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http://www.time.com/time/magazine/artic ... 91,00.html

I hadn't realized the estimate had increased from 2% to 5.9% in the last eight years.

Thanks for the link.

I love this bit:

Wow interesting stuff.



That is interesting indeed. Although, I think somewhat since the prisons at least here started to look into treating people using psychiatric diagnosis that might match what this is saying somewhat. They have started here to offer therapy in hospital to look at treating behaviour rather than just punishing it.

I used to hide my BPD dx. Since I stopped doing so and am able to finally talk about places I have been mentally. I find more and more people will look at the dx criteria for themselves and say .... hey I could say that about me. Some people that thought hey I am depressed have gone off to doctors etc... and sought help themselves often ending up with BPD as a dx.

So I wonder if it is more about people being open to seeking help or indeed things have gotten worse in the last ten years and there are a new number of adults that have grown up disordered?

I liked that "no emotional skin" description.

Me too. I think it's a very good metaphor for how I handle 'emotional' situations.


This bit is worrying:


I think this is unnecessary, and is below the standard I'd expect from TIME:


The article mentions a book called Treatment of Borderline Personality Disorder by Dr Joel Paris. I've never heard of it before. Has anybody read it? Is it good?



I've heard this before. I think it's very encouraging. I'm 20 now, so there's a very high chance I'll no longer meet the diagnostic criteria by the time I'm 30.



In all I think it was a good article. It was balanced and informative, and tried to dispel some myths about BPD. I like how it emphasised how little DBTherapists there are out there. Maybe through this publicity, more hospitals will train people in DBT.

Grrr... got an error where I didn't post.

I found the comment that BPD patients are often overmedicated interested. I do think that psychiatric meds are overused. (I don't, though, make judgements about individuals.)

where it didn't post, that should be. ("it" being what I tried to post)

I think it's a book written for clinicians treating people with BPD (Like Linehan's stuff).

Oh. Well in that case, I hope it has been written as a result of increased demand from clinicians wanting to learn DBT and the like.

I did read Dr. Paris' book, later on in my recovery when I had less of an emotional investment in BPD. It's been about a year or so and I threw away all my self-help books as a symbolic gesture once I'd gotten to a satisfactory level of growth, but I remember it being very helpful looking at BPD in a clinical, rational, professional, and logical way. It also helped me plan strategies for dealing with certain behaviors, because I understood more deeply the mechanisms behind them.

Didn't much like the Time article. It seemed somewhat sensationalistic; I would have preferred something a little less lyrical and subjective.

I looked it up on Amazon.com. The full title is: Treatment of Borderline Personality Disorder: A Guide to Evidence-Based Practice.

From reading the reviews, and from what I read in it via Amazon.com, it looks like it's readable by anyone who's interested in the treatment of BPD, but it's definitely a book about professional treatment of BPD, rather than a general book on BPD.

(I see Oceanheart posted while I was writing that.

Given that the magazine was Time, not Psychology Today or the AMA, I would expect some basic level of sensationalism. They're in the business to sell magazines and to do that, they need to pull people in. What better way to do that than to make things sound interesting and/or fascinating?

I may have to check out Paris' book ...

Interesting - a relief to see that Time is helping to destigmatise the disorder.



Very succinct description of DBT and the "Wise Mind" concept - really quite brilliant. I've read so many descriptions here but that only took 3 sentences.

Criticism: the comment that TV has depicted Borderlines as criminal wasn't actually claimed to be incorrect. As far as I know the kind of criminal the eye gouging husband described is very uncommon in people with BPD. Self harm (obviously) is more likely.

You know, I tried to get DBT and CBT here in Sydney years ago and just couldn't find it. I found a DBT group but the woman running it told me I sounded too "well" and that the group would probably not be helpful for me. The one CBT therapist I sourced only treated people with chronic pain, which ironically didn't include people with BPD. Although the CBT available here on BPDR has been extremely helpful, as well as the 14 or so years of psychotherapy I've had and still have, I notice how MUCH I've improved in the last year. I can't help but wonder if what the article says about borderline occurring in people in their 20s is prong 3 to my recovery - I've just grown out of it. But inevitably the support I've sought through therapy and through BPDR has helped to get me through my 20s and early 30s alive, to make it to this day, where I think I certainly no longer fit the DX criteria for BPD. I'ma lso a hellava lot wiser for all this treatment.

These articles always make me reflect on my own experience with recovery.



One other thing, the article talks about mental illnesses of the ages - depression, psychosis etc as reflecting the era, in that the era produces that kind of disorder. I disagree - I just think that you can't DX someone with something you don't know exists. You won't convince me that those who fought in wars thousands of years ago didn't suffer from PTSD just bc no-one new it existed, otherwise cigarettes have only been carcinogenic for the last 50 years. BPD too I think is new only in it's diagnosis, not in it's occurrence in the population. If the article is correct in what it says causes BPD, then those causes have existed from the beginning of man, which tells me that so has BPD. That was a poor understanding on the part of the writer IMO - but as Ash wrote, probably just sensationalised, Time Magazine journalism.

I agree with this Sarah. Because a dx is "new" or imperfect in description does not mean it is socially constructed. Likely mental health issues of all kinds (PTSD, Bipolar, Schizophrenia, Autism, Depression, BPD, etc.) have existed well before us, and will well after us. They just are.

M.

Diagnoses are half-voodoo anyways.

That explains why my doctor had me dance nekkid in front of a fire while holding a chicken.

Seriously, Time Magazine is in the business of selling magazines. However, that being said, it is nice that BPD is getting some attention. But the sick side of me wants it to go back to the cave.

I did a video a while back on BPD and alcoholism recovery. There are people looking at this and working on figuring out a solid method of treatment, which is a good sign.