Treatment Stories and Success?

it can be tough to live with bpd

Meditation is helpful.

I have suffer personality desorder from six have had therapy medication ... And this person still lives in me and controlez a part of me.... That's all i can say ....

I find that writing helps control my thoughts ... I write everything down on paper than I read it than I save it an if I like it I keep it if I don't I burn it or rip it up...

also I read a lot or watch movies

I thought I would make a list on what I?ve personally tried, and see if anyone else has tried them or what their experiences were:

Counselling (If you don?t click with your counsellor at the beginning, it?s a waste of time. You can?t ?develop? the kind of rapport you need to be totally vulnerable, and you have to be able to be totally vulnerable to heal.?) Mainly works as more ?care and maintenance? for me as I feel ?talk therapy? doesn?t really ?reduce? anything for me but it means a lot to know I always have a supporter who I don?t emotionally owe anything to.

DBT: Doing it now?anyone else have any success?

CBT: I?ve had some success being able to short circuit my emotional overloads with rationale and I think the best way to get CBT to work is be wholehearted about it. If I go in thinking ?this is just a trick, this Is just a gimmick that works for the weak-minded and stupid? and then on that basis refuse to finish an activity or follow through on every step, it doesn?t work. But even if I feel defeated or cynical, if I still follow throughoften I find I have calmed own or it allows me to be able torethink my situation and get out of a negative loop.

When feeling real emotional about an encounter with someone asking myself beforehand: What?s my situation? > What do I want to achieve?> How do I want to feel about myself afterwards? >How do I want the other person in my situation to feel afterwards?

Pros and Cons lists (also true and false lists)

Medication: I?m on Valdoxan at the moment and it has been life changing. I?ve mainly noticed it in my sleep patterns, which used to be totally all over the place and really impaired my ability to live normally. But now I can sleep at night ? ALL THROUGH THE NIGHT! ? and be alert and awake for the full 12 hour day (or more)! With good quality sleep my depression isn?t as bad and I don?t emotionally get out of control as easily. The thing I like the best though is that it doesn?t cause weight gain or reduce sex drive (which were deal breakers for me in the past.)

Distraction:

5 senses > what are five things I can see, hear, feel ? then four, then three, then two until I?ve calmed down, but I have also tried this is the context of ?mindfulness? to try and allow myself to really connect with what I?m going through ? especially when I?m happy or content to really allow myself to 100% enjoy. )

Deep breathing- focusing in on the 4-7-8 breathing pattern

?Wait 30 minutes? routine ? which is specifically useful when I am urging to SH or when I want to ?get something off my chest? to someone. I commit to waiting 30 minutes and doing something else (And not letting thoughts run around in my head during that time like: ?how I feel? or ?how I have been wronged, how unfair it is?? or ?what I?m going to say? or ?how SH-ing will make things better? or the? method by which I will SH?.) I find stuff which I can really focus on rather than numb out with, work better for me. Like washing my hair (where I really focus on each step and the feeling of the water on me in the shower) and doing cross stitch (because I have to really concentrate on each stitch and the pattern).

Exercise: I?ve just recently started routinely working out every day and I?ve read and been told it makes a huge improvement in your feelings of stress and anxiety. I know it definitely doesn?t help calm me down when I am raging?But I?ve only been at seriously it for a couple of weeks now. I definitely like feeling fitter and stronger though. And it?s encouraging that every time I do a set I realise I can do something a little bit better than before, my push-ups are straighter, I can go a little longer.

Stuff which hasn't worked for me!

Gratitude: I get the feeling maybe I'm doing it wrong, but when people tell me - you just have to focus on the good not the bad - I get even more upset. Like I have lost my housekeys at the moment - and the 'gratitute voice' says "well, focus on the fact that at least you don't have any where important to go today!" my automatic head-response is "You're right. I can't leave the house AT ALL now. Until my husband gets home with the other set. In four days. Great! Well I'm so glad I don't have anything important to do."

It 'bad' in a bad thing always seems so massive to me compared to the 'good'. And trying to winnow out something 'positive' to be 'grateful for' always makes me more upset and angry.

I get gratitudeas an action - Ithink. Like 'paying it forward' orbeing more positive in a situation then you are obliged to be (like leaving a postive feedback slip when you get a great coffee at starbucks, or sending flowers to someone who helped you but isn't a good friend) but I don't really feel 'good' about it. It's a nice thing to nice things, and I do try to make a habit of it - but I don't really understand why it would make you feel good being 'nicer than you have to be'.

BPD is very hard to combat. It's enviornmentally caused, which means it's difficult to medicate; this is its biggest difference from bipolar disorder. For myself, a mix of psychotherapy and Prozac has worked well. It's important for those of us who suffer from BPD get professional help.