Archive for the ‘BPD News’ Category
The Journey Beyond Borderline Personality
Is it possible to get beyond Borderline Personality? What does that even mean? Am I just aiming this at people diagnosed with Borderline Personality? No! It is possible to get on the path that is the journey beyond borderline personality if you’ve been diagnosed it with – there is hope for recovery and all that means and more. It is also possible to get on the path that is the journey beyond borderline personality if you are a loved one of someone diagnosed with BPD.
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© A.J. Mahari, July 24, 2010 – All rights reserved.
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Does Darth Vader meet the diagnostic criteria for Borderline Personality Disorder?
Does Darth Vader/Anakin Skywalker meet the diagnostic criteria for Borderline Personality Disorder? This was a questions posed, for some reason, and for an even less understandable reason answered by Eric Bui and colleagues at Toulouse University Hospital in France in what has been described as “a brazen act of arm-chair diagnosis”. Who does this serve? Who does this help -anyone? What is the meaning of this? Does it matter?
How can this “diagnosis” of a fictional character help anyone understand Borderline Personality Disorder? Isn’t it likely really to muddy the waters and be more of a case of mis-information? Just what BPD needs right? More confusion? How can anyone who loves or cares about someone with Borderline Personality Disorder really come to understand the the mind of those who are diagnosed with BPD? This diagnosis of a fictional character who many don’t believe is an accurate diagnosis anyway will only mislead loved ones away from the facts about BPD that they need to know, want to know, and will benefit from knowing.
How are people who have been diagnosed with Borderline Personality Disorder supposed to feel about this? How can this possibly be viewed as helpful? How can anyone with BPD think that people who already don’t understand their pain and suffering can possibly learn anything from such an irresponsible “diagnosis” of a movie character that isn’t even real?
Talk about a lack of sensitivity. What a lack of respect, really. Stigmatizing BPD while potentially trivializing it as well.
Does this “diagnosis” of a fictional character with Borderline Personality Disorder have any up-side? Perhaps, only in that it brought some media attention to Borderline Personality Disorder. Or some pop-culture attention. However, I think the negatives of this far outweigh that potential positive. It seems that when pop-culture or media mention or in anyway portray Borderline Personality Disorder (as they often do without making that clear) it ends up really only succeeding in the furthering of negative, damaging, and hurtful stigma against people who are living with BPD.
The down-side that I believe is being over-looked and that matters most is the way in which this further stigmatizes not only the diagnosis of Borderline Personality Disorder, but, even more importantly, the people diagnosed with it? Why? Because of the connection between the inherent evil of Darth Vader and the stigma that has long been perpetuated toward those with BPD as being evil.
- Purchase all 3 of ebooks for NON BORDERLINES or 3 Non Borderline Ebooks packaged together with audio.
- Purchase all 5 Core Wound of Abandonment in BPD ebooks
- Non Borderlines – You can purchase 6 ebooks packaged together without audio or
6 ebooks bundled together with 2 audio programs 6 ebooks packaged together with 2 audio programs - Those with BPD and/or Non Borderlines can purchase A.J. Mahari’s 3 “Core Wound of Abandonment” series ebooks or Mahari’s 3 “Core Wound ofAbandonment” series ebooks with From False Self To Authentic Self In BPD – The Inner Chid Audio Program
Dr. Bui, apparently came up with his “diagnosis” of Darth Vader while watching two of the three Star Wars prequel movies, Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith. He theorizes that young Anakin Skywalker was separated from his mother at an early age and his father was absent and that these are the factors that could have contributed to his mental illness.
Apparently in his theorizing, Bui, also believes that also indicative of this character’s supposed Borderline Personality Disorder are his “infantile illusions of omnipotence” and “dysfunctional experiences of self and others.” It is perceived and concluded that he often showed impulsive behavior and had difficulty controlling his anger. Anakin Skywalker’s eventual turn to the Dark Side and name change, to Darth Vader, could represent the ultimate sign of an identity disturbance is the apparent reasoning behind this entire exercise of “arm-chair diagnosis”.
It can be argued, though it’s hardly worth it, that “infantile illusions of omnipotence” would point more at Narcissistic Personality Disorder than BPD. As for “dysfunctional experiences of self and others” I think it reasonable to conclude that Walker/Vader’s transformation is not the experience of people who have Borderline Personality Disorder. Here’s where diagnosing a movie character makes it tricky doesn’t it? I mean, the archetypal nature of this shift in a character’s identity is a work of fiction that no doubt seeks to depict many epic human struggles and not just struggles or challenges that can be described as being the result of any mental illness, let alone Borderline Personality Disorder. The archetypal richness of this character speaks to many interpretations. However, ascribing this character’s experience or interal feelings, perceptions, and the like to BPD, let alone any mental illness is nothing short of ridiculous. It misses the entire point of the character really.
Anakin Skywalker’s eventual turn to the dark side and name change do not have anything to do with BPD specifically or exclusively at all. Where this conclusion comes from who knows. It doesn’t follow any type of logic. But then, how could it? This eventual turn to the dark side of Walker’s as he took on the identity of Darth Vader is not something that bears any resemblance to the experience of people with BPD. People diagnosed with BPD do not have a stable sense of identity. This, however, does not mean they go from who they are (or the not being sure about who they are) to being drastically different and turning to some dark side. This comparison is evidence of the equating of BPD with evil which is irresponsibile and not accurate.
What is it in this world today, anyway, that everything has to be pathologized? Isn’t it ironic how black-and-white many people in the world are thinking – people who are not diagnosed with BPD? People who invoke the topic of BPD, diagnose fictional characters, like this psychatrist, Bui, or lay-people who are busy diagnosing anyone and everyone they know but themselves?
The dilemma here, in terms of understanding is hidden, perhaps for many, within the central and often over-looked definition of what Borderline Personality Disorder actually is. The way it is defined in the DSM-IV by psychiatrists outlines 9 traits. Out of these 9 traits a person must meet the criteria for 5 of them in order to be diagnosed as having BPD – by a professional.
The very traits that form the basis for what defines borderline personality disorder are human traits. They are human traits that are found more intensely and more often in those who meet the criteria for BPD. They are not some separate set of traits that just define BPD. My point here is that many others who may not meet the criteria for BPD will struggle with some of these traits. Why? Because they are human traits firstly and foremostly. Those with BPD and people who are not personality-disordered do not have different core traits. What is different is the way that these traits manifest themselves and are perceived and experienced – but not the traits themselves.
Is it any wonder then that people who love or care about someone with BPD may end up thinking they themselves have BPD? People are going around thinking this person or that person has BPD because he or she did or said this or that, or because he or she was angry or thought in a black-and-white way about something. In other words, there is this over-pathologizing going on. People pointing fingers at others and at each other. And, now, psychatrists at a fictional character for crying-out-loud – Vader – as having Borderline Personality Disorder.
- The Shame of Abandonment in BPD
- From False Self To Authentic Self In BPD – Getting In Touch With Your Inner Child
- BPD and Abandonment
- Finding Hope From the Polarized Reality of BPD
- Preparing For Recovery From BPD
- Emotion Dysregulation in BPD
- Rage Addiction in Borderline Personality Disorder
- Breaking Free of The Borderline Maze – Recovery For Nons
- Facing the Facts of BPD – On The Other Side For Nons
- Overcoming Denial About BPD and Love
Audio Programs © A.J. Mahari
Where has common sense gone? The traits that define BPD are human traits. Each and every one of us as human beings has these traits. It is not pathological to have these traits in reasonably balanced and paradoxical ways.
Bui, et al, diagnosing Darth Vader with Borderline Personality Disorder seems to give creedence to the many ways that people disparage people who have BPD. I don’t agree with this at all. I think the diagnosis of a fictional character – even if they get it right (let’s not forget there are many reasons to doubt Darth Vader would be a candidate for BPD if he were a real person) is in any way responsible or worth the time or effort given to it.
Why do I write about it here then? To say that the danger of this is the further stigmatizing of BPD and those who have BPD. It sensationalizes BPD and what it means to have BPD while at the same time trivializing it. It doesn’t serve anyone. I also have concern that this “arm-chair diagnosis” that equates BPD to this fictional character, who was a personification of evil, is highly irresponsibile and frankly, offensive.
Darth Vader has been diagnosed with Borderline Personality Disorder. Aside from the issues of that equating BPD with evil, so what, who cares?
Where’s the relevance? Where’s the significance? How can this be a worthwhile teaching tool for tomorrow’s psychiatrists? How can this benefit anyone with BPD? How can this really serve to help others understand BPD in balanced and compassionate ways?
The answer is - it can’t.
All this diagnosis of Darth Vader with Borderline Personality Disorder does is serve as a prime example of its being equated with evil. It serves as a prime example of the stigma of BPD. It may even give rise to more people with BPD distrusting the very body of professionals who are supposed to treat them, and I might add, with respect.
© A.J. Mahari, June 26, 2010 – All rights reserved.
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Mental Illness and The Brain – What's Wrong with Psychiatry?
Mental illness - is it biological or isn’t? What do you think? I guess I’m a rebel at heart, someone who thinks outside of the box. I know in my own experience, having recovered 15 years from Borderline Personality Disorder, that along the way, on my journey, I had a psychiatrist tell me I wouldn’t get better until they developed some pill – I didn’t believe him. He wasn’t correct. I fired him on the spot after that comment. That was 1987. That was before this notion now forwarded that everything mental illness is a “brain disorder”. Professional in psychiatry are speaking out against the “status quo” of mental illness as a “brain disorder”.
This point of view of mine, born out of my own experience with and recovery from BPD is definately not the popular thinking these days. However, it is important for me to continue to get this message out and to have people really think about this. Too many people are just believing that mental illness, generally, and Borderline Personality Disorder, specifically are “brain disorders”. When one is not a psychiatrist it can feel like one does not have the right to say this. I’m over that now. This has to be challenged and I am very glad to see there are more professionals doing just that. This makes my forwarding my opinion and experience more credible in the face of what is an ever-proliferating blind acceptance, it seems to me, of BPD and mental illness being accepted as “brain disorders”. There is a difference between realizing a role of biology in BPD and calling it a “brain disorder”.
Please also reference my Blog Post from December 2009 Biopsychiatry – Pharma Funded Scam – NAMI?
This psychiatric forwarding of mental illness as a “brain disorder” is where the money is. It has behind it pharmaceutical companies who no doubt fund the studies that come back with the “brain disease” so-called proof. It just seems to me that the trail between the money-grab of the pharmaceutical companies and these studies isn’t a very long one. Then, there are the psychiatrists on this gravey train for financial gain. All I can say is that if I needed therapy today I would not let any of these “biological – brain disease” believing psychiatrists anywhere near me. This was also the decision I made in 1987.
In the case of Borderline Personality Disorder, it is important to keep an open mind, in my opinion, only in so far as that there is likely a biological component that is mixed with the psychological one. Having said that, I do not believe it is a major factor. And, there is now plenty of literature, books etc., out there about the fact that the brain has more plasticity then was thought. This means that the biological aspect of BPD is not a hinderance to recovery. And, I’ll stress here again, I recovered and was NEVER on any psychiatric medication.
Each person needs to make up his or her own mind about what he or she thinks about this. I just think it’s important that I take a stand on this, as unpopular as that is in the Mental Health community at large and the BPD Community more specifically. I applaud Dr. McLaren for his video and the other professionals quoted below. As I see it, we are all very fortunate when professionals break rank with agenda-driven rhetoric that really can be seen as an abuse of the power and trust of the profession of psychiatry on the part of those who forward the mental illness = “brain disorder”. If you have BPD and are on the meds or have taken the meds, you likely know first-hand they aren’t the answer. I’ve yet to hear from anyone with BPD who felt they recovered or were cured by these meds. Having said, that, please, if you are on medication, please do not stop taking it without consulting your doctor. If your doctor believes this all-biological argument you might want to think about finding a doctor with an open mind.
Dr. Niall McLaren, an Australian practicing psychiatrist for 22 years, explains what is wrong with the psychiatric profession: That it cannot/will not take criticism, for fear the entire model of biological psychiatry will unravel. That there is no science to psychiatric diagnoses, no brain based diseases. And that psychiatry only pushes mental disorders as biological disease in order to convince people to take psychiatric drugs, causing a host of dangerous side effects.
Please also reference my Blog Post from December 2009 Biopsychiatry – Pharma Funded Scam – NAMI?
Psychiatrists, Physicians & Psychologists on the lack of medical/scientific test to verify mental disorders as a “disease” or medical condition
“…modern psychiatry has yet to convincingly prove the genetic/biologic cause of any single mental illness…Patients [have] been diagnosed with ‘chemical imbalances’ despite the fact that no test exists to support such a claim, and…there is no real conception of what a correct chemical balance would look like.”
“There’s no biological imbalance. When people come to me and they say, ‘I have a biochemical imbalance,’ I say, ‘Show me your lab tests.’ There are no lab tests. So what’s the biochemical imbalance?”
“DSM-IV is the fabrication upon which psychiatry seeks acceptance by medicine in general. Insiders know it is more a political than scientific document… DSM-IV has become a bible and a money making bestseller—its major failings notwithstanding.”
“All psychiatrists have in common that when they are caught on camera or on microphone, they cower and admit that there are no such things as chemical imbalances/diseases, or examinations or tests for them. What they do in practice, lying in every instance, abrogating [revoking] the informed consent right of every patient and poisoning them in the name of ‘treatment’ is nothing short of criminal.”
“Psychiatry makes unproven claims that depression, bipolar illness, anxiety, alcoholism and a host of other disorders are in fact primarily biologic and probably genetic in origin…This kind of faith in science and progress is staggering, not to mention naïve and perhaps delusional.”
“In short, the whole business of creating psychiatric categories of ‘disease,’ formalizing them with consensus, and subsequently ascribing diagnostic codes to them, which in turn leads to their use for insurance billing, is nothing but an extended racket furnishing psychiatry a pseudo-scientific aura. The perpetrators are, of course, feeding at the public trough.”
Royal College of Physicians of the UK
“I believe, until the public and psychiatry itself see that DSM labels are not only useless as medical ‘diagnoses’ but also have the potential to do great harm—particularly when they are used as means to deny individual freedoms, or as weapons by psychiatrists acting as hired guns for the legal system.”
“The way things get into the DSM is not based on blood test or brain scan or physical findings. It’s based on descriptions of behavior. And that’s what the whole psychiatry system is.”
“No biochemical, neurological, or genetic markers have been found for Attention Deficit Disorder, Oppositional Defiant Disorder, Depression, Schizophrenia, anxiety, compulsive alcohol and drug abuse, overeating, gambling or any other so-called mental illness, disease, or disorder.”
author of Commonsense Rebellion
“Unlike medical diagnoses that convey a probable cause, appropriate treatment and likely prognosis, the disorders listed in DSM-IV [and ICD-10] are terms arrived at through peer consensus.”
Source of above quotes: http://3.ly/4kp
© A.J. Mahari, March 28, 2010 – Except for the above quotes and video copyright of the above individuals.
Biopsychiatry – Pharma Funded Scam – NAMI?
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Biopsychiatry is all the rage these days isn’t it? How have mental illnesses, like Borderline Personality Disorder, and so many others, suddenly become pathologized beyond belief with a new stigma – “brain disorder” – the message that implies the need for pharmaceuticals. A message that the National Association of Mental Health (NAMI) in the United States has forwarded. As if drugs are, or will someday be, the “cure”. As if drugs are the answer. Says who? Who do you believe?
The pharmaceutical industry influence on the psychiatric profession has been growing for sometime now. Is it a scam? Who is it designed to serve, really? In many ways this is a new stigma forwarded by drug companies out to make money. Conventional messages of organizations that mental illness is somehow this deep brain structure issue, brain disorder thing, suddenly, that requires drug treatment many believe to be the direct result of studies that have been funded by the pharmaceutical industry.
“Studies have shown that medical students and residents are susceptible to undue influence from pharmaceutical companies due to the companies involvement in medical school programs.” (Wikipedia)
“Antidepressants have been shown to have only a minimal effect, over that of a placebo, on patients. In an essay on advertisements for anti-depressants published in PLoS Medicine, social work academic Jeffrey Lacasse and neuroanatomist Jonathan Leo state that, despite this, the chemical imbalance theory is promoted by the medical industry as an explanation to depression and that their medicines correct the chemical imbalance. They also state that there is some evidence that both patients and professionals are influenced by the advertisements and patients may get prescribed medicines when other interventions are more suitable. In a further article they state that chemical imbalance has also been cited in media as an important cause of depression despite a lack of scientific literature that shows this causality.” (Wikipedia)
I found a video quite by accident. (Ah, but I am a believer that there really are no “accidents”) I believe, however, that it is certainly worth watching. If nothing else, Dr. John Breeding, makes some very interesting points about what he calls, “Big Pharma Front Groups, NAMI? Psychiatry Mental Health” Consumers need to really think more about the influence of pharmaceutical companies and the funding they provide to some major mental health and other advocacy organizations whose messages may well be tailored to suit these funding sources.
In the case of NAMI for example, I know that is where I first read online about Borderline Personality Disorder being categorized and described as a “brain disorder”. As I’ve always maintained, based upon my own experience, as someone who recovered from BPD – and by the way I was NOT EVER on any psychiatric medication – despite there being some neurobiological aspects to BPD – there is also the reality that BPD has a large part of its etiology in the nurture half of the equation. The nurture versus nature – the psychological/environmental versus biology – debate is a well-entrenched one. There are many professionals on both sides of the argument. It seems that most professionals associated with NAMI, in the United States, who according to the information provided by Dr. Breeding in the above video, only disclosed its funding when it was forced to and received over 50% of its funding from the pharmaceutical industry, are on the nature side of the debate citing studies that are also likely “pharma funded”.
Other organizations and perhaps what little media coverage BPD garners are following NAMI’s lead – or are being mislead? Next thing you know, brand new stigma – Borderline Personality Disordered individuals end up feeling hopeless or helpless thinking that they cannot change or recover unless and until that magical pill (biggest scam of all) is discovered because they are being told that this disorder has its roots in abornmal brain structure and/or function.
How can NAMI justify this? How can they claim to be a leading national association of mental health (in the United States) and do such disservice to their members? Just as with the other example Dr. Breeding cites about the Freedom From Fear organization actually being a perveyor of fear, something that seems largely a part of American society and culture – just reference Michael Moore’s “Bowling for Columbine” documentary where he gives an in depth explanation of the fear-mongering that is prevelant in so many areas of American society and media – witness the 24/7 cable news networks, that after all, need something to fill all that air time with.
People who are put in helpless and fearful positions or mindsets by those in government, media, or mental health, who are charged with authority, responsibility, and the well-being of those they are supposed to serve, can suffer untold and perhaps even unmeasurable confusion, distrust, and harm.
Sadly, perhaps even tragically for so many people, so many mental health consumers, the more the pharmaceutical industry flexes its powerful and far-reaching money-making muscles the more distorted the information that they need really becomes. The more they are likely to be told they need drugs to treat what is “wrong” with them. The more drugs they are given, the less actual therapy that is delivered. The more the message of mental illness being biological is put forth, the less people are actually helped and the more powerless they actually become.
The search for therapy is best conducted in areas of the mental health profession that do not prescribe drugs. I was most helped in my own recovery from BPD by social workers, a couple of psychiatric nurses, and psychologists. In fact, all I did with any contact I had with psychiatrists was refuse all of their attempts to get me to take medication. Medication that I knew was not the answer then for me. Medication that I don’t think is the (overall) answer for people now.
The pharmaceutical industry is victimizing mental health consumers and there are middle-”men” in the mix. Some psychiatrists. NAMI? The media? The pharmaceutical industry is disempowering the unsuspecting mental health consumer. Mental health consumers need to empower themselves with as much information as they can and certainly not rely only on the biopsychiatry that is dominating a lot of psychiatric practice in recent years (particularly in the United States).
On Biological Psychiatry
“I want to provide the basic information necessary to understand the misguided beliefs, and subsequent harmful practices of psychiatry today. As there are millions of homeless people in this country, and as “mental illness” is purported to be a major cause of homelessness, I will focus on how psychiatry treats homeless people. Know, however, that the principles apply to everyone. Our mental health system today is almost entirely guided by a very specific belief system, called biological psychiatry (biopsychiatry). Therefore, The assumptions of biopsychiatry have had an enormous impact on modern life. Modeled after the practice of medicine, biopsychiatry has all the trappings of language that we associate with scientific medicine. Biopsychiatry has the language, but not the science. To understand psychiatry today, it is necessary to be very clear that it is not about medicine; it is really about social control. The basic assumptions of biopsychiatry are as follows:
- Adjustment to society is good.
- Failure to adjust is the result of “mental illness.”
- “Mental illness” (Depression, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, etc.) is a medical disease.
- “Mental illness” is the result of biological and/or genetic defects.
- “Mental illness” is chronic, progressive, and basically incurable.
- “Mental illness” can (and must) be controlled primarily by drugs; secondarily, and for really severe “mental illness,” by electroshock.
- People with “mental illness” are irrational, and unable to make responsible decisions for themselves; therefore, coercion is necessary and justified.
For a fuller exposition of these seven assumptions, please see my books, The Wildest Colts Make the Best Horses, and The Necessity of Madness and Unproductivity: Psychiatric Oppression or Human Transformation. For now it is sufficient to recognize that these false beliefs provide the rationale for a coercive “final solution,” a logically inevitable expression of a dangerous and distorted worldview. Psychiatry supports and defends the power structure, values, practices and appearances of the status quo; it looks at the world and selects out “defective” individuals for “treatment.”
Source: Dr. John Breeding — My Views on Psychiatry and “Mental Illness”
You can read more on what Dr. Breeding refers to as psychiatric oppression on his website at: wildestcolts.com
© A.J. Mahari, December 19, 2009 – All rights reserved except for what is © Wikipedia and Dr. John Breeding
Brain Scans Clarify Borderline Personality Disorder
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Does the fact that researchers are continuing to make some kind of progress in neuro-biologically discovering aspects of Borderline Personality Disorder mean that there isn't hope for recovery? As someone who has recovered from BPD years ago, I know personally that the answer is no. There is every reason to continue to believe, hope, and know, that if you have BPD, you can recover. There is no need for some magical-cure-all pill that may never be able to be developed.
Brain Scans Clarify Borderline Personality Disorder
"Using real-time brain imaging, a team of researchers have discovered
that patients with Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) are physically
unable to regulate emotion. The findings, by Harold W. Koenigsberg, MD, professor of psychiatry
at Mount Sinai School of Medicine suggest individuals with BPD are
unable activate neurological networks that would help to control
feelings. The research will be published in the journal Biological Psychiatry."
Reviewed by John M. Grohol, Psy.D.
on September 4, 2009
Using
real-time brain imaging, a team of researchers have discovered that
patients with Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) are physically
unable to regulate emotion.
The findings, by Harold W. Koenigsberg, MD, professor of psychiatry
at Mount Sinai School of Medicine suggest individuals with BPD are
unable activate neurological networks that would help to control
feelings.
The research will be published in the journal Biological Psychiatry.
Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), researchers
viewed how the brains of people with BPD reacted to social and
emotional stimuli.
Koenigsberg found that when people with BPD attempted to control and
reduce their reactions to disturbing emotional scenes, the anterior
cingulate cortex and intraparetical sulci areas of the brain that are
active in healthy people under the same conditions remained inactive in
the BPD patients.
“This research shows that BPD patients are not able to use those
parts of the brain that healthy people use to help regulate their
emotions,” said Dr. Koenigsberg.
“This may explain why their emotional reactions are so extreme. The
biological underpinnings of the disordered emotional control systems
are central to borderline pathology. Studying which areas of the brain
function differently in patients with borderline personality disorder
can lead to more targeted uses of psychotherapy and medications, and also provide a link to connect the genetic basis of the disorder.”
According to background information in the article, borderline
personality disorder is a common condition, affecting up to two percent
of all adults in the United States, mostly women.
Characteristics of BPD include being so emotionally overreactive that they suffer alternating bouts of depression, anxiety and anger, are interpersonally hypersensitive, and are impelled to self-destructive and even suicidal behavior.
Patients with BPD often exhibit other types of impulsive behaviors, including excessive spending, binge eating and risky sex. BPD often occurs together with other psychiatric problems, particularly bipolar disorder, depression, anxiety disorders, substance abuse, and other personality disorders.
The disorder is found in 10 to 20 percent of people in psychiatric
care, and about 10 percent of people with this condition ultimately die
of suicide. Only recently have researchers begun to identify underlying
biological factors associated with the condition.
Source: Psyche Central
Does this mean that people with Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) can't get better? Does this mean that the only hope for people with BPD, when it comes to recovery, is medication? No! In my own personal experience the answer is no!
Recovery from BPD is possible. If you have BPD you need to know this. Hope is not false hope. Recovery is possible. There aren't enough people taking the time to point this out. There aren't enough professionals who will actually discuss this, let alone map it out or explain it.
Do I know that recovery from BPD is possible only because I recovered? No. Is it just me that is saying it is possible. No. There is as much evidence that recovery from BPD can and does take place on neuro-biological level as well as a psychological and spiritual level.
I will be writing much more about this in the near future so I hope that you will check back here to my blog and also check for audio and ebooks on this subject and on BPD recovery at Phoenix Rising Publications.
© A.J. Mahari, September 7, 2009
"Borderline Personality Disorder: What Do Patients Want In DSM-V?"
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People with Borderline Personality Disorder are being asked to participate in a survey to help researchers with identifying what criteria should or perhaps shouldn't be included in the upcoming 5th edition of the Diagnositic Statisitical Manuel (DSM) in 2012. Those conducting this study ask for your input if you have Borderline Personality Disorder. "People living with borderline personality disorder (BPD) have unique information about the symptoms and consequences of the disorder. Researchers are working on a new study looking at these important and underexplored areas. Please help us by completing an anonymous on-line survey about your thoughts on the current Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders' (DSM) criteria for BPD and your thoughts on what should or shouldn't be included in the criteria for BPD in the upcoming 5th edition of DSM (DSM-V) in 2012." The link for the survey is:
Raj K. Kalapatapu, MD |
A.J. Mahari Offers a Life Coaching Program For Borderlines
A.J. Mahari, a recovered borderline, offers Life Coaching Programs For Those With Borderline Personality Disorder – This first program consists of 6 Sessions Designed To Enhance Awareness
One of the major challenges for those with Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) is addressing a lack of awareness of the very issues that so affect their lives. This compromised awareness is a result of the split between the borderline’s intellect and emotions. Those with BPD are often very competent and strong intellectually. However, emotionally, the opposite is often the case. Those diagnosed with Borderline Personality Disorder have suffered arrested emotional development caused largely by what I refer to as the core wound of abandonment.
In response to each of the traits that define BPD those diagnosed with BPD have an elaborate system of defense mechanisms that is a major obstacle to the emotional (and often cognitive)awareness necessary for recovery.
Enhancing Emotional Awareness
A.J. offers those with Borderline Personality a life coaching program designed to support and encourage the maintenance of your emotional regulation in the here and now as you explore the changes that you seek to make. This life coaching program for those with BPD consists of 6 sessions designed specifically for those with BPD for $350.00. This package is available either via email or phone. Unlike sessions where those with BPD seek out life coaching with A.J. from the perspective of what they may be focused on this program is one that A.J. has devised and it follows a specified method of coaching. The cost of the program does not include any long distance charges that you might incur.
Purchase this life coaching program with A.J. Mahari
© Touchstone Life Coaching Services 2008 – All rights reserved.
- A.J.’s Ebooks
- The Shame of Abandonment in BPD Audio By A.J. Mahari
- A.J.’s Audio Programs
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Note To Borderlines About Reading This Blog
If you have been diagnosed with Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) or suspect that you have it please take care if you choose to read any of my posts/articles that are written for Family Members, loved ones, or relationships partners (non borderlines) of those with BPD.
Everything that I have written here and/or will post here that is aimed at and written for non borderlines will be put in the Non Borderline Category. Either the title of the article/post will make it clear that it is for Nons or I have added the word “Nons” at the end of the title. The other thing you can do if you want to be careful is to click on a post and before reading it, scroll down to the bottom, just under each post there is a notation of which category it was posted to. So, if you don’t want to read posts aimed at Non Borderlines and you see that a post was put in the Non Borderline category you can just click on any other category to then decide what you do want to read.
Everything else in all other categories is meant for both those with BPD and/or those who are non borderline to read.
If you have BPD and you choose to read what I write to and for non borderlines please make sure you are ready for that point of view and please take care of yourselves. If you find yourself feeling upset or triggered or invalidated in any way please stop reading and make sure that you only read what I have written here for you, those diagnosed with BPD.
Please also understand that I do not, in anyway, mean any disrespect to those with BPD. However, just as you, are in pain and have challenges so too are those in your life, depending upon individual circumstances, in pain and facing their own challenges on the other side of Borderline Personality Disorder.
© A.J. Mahari 2008
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A.J. Mahari's Review of the Movie Girl Interrupted
The movie “Girl Interrupted”, is an adaptation of Susanna Kaysen’s autobiographical book of the same name (set in the late 1960s) and is essentially about a woman with Borderline Personality Disorder who is voluntarily institutionalized (signs herself in at the age of 18) after trying to commit suicide. The movie attempts to chronicle Susanna’s (Winona Ryder) experiences in therapy as an in-patient in Claymoore women’s ward.
The movie is interesting, suspenseful and touching in many ways but it fails to accurately portray Borderline Personality Disorder. It hits upon a few borderline characteristics, namely identity confusion, career confusion, impuslivity (sexually) unstable relationships (barely touched upon and not developed in the over-all plot) and suicidality.
The acting is superb. The ensemble cast is believable. But what is lost is Susanna’s turmoil which is overshadowed by the character of Angelina Jolie who plays a sociopath. At times it is hard to tell who the main character really is. Adding to this, much of the antics of the in-patients are just not believable.
Setting up the revelation of Susanna’s BPD diagnosis in the shadows of Lisa’s (Angelina Jolie) sociopathic lack of empathy, emotion or conscience will subtly convey to those paying close attention that borderlines are redeemable and that they are not as far gone as are those who live without conscience.
For those hoping that this movie would truly address Borderline Personality Disorder, as I was, it is a tremendous disappointment. It gets close in a several scenes to an accurate portrayal of BPD but only to fall short time and time again.
The movie does manage to convey the reality that the main character, Susanna does indeed move along in her journey from vulnerable fear to self-awareness. There is a sense of watching someone finding their authentic self and winning the battle against the false-self. Susanna transforms herself from a depressed, angry, and suicidal follower who is essentially lost and without purpose to a vital young woman, who finds some peace, a reason to live and who takes on the ability to lead her own self-directed life. The problem is that the plot is not well-developed enough in its detail and does not clearly take us on the journey that Susanna travels.
One highlight however, is a scene in which a nurse (Whoopi Goldberg) confronts Susanna in a way that is a turning-point for her. Susanna comes to confront a moment of truth and of choice. I thought that the movie portrayed, the reality that each borderline has a choice to make, and that one must CHOOSE to heal, very well.
The movie ends in a very meaningful way both for the character, the viewer and those interested in the borderline aspects of it. Susanna’s words at the end echo the deep-inner truth that must be realized if one is to heal from BPD.
Misleading, I thought, was the way in which the movie portrayed Susanna’s healing as having taken place and been completed in those 18 months. Perhaps this was this woman’s truth but I find it hard to believe that anyone, especially, at 18-19 years of age could fully heal from BPD so fast, let alone at all. (at that age) I would think that Ms. Kaysen had challenges yet to face in her healing journey. I thought that the message of such fast healing was one of false-hope at best and was very misleading at worst.
The movie’s theme seemed to challenge the viewer to think about what crazy means. It also made it clear that while the institutionalized world and the “real” world are indeed two very separate places – being “crazy” or being “sane” may indeed not be such separate experiences or realities after all.
I would recommend the movie, not so much for any education or insight into Borderline Personality Disorder, but more just for the entertainment value.
I for one, truly hope a better vehicle comes along to convey the very poignant ins and outs of borderline personality disorder in a much more indepth way and in a way that is not reliant upon the contrast against the sociopathic personality.
© A.J. Mahari August 14, 2000
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