For people struggling with Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD), treatment may seem like a far off concept. There is help for BPD and armed with more knowledge you will know where to look. With a combination of the right medication and something called Dialectical Behavior Therapy, most borderline personality disorder treatment is actually quite successful.

Firstly though, in consideration of taking medications, it’s important to remember that taking medication is not for everybody. There are many special considerations to be made and you should always discuss your situation with your doctor. In terms of medications available there are a few different options.  Things that have proven to be the most effective are anti-depressants, anti-psychotic drugs, mood stabilizers/anti-convulsants and anxiolytics (anti-anxiety medications).

It is also important to remember that there is no medication that is approved by the FDA for Borderline Personality Disorder treatment. Medication is most effective when used in combination with psychotherapy.

Dialectical Behavior Therapy is the psychotherapy used for Borderline Personality Disorder Treatment.  It was developed by Dr. Marsha Linehan, and it is extremely effective at helping people cope with overwhelming emotions. For a person who suffers from BPD, it typically feels like their emotion ‘knob’ is turned to the maximum. This causes their emotions to be wildly out of control and usually is even accompanied by physical pain. Through studies, it has been identified that people with BPD actually feel eighty times the emotion than a regular person. As you can probably imagine, feeling that way can be extremely overwhelming and difficult to control. That is where Dialectical Behavior Therapy comes in.

The Borderline Personality Disorder treatment known as Dialectical Behavior Therapy dialect therapy is broken up into four main sections. All four sections overlap one another and are very effective in teaching a Borderline Personality Disorder sufferer how to live a healthy and happy life.

1. Distress Tolerance helps the sufferer cope with sudden distress or emotional pain. Typically, a Borderline sufferer’s emotions do not come all within one second. They progress over a span of time, be it one minute or one hour, until their knob is at the maximum. They progress because the sufferer sits and ‘stews’ over whatever happened to cause their onset. Distress Tolerance teaches the sufferer to break the ‘sitting and stewing’ cycle. It helps by teaching the sufferer distraction and self-soothing techniques.
2. Mindfulness is another word for meditation. The reason this is called ‘mindfulness’ as opposed to ‘meditation’ is because the word meditation carries a certain religious stigma alongside it. Mindfulness is a type of meditation that is completely devoted to self awareness as opposed to religious beliefs. It is mainly used to stop major depressive episodes, reduce physical pain, decrease binge eating, increase tolerance of distressing situations, increase relaxation and increase skills to cope with difficult situations by becoming aware of surroundings and by teaching to ‘live in the moment’. As a result of all of its benefits, it is considered one of the core skills for Borderline Personality Disorder treatment.
3. Emotion Regulation is how the sufferer is taught to react to their emotions. It is true that they can not always help how they feel about something, but it is also true that they can help how they react to their feelings. Emotional Regulation has nine different emotional regulation skills that will help gain control of emotions and the behaviors associated with them. 
4. Interpersonal Effectiveness is teaching how to keep relationships alive and healthy while still setting appropriate boundaries and learning to say no.

While struggling, either with Borderline Personality Disorder treatment or helping someone through Borderline Personality Disorder treatment, it is important to remember that there is a light at the end of the tunnel and that there is a higher than 90% success rate in FULL patient recover. This means that by the end of treatment people who undergo Borderline Personality Disorder treatment can remiss having none of their initial symptoms and most never see symptoms come again.

If you or someone you know is suffering from BPD go to your local mental health professionals and find out about BPD treatment.  If you are unsure if you or someone you love is suffering from BPD visit bpdfamily.com where you will find very helpful information, chat forums and guidelines on BPD.  Read my article Borderline Personality Disorder Symptoms for more information on BPD.   Follow BorderlineInfo on Twitter for treatment information.

Pick up these books:

• Stop Walking On Eggshells written by Paul T. Mason, M.S. and Randi Kreger for helpful information on understanding BPD, setting boundaries and more information on Dialectical Behavior Therapy.
• The Borderline Personality Disorder Survival Guide written by Alexander L. Chapman, PH.D. and Kim L. Gratz, PH.D. for everything you need to know about living with Borderline Personality Disorder.

Tags: Borderline Personality Disorder, Borderline Personality Disorder Symptoms, BPD, Dialectical Behavior Therapy, Emotion Regulation

Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) is the most common Personality Disorder and it is extremely painful to live with; for the sufferer and the sufferer’s loved ones. This is because Borderline Personality Disorder symptoms not only affect the sufferer, but they also end up affecting their loved ones.  People suffering from BPD experience intense emotional pain.  There is unrelenting chaos in relationships with other people; they feel empty, alone and desperate. 

BPD is not widely recognized.  There are several possibilities as to why.  Among the possibilities it has been said that rightly or wrongly, issues such as eating disorders, domestic violence, AIDS,and breast cancer don’t end up on the media forefront until they affect someone famous.  While many celebrities show the traits, none have come forward and admitted to having this disorder.

There are nine Borderline Personality Disorder symptoms. To be diagnosed with BPD, you must exhibit five out of the nine symptoms:

1. Desperate attempts to avoid real or imagined abandonment.
2. Unstable interpersonal relationships characterised by alternating between extreme idolization and extreme hatred.
3. Identity Disturbance:  the constant feeling of  ‘faking it’. It is typical of a Borderline sufferer to have a different personality around all of their acquaintances.
4. Destructive Impulsivity: destructive impulsive behaviors that are done in large quantities. Impulsive shopping, binge eating, binge drinking etc.
5. Suicidal behaviours and Self Mutilation Characterised by harm towards ones self such as cutting, burning, binge eating and/or purging, anorexia, suicidal threats etc.
6. Mood Instability: radical, extremely difficult to control mood swings.
7. Emptiness: a deep emotional void that evokes a strong sense of meaninglessness and can cause behaviours such as self harm, suicide, identity crisis and severe mood swings.
8. Anger:  unlike other emotions that happen, anger is categorized all on its own because it tends to be spontaneous and uncontrollable. People with BPD tend to be described by loved ones as a ticking time bomb.
9. Reality Distortions:  These can include anything from auditory to visual hallucinations, skewed perceptions of reality etc. Unlike reality distortions with other mental illnesses such as Schizophrenia etc, reality distortions with Borderline Personality Disorder tend to be sudden but quick lived and accompanied by rage.

Today, there is quite a stigma that goes hand in hand with a mental illness diagnosis.  Some important things to remember about Borderline Personality Disorder are:

• Typically, people who exhibit Borderline Personality Disorder symptoms are not psychotic. Their behaviour may seem slightly ‘crazy’ to the people around them while they have quite rapid and extreme mood swings, but they are not psychotic. 
• Typically, women are more common to have Borderline Personality Disorder symptoms, but men can still exhibit them as well. It is a myth that woman are the only ones who struggle with this mental illness.
• People who exhibit Borderline Personality Disorder symptoms usually come across as completely normal to people who don’t know them well. Usually their symptoms only come out around those who know them the best. 
• People with BPD tend to be highly intelligent. This can make it difficult to get the proper treatment as they often see themselves as too high functioning to have a problem. 
• It is a myth that Borderline Personality Disorder symptoms are untreatable.  Many people fully recover from this mental illness.

If you are wondering about a loved one or a friend and you need more information pick up the book called Stop Walking On Eggshells written by Paul T. Mason, M.S. and Randi Kreger.  This book is helpful for a non BPD Sufferer to define this challenging mental disease and also to learn about methods and treatments for help.  Also visit bpdfamily.com for very helpful chat forums and guidance for both the BPD sufferer and their loved ones.  You can also follow BorderlineInfo on Twitter for treatment and other information.

Tags: binge eating, Borderline Personality Disorder Symptoms, BPD, mental illness, Self Mutilation, Suicidal, suicidal threats