Borderline Personality Disorder and Stigma

Like many people with BPD, I am excruciatingly sensitive to other people’s perceptions of me. At times, a negative word or look can drastically redefine how I feel about myself. It even has a physical effect, like being hit with a soccer ball in the solar plexus. With this kind of vulnerability, it seems almost masochistic to publicly identify oneself with a disorder that has such negative associations. But here’s the catch: enduring human connection and mastery comes only after facing oneself and sharing that self with others. —Kiera Van Gelder

Chronic Suicidality and BPD

From Joel Paris, MD:

Chronic suicidality is a way of coping with painful emotions. The inner experience of the patient involves isolation and despair. Patients have a sense of emptiness about self as well as a feeling that life is meaningless. But there is always a way to escape, and the option of suicide offers a sense of control and empowerment. My book used a title that borrowed a phrase from John Keats’ “Ode to a Nightingale”: BPD patients are “half in love with death.”

Yet suicidality tends to decline as life improves. As we have seen, long-term follow-up studies of BPD show that most patients recover with time and give up this option. When they achieve a degree of
mastery in their lives, they no longer need to be masters of death.

and

With a few exceptions, patients with BPD should not be hospitalized, because there is no evidence that admission to a ward has any value. In fact, hospital stays can be counterproductive and harmful.

—Treatment of Borderline Personality Disorder: A Guide to Evidence-Based Practice (2008)

RethinkBPD’s Amanda Wang: Struggles, Breakdown & Breakthrough

Amanda Wang is a fantastic advocate for persons diagnosed with borderline personality disorder and she boldly uses her story to reach out and help others.

Ms. Wang is also the creator and producer of an ambitious film project titled RethinkBPD.

FBPDA strongly urges our readers to learn more about Amanda, her struggle with BPD, and continued healing and recovery by watching this video:

BPD Profile: Struggles, Breakdown & Breakthrough from Amanda Wang on Vimeo.

Dialectical Behavior Therapy: A Program for Professional and Patient Success

FBPDA is proud to present our second conference titled Dialectical Behavior Therapy: A Program of Professional and Patient Success on Friday, October 23, 2009 from 8:00 am until 4:30 pm at St. Petersburg College’s EpiCenter.

Conference Goal:
Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) was developed by Marsha Linehan, PhD to address the needs of those patients with chronic suicidal, self-injurious, and other dysfunctional behaviors. DBT has been proven to be highly effective in reducing suicidal behavior, instances of self-harm, and emergency psychiatric hospitalizations in patients diagnosed with borderline personality disorder and other psychiatric diagnoses.

The conference will provide a one-day overview of this treatment in addition to providing a synopsis of recently published research supporting the effectiveness of DBT.

Topics and Speakers:
7:30-8:00 a.m. Sign-in, registration, continental breakfast
• 8-9 a.m. Dialectical Behavior Therapy: What is it, Where has it Been, and Where is it Going? Edward Selby, MS
• 9-10 a.m. Cultivating the Dialectical Stance: From Black and White to Living Color. Kiera Van Gelder, MFA
10-10:15 a.m. Break
• 10:15-11:15 a.m. Understanding and Practical Use of Distress Tolerance Skills. Suzanne Holt, LCSW
• 11:15 a.m.-12:15 p.m. Accept and Acknowledge: Validation Strategies in DBT. Henah Gupta, PhD and Anna Traylor, PsyD
12:15-1:15 p.m. Lunch
• 1:15-2:15 p.m. You’ve Learned the Model and Memorized the Skills, Now What? The Core Beliefs, Practices and Assumptions Required to Make a Great DBT Therapist. Nancy Gordon, LCSW
2:15-2:30 p.m. Break
• 2:30-2:45 p.m. DBT Case Studies. Stacy Louk, PhD
• 2:45-4:30 p.m. Panel Discussion: Overcoming Your Most Difficult Challenges in DBT. Gordon, Selby, and Van Gelder
4:30 p.m. Evaluation/CE BROKER/End

Register:
You can register by going to St. Petersburg College’s web site or by calling (727) 341-4772. The course number is HHP0335 Class #4432 and the fee for the day is $79.00. A continental breakfast and lunch provided.

This course is approved for 8 contact hours for Psych Nurses, LCSW, LMHC, LMFT and Psychology. St. Petersburg College is a Florida-approved provider CE Broker #50-2525.

Quotable Linehan

The search for validity is dialectical, in that the therapist must find the grain of wisdom and authenticity in a patient’s responses that on the whole may have been dysfunctional. At times, validating a patient’s response is like finding a nugget of gold in a cup of sand. The assumption of DBT is that there is a nugget of gold in every cup of sand; there is some inherent validity in every response. Attention to the nugget of gold does not preclude attention to the sand, however. Indeed, validation strategies are balanced by problem-solving strategies, which focus on finding and taking action on characteristics of the patient that must be changed. —Marsha M. Linehan, Cognitive-Behavioral Treatment of Borderline Personality Disorder

Are “Borderlines” Really Just Emotional Vampires?

I have a Google alert set up for “borderline personality disorder” and other keywords surrounding the diagnosis so that I can keep up with what’s being published on the Internet as well as traditional media. From time-to-time, something will pop up that will make me cringe. Today’s cringe-worthy declaration from a blog? Those diagnosed with BPD are “emotional vampires.”

Alas, vilifying persons with mental illness is nothing new. A natural reaction to things that are novel or even just different is fear. It’s easier and certainly less complicated to laugh at someone on the street who is talking to someone who isn’t there. But what happens when someone in (or out) our lives has been diagnosed with BPD and they really do seem to behave like an emotional vampire?

First of all, witnessing or being confronted with the behaviors of someone with BPD can be confusing, frustrating, exhausting, and sometimes even scary. If you are scared, you can safely assume that the person who is “acting out” is also terrified by their reactions to what is happening around them. The result of this overwhelming emotional chaos may be expressed externally by yelling, blaming, and physically harming others or internally through self-injury (such as cutting or burning), crippling feelings of guilt or shame, or, ultimately, suicide.

It’s important to remember that someone with BPD isn’t making a conscious choice to make life hell-on-earth for you or anyone else. Simply put, their life is full of suffering and until they are able to receive effective, compassionate treatment, it will continue to be a painful existence—day-after-day and year-after-year.

Labels do nothing to help educate or create environments where healing can occur. While BPD is highly treatable, misinformation and out-dated myths often take the place of the kindness, forgiveness, and mercy needed to help support someone diagnosed with the disorder.

Remember: Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle.

Kim Gratz Interview Posted

Florida Borderline Personality Disorder Association hosted our first conference call with Kim Gratz, PhD on Monday, June 29.

Dr. Gratz is the co-author of the new book, Freedom from Self-Harm: Overcoming Self-Injury with Skills from DBT and Other Treatments by New Harbinger Publications.

You can listen to this call here.

DBT on Campus

Did you know that Florida State University has a dialectical behavior therapy skills group designed just for students? Participants meet once a week and make a commitment of 6 months.

If you’d like more information about FSU’s DBT group, please contact the Psychology Clinic at (850) 644-3006.

Tami Green—BPD Self-Care Essentials

Tami Green will answer your questions and also present on borderline personality disorder (BPD) brain research and holistic self-care practices on Thursday, September 3 at 11:00 am EST. Please email maggie your questions before the conference. To participate in this important event, please call (219) 509-8333. The access code is 917806.

FBPDA Celebrates A New Voice

A New Voice—our 2nd annual celebration—will be held on September 10, 2009 at the St. Petersburg Woman’s Club at 8:00 am.

Once again, Tampa-based psychiatrist, Emily Lazarou, will be named Florida Borderline Personality Disorder Association’s Psychiatrist of the Year. Our honorees also include Stacy Louk, PhD, Bobbie Glassman, John Derek Grace, and Olivia Bullard for their outstanding contributions and commitment to persons diagnosed with borderline personality disorder.

There is no cost to attend this event however seating is limited. If you’d like to join us for this important occasion, please contact us prior to September 1.

Business attire is requested.