Borderline Personality Disorder
Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) is devastating to those that live with it and to those that love them. Fueled by pervasive emotion dysregulation, it wreaks havoc on relationships, self-respect and life goals.
It’s overwhelming. It’s lonely. It’s scary.
I understand that, and I’m here to help.
People with BPD often blame themselves. Other people blame them, too. However, it is widely accepted that BPD develops from a combination of genetic factors and an invalidating social environment. Factors that were not in your control. You are NOT ‘crazy.’
1.4% of the U.S. population has BPD.
Marsha Linehan, the developer of DBT, explains Borderline Personality Disorder in terms of five areas of dysregulation:
- Emotion Dysregulation: Emotion dysregulation means your emotions come on quickly, with high intensity and take a long time to return to baseline
- Interpersonal Dysregulation: Interpersonal dysregulation is indicated by chaotic relationships and fears of abandonment.
- Self-Dysregulation: Self-dysregulation means an unstable sense of self and a sense of emptiness.
- Behavioral Dysregulation: Behavioral dysregulation is characterized by self-injury and impulsive behaviors (such as substance abuse and promiscuity).
- Cognitive Dysregulation: Cognitive dysregulation is indicated by paranoia and dissociative responses that are made worse by stressful situations.
Borderline Personality Disorder – not a ‘life sentence’
Receiving a diagnosis of Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) can be hard to hear. You may feel hopeless that you’ll ever get better and believe that you’ve just received a life sentence of misery.
BPD is extremely vexing to the individual with BPD, their family and friends, and even mental health professionals. Your experience of therapy may be that it doesn’t really help. You might have been discharged from therapy because the therapist explained they “can’t do anything more for you.”
From ‘problem’ to ‘problem-solved’
Until the 1990s, BPD was thought to be untreatable. Introduced in 1993, Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) changed the treatment landscape for BPD. DBT has been extensively researched and is considered the ‘gold standard’ for the treatment of BPD.
DBT changes lives. Learn more about how I can help you with DBT here.