What You Should Know If You Have Been Diagnosed With Borderline Personality Disorder

Here is the truth: BPD, or Borderline Personality Disorder, has a historically bad rap with mental health professionals. I’m going to give you some truths to what you should know to not only think about this clearly, but to consider your options in terms of the person you want to be and the person you want to become.

BPD was historically known for “bordering” on the lines of neurotic vs. psychotic. In the olden days, clinicians who didn’t know if a person was living in the confines of “reality” could put them in a category that didn’t really fit either one. Historically neurosis has to do with issues related to anxiety, mood, and depression. Neurosis can also be related to trauma, vigilance, and paranoia about bad things re-occurring. Psychosis is related to problems hearing and seeing things that others do not see or hear, and is often associated with schizophrenia. “Borderline” has often been referred to as a category that doesn’t really fit any category, and in some cases has been the in- between of no-place.

BPD is also historically written about from an extremely pejorative and hopeless point of view. Words like “manipulative, gamey, cagey” are often used, and mental health professionals often refer to this diagnosis when talking about people that bug them, that they do not like, that get them enraged, and people that can tie up crisis hotlines and emergency rooms. In many cases, labeling someone with BPD has become a substitute for observing and describing behavior, providing useful feedback, and encouraging people to behave in ways that make them competent and more effective.

Here are some truths that you should keep in mind if a mental health professional has “informed” you that you have BPD:

Mental health diagnoses are not valid nor reliable. This means that (in terms of validity), if the same professional assessed a person over time (such as an assessment 20 years ago, 10 years ago, and 5 years ago), the likelihood that that professional would give the same person the same diagnosis is unlikely. It also means that if many different mental health professionals assessed the same person it is highly unlikely the all of them would come to the same conclusion about diagnosis. This is assuming that the only measure of giving a diagnoses is a working familiarity with the DSM-TRV, or the “psychiatric Bible” of diagnostic criteria (which is highly controversial. Be aware that homosexuality was once considered a psychiatric disorder, and now it is not). Mental health diagnosis may be more reliable and valid if the diagnosis is given based on a range of valid and reliable assessment batteries; thus if you have had some comprehensive personality assessment and testing this may be less of the case for your situation. Bear in mind that most people in the counseling profession are doing nothing more than giving you their clinical opinion; hence my point about reliability and validity. Also, there are some counseling programs that don’t cover concepts such as instruments of mental health measurement.

For some mental health professionals, telling someone they have BPD can sometimes be a communication of frustration. In a helpful world, telling someone what diagnoses they have can be useful and even helpful- it can validate if a person really is depressed or help figure out specific treatments. In the case with BPD, the “right treatment” is more complicated and may not be readily available. If your mental health professional is telling you have BPD, you might want to consider: So what? How it is it helpful or useful? Does it help people have the resources or tools for solving painful problems? Is it specific enough to describe what behavior shows up- and how behavior can be changed? Does it provide access to literature that is actually helpful? For some people, being diagnosed with BPD can only serve to increase shame and self-loathing. Literature is not always helpful and mental health professionals don’t always shore up resources for how to move forward to obtain resources and supports. Is the expectation to hide in a corner the rest of your life and not tell people who you “really” are? And do you seriously want to live this way?

There is a lot of confusion for most people around diagnosis being a cause. Diagnoses are actually descriptions of behavior, and mainly identify patterns of responding or behaviors that are typical for a person. Many people, including some mental health professionals, actually believe that they are describing reasons or causes of behaviors when giving someone a diagnoses. For instance, if the way that you behave is because you have a disorder, then someone people think they have adequately not only explained the reasons you behave the way you do, but they think they know why you behave the way you do. In terms of diagnosis, this really is not the case. The failure of the mental health system is that people think they are being helpful (“You have problems because you have a disorder”) rather than addressing causes and potential solutions for behavior change. In this case, many problems of pain are not being solved as the focus of attention is on the “correct” diagnosis, which, in my opinion, is a rather useless pursuit. It can be akin to a parent who has several children; one of them is determined to be “bad.” Instead of figuring out how to prevent problem behavior, solve problems, and tend to the child’s needs; the parent simply attributes all problem behavior to the child being “bad.”

What you can do if you have, or think you have, or someone else thinks you have BPD:

Don’t think you are permanently impaired, hopeless, or beyond help. Fear and shame keeps may people paralyzed from acting with self-respect, doing things that are meaningful, and putting oneself out there in the universe. Universally, fear and shame can prevent anyone from living a decent life. You are not an exception.

Learn to talk about yourself and your behaviors in a descriptive, non-judgmental, and matter-of-fact ways. This will make you competent, understandable, and respectable. This also means that if you go around and tell everyone you are disordered, people may treat you as fragile, incompetent, incapable, or helpless. Create and practice ways to talk about yourself outside of the realm of “mental illness.”

Pay attention to providers, mental health professionals, or family members who attribute your behavior to being “mentally ill” or “bad” or “personality disordered.” Realize that everyone has vulnerabilities and that many, many people struggle with giving accurate, helpful, and specific feedback. Consider how giving and receiving feedback is either helpful or not helpful, and don’t seek out relationships where blame seems to be an acceptable solution for reducing pain or resolving differences. Finding “fault” only works if the consequence is taking responsibility and making changes; not amplifying shame and paralysis of action.

Be aware that if you do delve into literature on BPD, you may encounter a wide range of confusing terminology that attempts to define you; which may not only be disconcerting but also downright confusing. You might encounter terms like object relations, transference, countertransference, self-objects, self-soothing self-objects, object mirroring, intrapsychic processes, or projections. Don’t get bogged down by mental health-ese. Bear in mind that some mental health professionals have a lot of trouble observing and describing behavior and giving useful feedback and sometimes hide behind their own jargon.

Find other things that provide you a sense of identity, that define you, that make you the person you are, and that you value. Consider roles you take on in society; engage in them and be proud of them. What is important to you? Why would you let a diagnoses get in your way with pursuing what is important to you? In what ways do you not “show up” because you have shame around a diagnosis? Life is bigger than the world of “mental health.”

Bear in mind that many mental health professionals are obsessed with political leaders that they believe to be personality disordered. In truth, political leaders are still political leaders, and political leaders have made great gains, influenced many, changed laws, and maintained power. Being diagnosed with something “bad” hasn’t deterred people from being politically active, advocating, having power, or being influential. There is no good reason why you have to be shamed from participating in the universe just like everyone else- people with a lot of problems still manage to be successful and competent in a myriad of different ways.

Finally, feel free to visit the National Education Alliance for Borderline Personality Disorder, a nonprofit that may be more helpful than the general google search. Their website (www.borderlinepersonaltydisorder.com) has some useful non-pejorative literature, trainings, and free services for friends and family members.

Should I Get Back On The Horse? Two Ways To Approach Your Fear That Won’t Work.

If you get thrown off a horse, should you get back on? Some people will suggest that you need to get back on the horse immediately so that you will gain mastery over your fears. If you don’t get back on the horse, then your fear will haunt you the rest of your life.

Is this really true? Here are some ways of approaching fear that isn’t very effective. The first is to fight your fears or treat the situation like a battle zone. It means taking the reins, having control of the situation, bucking up, grinning and bearing it, tightening your muscles, and powering through. It can be coercive and forceful. In some cases it means blinding yourself, dissociating or disconnecting from the fear, or minimizing or reducing the value of what your fear might be trying to tell you. Generally it is doing the thing that you are afraid of as a way to prove yourself or prove your point.

The reason this doesn’t work is because it often means engaging in life as if it is a battle. Staying in the battle field often means getting hurt, risking relationships with others, being coercive, or putting the other on the defensive. Getting back on a high strung or agitated horse to gain mastery over fears is not an effective way to manage fear.

The other ineffective way of handling fear is to completely avoid anything associated with the fear. This means that any mention of the feared object or situation is avoided. Conversations stop, people stop making eye contact, the air becomes stilted and stale, people avoid people, and people avoid a wide range of stimuli that becomes associated with the feared situation. The person may be humiliated that they gone thrown off a horse, so they go out of their way to hide it. While people lead perfectly fulfilled lives without riding horses, the person who can’t drive past a barn, watch a television show with a horse on it, have a conversation about what happened when they were thrown off a horse, or set foot on a farm may find themselves restricted in ways that have nothing to do with riding the horse itself.

Handling fear effectively means being able to approach the situation with a flexible style that involves both challenging oneself, listening to the validity of the fear, being kind to oneself, backing off when things are too overwhelming, identifying smaller steps to approach the fear, and figuring out why the situation/ issue/ activity is important to you.

Fear is a useful emotion in that it provides information about oneself and one’s situation. Fear protects us from danger, gets us out of threatening situations, and helps us cope adaptively. Fear can also be so extreme that it takes over our lives, restricts our ability to do the things that are important to us, or prevents us from having a life- the life we want.

Here are a few questions to help you figure out your fear:

  • What about the situation, event, activity, or relationship is important to you? You may decide not to ride horses ever again, but does this fear bleed over into other areas of life that prevent you from doing what matters? If riding horses is not important to you, and it doesn’t get in the way of your life otherwise, it may not be an issue.
  • What does your experience- and your fear- tell you? Your fear may be telling you that getting back on an agitated horse is indeed a bad idea. So don’t go out and get hurt if it isn’t necessary. If horses aren’t your thing, let it go and move on. Don’t let your humiliation keep you attacking something that isn’t going to service you.
  • If you want to approach your fears, what would be the smallest step? Watching a TV show about horses, visiting a barn, feeding a horse, brushing a horse, walking a horse, and hanging out with horses are all behaviors that don’t include absolute avoidance but don’t force you into a situation that is potentially unsafe. You could also ride a smaller, more mellow horse with the help of a trainer.
  • If you are going to do the smaller steps, don’t white knuckle it. Relax your facial muscles, soften your jaw, breath slowly/ deeply/ evenly, maintain an open body posture, and take in the situation fully. If this feels threatening, do a smaller step- or limit the time you spend doing the activity. For instance, you could watch a TV show about horses for one minute, five minutes, or fifteen minutes. If this doesn’t challenge you, up the ante by going out to a barn. Find your middle ground, back off when you are overwhelmed, give yourself credit for your efforts, treat yourself kindly, and challenge yourself at some point in the future when you are in a better place.

Depressed? Anxious? Here’s What You Can Gain and Obtain

Most people who have more than their fair share of depression and anxiety are often seeking ways to decrease depressive and anxiety symptoms. In other words, they want to not be depressed and not have significant anxiety. If the symptoms are extreme or significant the person may start to avoid a lot of things, such as getting out of bed and going to places to that prompt panic attacks. Lifestyles can become restricted and the person may stop going to events or venues where they have the feelings they don’t want. Medications might be pursued, evaluated, and re-evaluated to see if they “work” or they “don’t work”.

If you are a depressed or anxious person, it might be worth considering what it is that you want more of, you would like to have, or what you value in your life. Instead of thinking what do I want to avoid start thinking about what you want to have more of in your life. What is it that would make your life more fulfilling, more engaging, more interesting, more desirable, or more alive? What is actually important to you? Sometimes people are so focused on what they are trying to get rid of they stop pursuing what they want.

Figuring out what you want more of ties in to your values, your energy, and your time. Are you sacrificing what is important to you because you are avoiding negative feelings? Have you stopped seeking activities that give you pleasure, fulfillment, obligation, a sense of contribution, or the opportunity to enhance an important relationship? If depression and anxiety interfere, this is a good time to evaluate what you might have to tolerate to go after more of what you want.

Sometimes, if people have more of what they want, their buffer against depression and anxiety can be tolerated more naturally. Some people get panic attacks at work, but because their job is important to them, they find a way to bear with them. Sometimes people get depressed when important things are lost, but because they have other important and meaningful activities in their life, the depression is bearable.

People who have fulfilled lives often have a wide range of things that give them pleasure, provide a sense of work/ mastery, invest in important relationships, and find new relationships when important ones end. Diversity and stability of the good things can help people shore up more resources when things go south and important jobs and relationships end.

 

 

 

 

What if I’m wrong?

Here are a couple of thoughts on the business of being “wrong.” First, the question itself begs a certain dichotomy to form in a relationship. It implies a one-up, one-down position. It can make one person more powerful, keep another at a distance, or in extreme circumstances serve as an opportunity to belittle or berate. What does being “wrong” imply about the relationship, the importance of keeping a relationship, or the way that people will continue to relate to each other? Is it worth it to damage or hurt a relationship to be “right”? If one person is “wrong”, then how is the relationship handled in the future? How do people move forward?

Next, being “wrong” might be rephrased as being technically inaccurate. If you are responding in a way to that does not match reality in a reasonable sort of way, you may be considered “wrong.” However, in some circumstances this begs the question of differences in opinion, perception, feelings, and agendas. A person can have a valid point of view, see things differently, or see aspects of a situation that another person is not able to see. This can prevent communities from being rigid, thinking “inside-the-box”, refusing to consider alternatives, or being racist or non-diverse in their thinking. Trying to understand the validity in where others come from can help us be more understanding, have better relationships, be more forgiving, and become less “stuck” in the right/wrong dichotomy. If you are technically “wrong”, this also might be your opportunity for self-correction, learning, or growth. Consider teasing out the differences of being “wrong” vs. being technically accurate, and if being “wrong” has anything to do with conflict around perspective, perception, intention, or emotion.

In addition, there is a certain cost to being “wrong.” Everyone at some point in their life has probably had an experience in which they thought something to be true, accurate, or reasonable but found this to not be the case. The cost to being “wrong” is often related to embarrassment, shame, humiliation, or perhaps the loss of trust or leadership. Are you able to correct your actions based on what happened? Can you tolerate the pain of your own humiliation and consider what really matters? If the inability to bear the cost of being “wrong” results in isolation, criticism, withdrawal, and becoming more adamant that you were “right”; you may want to give some thought to what it is costing you in terms of your relationships.

Here are some final questions for you to consider:

  • What are your intentions? Sometimes we are in long term work, romantic, or family relationships that must be giving careful consideration.
  • What are the intentions of the other person? (Are you sure, or are you assuming? What evidence do you have?)
  • What is the true cost of being told you are “wrong”? What do you have to gain by making sure others know you are “right”?
  • If you are “wrong,” can you tolerate your embarrassment enough to grow, learn, regroup, or reconsider how you will handle future situations?
  • Is it more important to be right than to be effective? (Consider what the relationship means to you and if your own self-respect in handling the situation is on the line).
  • Are you unforgiving of other people when they are “wrong”, thus unable to forgive yourself? Is your own criticism preventing you from moving on, getting unstuck, or responding in a way that is potentially painful but perhaps necessary?

When Things Fall Apart by Pam Chordron

Here are some paragraphs from this book:

“When the bottom falls out and we can’t find anything to grasp, it hurts a lot. It’s like the Naropa Institute motto, ‘Love of the truth puts you on the spot.” We might have some romantic view of what that means, but when we are nailed with the truth, we suffer. We look in the bathroom mirror, and there we are with our pimples, our aging face, or lack of kindness, our aggression and all that timidity– all that stuff.

This is where the tenderness comes in. When things are shaky and nothing is working, we might realize that we are on the verge of something. We might realize that this is a very honorable and tender place, and tenderness could go either way. We can shut down and feel resentful or we can touch and I met throbbing quality. There is definitely something tender and throbbing about that groundlessness.

Things falling apart as a kind of testing and also a kind of healing. We think that the point is to pass the test or to overcome the problem, but the truth is that things don’t really get solved. They come together and they fall apart. Then they come together again and fall apart again. It’s just like that. The healing comes from letting there be room for all of this to happen: Room for grief, for relief, for misery, for joy.”

(pages 7-8).

Do you avoid what you want the most?

Going into the bookstore has always been a positive experience for me. I am always filled with wonder at the millions of things I feel I could learn when I visit a big bookstore. I get the sense that I could just pick up a book, read it, and acquire a new skill, craft, or some time of knowledge that wasn’t there previously.

A few years ago, though, I wanted to write my own book. I was working on The Emotional Extremist’s Guide to Handling Cartoon Elephants. I would go into a bookstore and I would have the sensation that there were so many delightful, treasurable, and competing ideas and books that it almost felt as if I would just become one more competing voice. That my contribution wouldn’t make a difference. That all the ideas were taken. That people had accomplished so much more than I would ever be able to accomplish. The experience of going into the bookstore, as exciting as it was, had the potential to tap into my anxiety and prompt me to stop writing my book.

Sometimes “good” stressors open up in our life. What we really want is at our fingertips. Feeling good, contributing our own ideas, finding our voice, speaking up, influencing the world, and getting out of a place of feeling trapped, helpless, or stuck becomes an option. It’s there in front of us. We have the choice to be powerful and make a difference.

Sometimes these options cause us to shy away, shut down, stop believing in ourselves, not think we are good enough, or feel as if we are undeserving. These types of beliefs get in our way of taking action, having a better life, and surrounding ourselves with things we really want.

Here is a question for you: What is the cost of sitting back, becoming inactive, or avoiding what you want the most? How might your life be different if you approached -and got- what you want?

Ultimately, I was able to finish my cartoon elephant book. My confidence may still vary when I am around lots of beautiful books, smart people, or fabulous contributors to society. But I know that by not giving up on my goals, people have enjoyed my cartoon elephants, given me positive feedback about my book, and have found the cartoon elephant book to be a fabulous resource in addressing their own painful emotions.

What to do instead of criticize yourself

Try softening your stance, gently relax your face, and allow your muscles to become loose and less tight. Put a hand over your heart with an intention of lovingkindness, and try repeating the following statements with a tone of voice that conveys self-compassion:

May I bear this pain with kindness to myself

May I safely endure this pain

May I accept the circumstances of my life

May I find peace in my heart

May I let go of what I can not control

May I remember that others are also suffering

 

Boston DBT Parent Class: Parenting the Emotionally Extreme Teen

 How did this class help you? Here is the feedback from four parents who took the Spring 2015 class:

 

“To try and react better..To try and anticipate my daughter’s behavior triggers..try to find out what is causing the extremes and deal those triggers… By accepting emotions and where they are coming from; not to deny my emotions but they are there for a reason. To validate how I feel as well as my daughter. To be calmer. “- Parent 1

“To better understand my emotions, and that they have a purpose…To explore that purpose. Better able to identify escalation in my daughter. I’ve learned to buy time, to put some time in between responding to my daughter and others. What was most helpful was the overall impact of the course which has left me better equipped and more curious about DBT.” -Parent 2

“It made me more willing to bit my tongue, take a deep breath, and not focus on ‘fixing things’. Acceptance was important, both dealing with my own emotions and allowing for acceptance of my child’s emotions. Using mindfulness techniques to tone down my level of arousal was also important. Understanding that emotions might be valid but ineffective in some circumstances. I thought the (video content shown in class) outlined some very pragmatic examples and techniques.” -Parent 3

“To be more present with my emotion. To validate how I feel as well as my daughter. To be calmer, to think things through. Being able to listen to others’ experiences. Each class was built on each other. Have learned many skills to be more effective with my daughter.” -Parent 4

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