Avoiding Borderlines

Quicksearch

Blog Administration

RSS Readers

Wednesday, March 2. 2016

AKA Unstable Personality Disorder. Many in the mental health field prefer to avoid those with overly-intense reactions, unpredictability and volatility of behavior and emotion, especially anger, and frequent depression and unhappiness.

However, oftentimes that doesn't matter because these patients commonly turn on doctors and therapists in transference-like rages, and are gone. Thus the instability of some of their relationships in general.

Some or many such people may have Bipolar spectrum problems - or both.

If interested, Therapists' Fear of Borderline Personality Disorder Persists

Posted by Dr. Joy Bliss in Psychology, and Dr. Bliss at 13:34 | Comments (17) | Trackbacks (0)

Trackbacks

Trackback specific URI for this entry

No Trackbacks

Comments

Display comments as (Linear | Threaded)

Yes, it does persist. Where it is appropriate, we are trying to relook at many of them in terms of PTSD, as there is considerable overlap. It also allows us to avoiding even the appearance of blame, and to focus on coping strategies.

The problem is, many of those with BPD or related personality disorders don't have PTSD symptoms or known trauma. (The lack of known trauma fed much of the 80's-90's recovered memory hysteria.) The psychodynamic explanations have been reasonably good for explaining what the patient is experiencing now, but less good at explaining cause. I am certainly leaning to prenatal and heritable influences at this point, at least as a launching pad.

I sometimes recommend the book Stop Walking On Eggshells to people who are closely related to folks with that disorder.

#1 Assistant Village Idiot (Link) on 2016-03-02 14:43 (Reply)

Hah, thank you for reminding me of that one AVI! It's exactly the book I was casting about for to refresh my mental model of this stuff.

#1.1 HayZeus on 2016-03-03 11:26 (Reply)

"we are trying to relook at many of them in terms of PTSD"

I'm no psychologist, but I've always wondered if, on average, "borderline" was just female for "PTSD" -- females get diagnosed with the first condition, and males get diagnosed with the second.

#2 curious on 2016-03-02 15:16 (Reply)

@ curious. Antisocial Personality Disorder is more the male version, as it expresses differently. However, you raise a good distinction in diagnosing. It is always a good question to ask oneself when examining male-female differences: is this what we are seeing, or is that what is there? That is true not only in psychiatric and behavioral diagnoses, but pain evaluation, heart disease, gait disorders - whole bunches of stuff.

PTSD, because of its military association, is sometimes more acceptable to men. And we may indeed see it differently.

#3 Assistant Village Idiot (Link) on 2016-03-02 15:49 (Reply)

There is a kind of coping mechanism that unstable personality disorder/bipolar individuals develop that is not very different from a con artist. They are selling a story, a line of BS, excuses, etc. all the time, it is how they deal with other people. Although they may be conscious that something is different, that they must act differently than others do they rarely understand or will accept that the problem is theirs. Not all of them are dangerous or violent but some are and over time their personalities change and they can become violent. What seems to set them off is exposing their con or coping. It is like a slap in the face and they sometimes react with increasing show of threat or irrational acts. If you find yourself dealing with someone who displays these traits the worst thing you can do is to confront them or tell them they are "ill". I can't speak to what a therapist has to do in dealing with them but if it is a family member, friend, acquaintance or a street person asking for money I would suggest you keep things light and happy and extract yourself from the situation. Understand I realize it doesn't always end badly or perhaps more correctly doesn't usually end badly but make no mistake these are the people you see on the evening news who shot their mother and father or their wife and children and everyone interviewed looks bewildered and says they never saw a indication of anything wrong. The men are more dangerous than the women BUT the women are more likely plan it out and to harm you indirectly.

#4 GoneWithTheWind on 2016-03-02 17:19 (Reply)

Such insight. It's a mystery why the DSM hasn't annually been sent to a single qualified expert for comprehensive editing. Why, they could publish an entire edition just on the basis of such expertise!

#4.1 Ten on 2016-03-02 18:33 (Reply)

Why, thank you Ten. That is the nicest thing you have ever said to me. No, really I mean it.

#4.1.1 GoneWithTheWind on 2016-03-02 22:15 (Reply)

Demonstrate your better understanding

#4.1.2 Assistant Village Idiot (Link) on 2016-03-02 22:30 (Reply)

Not sure which I'd be rising to, idiot, the predictability or the defensiveness. Or to fill the vacuum I noted first.

#4.1.2.1 Ten on 2016-03-03 07:27 (Reply)

So you are unable to argue against GWTW with any substance, relying on sneering instead. Confirming my suspicion.

Seeing that you know nothing about a subject that others know at least something, you missed a good opportunity to shut up.

#4.1.2.1.1 Assistant Village Idiot (Link) on 2016-03-03 08:32 (Reply)

My experience watching mental dysfunction wreck stuff - not that it matters - is starkly such that I happen not to make gigantic, sweeping, badly off-key generalizations about it, especially among the interplay of the four colorful cluster B maladies. Those files stay parked on C:. I can't say how much I appreciate your generous offer, however.

At the Farm one may innocently enjoy the occasional endless uni-paragraph opinion for its own sake - expertise that hardly needs to be edited in order to marvel over. Hours in the day, and like that...

Sometimes internet cops revel in rhetorical muscularity, idiot, that others might rightly smile at.

#4.1.2.1.1.1 Ten on 2016-03-03 08:58 (Reply)

No, you make sweeping generalisations about other commenters instead. Because that's requires no especial skill. You had an initial opportunity to identify important correctives you thought might be necessary, or raise items of ambiguity or controversy. You didn't.

Seriously - you comment suggests that no one should ever write a paragraph summary of anything, because something might be left out. I'm sorry that thousands of years of humans evolving to condense information efficiently doesn't meet with your approval.

I look forward to you digging further.

#4.1.2.1.1.1.1 Assistant Village Idiot (Link) on 2016-03-03 15:49 (Reply)

My comment more than suggests just what I said and no more or less: That sweeping generalizations from the cheap seats are just that.

Now, you can drive your own goalposts all over the field, which you have, but I said what I intended and I owe you no analysis beyond my first observation and my follow-up inference: Characteristically bloviating opinions obviously do not warrant replies in kind. Quite the contrary.

Of the two of is, idiot, you've taken the role of antagonist, not me.

#4.1.2.1.1.1.1.1 Ten on 2016-03-03 18:14 (Reply)

Doctors avoid them because they cause pain.
Even planaria know how to withdraw from painful stimuli.

Plus, they don't think they need help.
The world is wrong, not them.

#5 KCFleming on 2016-03-02 20:35 (Reply)

A therapist once told me the following 'joke':

What's the best treatment plan for a Borderline? A good referral.

#5.1 JM01 on 2016-03-03 11:14 (Reply)

You big chicken. You're a trained doctor! I've married two of these women and I'm a rank amateur!

#6 Gene on 2016-03-02 22:02 (Reply)

I married one and what a journey that was. I really knew things had gone South when she got a gun and hid it under the mattress on her side. But one day she actually went to use it and it was gone. I was stumped what she was doing and didn't know until the next day when she accused our 15 year old son of taking her gun. Gun! What gun? Why did you have a gun under the mattress? It spiraled downhill from there. Her mother, two sisters and a brother are nutty as fruitcakes and I knew that but I never saw it in her for a few years.

#6.1 GoneWithTheWind on 2016-03-02 22:24 (Reply)

Add Comment

Name
Email	(Your e-mail will not show in your comment)
Homepage
In reply to
Comment	By commenting on this site you agree to the site rules listed here. Email addresses will not be displayed and will only be used for email notifications. Quick reference guide: [i] italics [/i], [b] bold [/b], [u] underline [/u], [url] (web address) [/url]. More tips here. Enclosing asterisks marks text as bold (word), underscore are made via _word_. E-Mail addresses will not be displayed and will only be used for E-Mail notifications. To prevent automated Bots from commentspamming, please enter the string you see in the image below in the appropriate input box. Your comment will only be submitted if the strings match. Please ensure that your browser supports and accepts cookies, or your comment cannot be verified correctly. Enter the string from the spam-prevention image above: BBCode format allowed
	Remember Information? Subscribe to this entry

Maggie's Farm

Our Recent Essays Behind the Front Page

Categories

Quicksearch

Links

Blog Administration

RSS Readers

Wednesday, March 2. 2016

Avoiding Borderlines