jobless, promiscuous, drug addled and extraordinarily self-centered. The idea that she's maintained her friendships with myself and other people still baffles my mind, but she has a support system that has been working with her to help pay her therapy bills as she searches for a job. But she has some serious fences to mend when she's finished with her therapy.

[Ladyhawk]

4. I think an ex-friend of mine has this disorder.

She's also depressed, so it's hard to figure out. Recently, she's tried to be friendly again, but since she won't seek help for her mental problems, I don't want to become too entangled. I have enough problems of my own.

[mdmc]

5. experience and knowledge... no advice

basically i think of blpd as an illness that is environmental - people become ill w. bl due to stress and trauma in their lives...

I don't think of it as a biological disorder. I think of it as an environmental disorder.

Anyone can develop bl - all that is needed is the right (wrong) environment.

[meow2u3]

6. I strongly suspect my ex-friend has Borderline Personality Disorder

I just had a falling out with a friend of nearly 6 years, all because I refused to put up with her unbridled anger and toddlerish tantrums, primarily aimed at me, for no good reason. I could no longer live with someone who acts much younger than her youngest kid. She'd throw a public tantrum when a freakin' pole came between one of us; she has this crazy belief that letting a pole come between two people breaks the "spiritual connection." I think it's silly, but there's no talking to her--she even has her kids believe this extreme superstition.

Before that, she forever used to complain to me how the men in her life are obsessed with her (she's involved in a love triangle with her abusive ex-husband and an equally controlling boyfriend). That's when I could do no wrong. Recently, out of nowhere, she told me to quit contacting her--she even told her kids and her friends not to speak to me (I got wind of this from both her mother and a mutual friend). I was supposed to play by her rules, which turned out to be impossible because she'd constantly move the goalposts. I was damned if I did and damned if I didn't. I couldn't win no matter what. I was guilty solely because she arbitrarily decided so.

Out of nowhere, just last month, she blamed me--a victim of what my bank suspected of being identity theft--for having the nerve to report an unauthorized withdrawal from my bank, which caused me to close my old account and open up a new one to protect my identity. She's been twisting the facts, supported by hard evidence, and making me out to be the criminal instead of the real perpetrator. It sounds as if she's protecting the real criminal by making me the scapegoat. She tried to call me, but I'm giving her a small taste of her own medicine by refusing to speak to her, even though I know she'll twist the fact that she pushed me away and make me out to be abandoning her.

I've just gotten sick of her manipulative games of push'em away and then pull'em back in if they go too far away. I have my own issues to deal with. I don't need her bullshit.

Oops, I forgot to mention she's using dope heavily to the point where she gets these paranoid delusions about me. I'm only her recent enemy. It's always divide and conquer, and use others to get more dope, especially X.