bpd

Truth That Hurts...... Toni L.Vossen 2012


Baugh gave the following example: An emotional child grows up in a stoic family, where he’s constantly told to calm down. He tries to follow the family’s rules by suppressing the awareness of his emotions. As the intensity of his emotions ramps up, however, it eventually bursts out of the zone where it can be ignored. When this happens, the emotions appear to go from zero to 60 on the emotions speedway, and their intensity can’t be controlled. “At that point everybody in the family has to deal with it, and because people need to have emotions responded to, this only reinforces the person getting to emotional extremes,” Baugh said. Consequently, this becomes the only way the person knows how to manage emotional situations.
In other words, a person with borderline personality disorder rarely makes a conscious decision to manipulate anyone. When a person isn’t having their needs met, they resort to extreme behaviors, according to Neil Bockian, Ph.D, founder and president of Behavioral Health Associates and co-author of New Hope For People with Borderline Personality Disorder. These behaviors then get reinforced when family members or people who don’t normally pay attention to them rush in, he said. When loved ones get burned out, the person with BPD starts escalating the behaviors

People with BPD aren’t trying hard enough. According to Joan Wheelis, M.D., director of the Two Brattle Center in Cambridge, Mass., “it isn’t that clients aren’t motivated, but that there is significant emotional, cognitive and behavioral dysregulation associated with the disorder.” People don’t realize just how considerable their deficits are. Many are very intelligent, talented and productive so it’s hard to believe, she said. “The person is doing the best they can given their current mental state,” Bockian said

However, too many treatments can result in a “non-treatment treatment,” where the client isn’t fully engaged effectively in therapy, Dr. Wheelis said. She noted the importance of having “a primary clinician who’s responsible for the architecture of the whole treatment.”

Psychotherapy is the central treatment for borderline personality disorder. “To date, the gold-standard treatment for BPD is DBT (dialectical behavioral therapy),” Salters-Pedneault said. While there’s no way to say that DBT is superior — to date, no studies have compared all treatments in a “horse race” — judging by the quantity and quality of the studies that support DBT, it’s currently the best form of treatment, she said. Other promising psychosocial treatments include schema-focused, mentalization-based and transference-focused therapy.

Medications are sometimes prescribed to reduce symptoms of BPD or to treat a co-occurring disorder (such as bipolar disorder) and may help in conjunction with psychosocial treatments. According to Dr. Schulz, while studies haven’t been conclusive, some research has found that individuals who participated in DBT and took olanzapine (Zyprexa) experienced a reduction in symptoms when compared with individuals who attended treatment but took a placebo.

Dr. Wheelis, who advocates the use of medication, worries that “medication may be prescribed too frequently, leading to polypharmacy.” Additionally, “medication for symptoms of BPD can sometimes interfere in teaching the client that they can tolerate and cope with their emotions head-on,” she said.