Borderline personality disorder is usually treated using conventional psychotherapy and some prescribed medicine. But other alternative therapies are now being used to treat the disorder. It is common for therapists to get stressed out when dealing with clients with mental illness cases such as borderline personality disorder. So these new therapies were designed, not only to help the patient, but also help the psychiatrist cope up with the situation.
1. Dialectical behavioral therapy ? an empirical treatment
that uses behavioral science principles, like the cognitive behavioral
technique used in psychotherapy, zen practice and dialectical philosophy.
Dialectic is the balance of acceptance and committing change. The goal
of the therapy is to show the patients of borderline personality disorder
how to make a life that has meaning and purpose. The therapy has four
stages and each stages addresses different aspects of the disorder such
as self-mutilation, reliving and retelling of the traumatic experience,
relationships issue, and even depression and feeling empty. The therapist
even has his own support group to help reduce burnout that he may experience
with the patient.
The exact cause of bipolar disorder is not known, much like other mental disorders. People with bipolar disorder have extreme mood swings which range from mania to depression that may last for weeks and even up to months. Unlike those who have bipolar disorder, the mania and the depression or the mood swings of patients with borderline personality disorder would only last for a couple of hours to almost a day.
Bipolar patients, like those afflicted with borderline personality disorder, also have suicidal tendencies due to feelings of worthlessness and loneliness. But another difference between bipolar disorder and borderline personality disorder is that bipolar individuals do not always commit self-mutilation. Self-mutilation and substance abuse are the fastest relief patients with borderline personality disorder use.
Bipolar disorder is not associated with childhood trauma as much as borderline personality disorder is. Bipolar disorder is reliant on genetic and environmental factors. People who have had family members with bipolar disorder are at high risk of developing the disorder.
Most of the people who have anti-social personality disorder are men. These patients have a lack of emotional development during their childhood which enables them to have no emotional connection to anything or anyone. There is strong evidence to point out that those who have this disorder have a family history of related mental illnesses such schizophrenia, depression and psychosis.
The patients would have also been exposed to neglect or abuse by their families at an early age. They lack emotions and show no remorse for hurting other people. In fact, they feel satisfied when they could inflict pain unto others. People with this disorder were bullies during their childhood. They start off early to drink, use drugs and be sexually active. They start by hurting animals at first and then eventually graduate to hurting other people.
Anti-social personality disorder patients are very aggressive people, although not the same degree as those with borderline personality disorder, and are able to fight any time. They are hard to diagnose because they may behave like normal people but they harbor disturbed thoughts in their heads. Like those with borderline personality disorder, it may take a long period of time before proper diagnosis can be done to people with anti-social personality disorder.
Many mental disorders put women in a more precarious situation than men. Borderline personality disorder is more prevalent in women than in men. Even comorbid disorders with borderline personality disorder such as bipolar disorder and depression are higher in women than in men.
Childhood trauma is the major reason psychiatrists and scientists point out as the major reason for the development of this disorder. Women with borderline personality disorder are more likely to have been sexually abused during childhood while men with the disorder have been physically abused. It has also been found out that women borderline personality disorder also have post-traumatic stress disorder as oppose to men who have anti-social and narcissistic personality disorder.
Although men are more aggressive than women, women can also throw tantrums, experience mania and depression and verbally abuse other people. Though some women may become very demanding, especially to their lovers, it is very rare that they are capable of physically abusing someone.
Women who have borderline personality disorder tend to become more demanding and clingy to their partners than their male counterparts. They are easily irritated and hurt especially when their lover cannot be physically with them. Even the simple act of not being able to pick up the phone when they call can mean a serious blow of disappointment to them. Women who have the disorder are more likely to have relationship troubles than the males.
Borderline personality disorder does not develop the same way for all people. Some people may take years before psychiatrists may be able to diagnose them while some people may show symptoms early on. Borderline personality disorder is usually associated with childhood trauma. Majority of the women who have this disorder were sexually abused as children while the majority of men who have this disorder were physically abused.
Adults or those people who show the signs and symptoms of borderline personality disorder in their late twenties to early forties may not necessarily have had childhood trauma but were exposed instead to chronic stress from work and relationships.
Most psychiatrists do not fully diagnose anyone who is below the legal age of eighteen because some children may still be developing their identities. Children are naturally impulsive and demanding and can be easily mistaken for symptoms of borderline personality disorder.
But children can indeed have the disorder and be diagnosed with it only if the symptoms will be observed to have been present continuously for at least a year. But diagnosing children may always be consistent as diagnosing adults due to possibility that the children may still change their behavior as they grow up.
Borderline personality disorder is most often related to being abused during childhood. Childhood trauma in the form of physical, sexual or verbal abuse is a high contributing factor in the development of this disorder. Borderline personality disorder is more common in women than in men. Women who have this disorder are highly likely to have been sexually abused and neglected by a female caregiver during adolescence while men afflicted with this disorder are more likely to have been physically abused in their childhood.
Researchers also say that the family plays a central role in the development of this disorder; that it depends a lot on whether the parents were caring or abusive. But aside from childhood trauma, another borderline personality disorder cause has also been linked to chronic stress from work, constant conflicts in the family and in romantic relationships. Early onset of borderline personality disorder in young adults are said to be triggered mostly by childhood trauma while late onset of the disorder in adults are caused by stress from work and conflicts in their relationships like divorce and unwanted pregnancy violence such as rape.
Complex post traumatic disorder is very similar to post-traumatic stress disorder and borderline personality disorder in that this disorder shares some of their symptoms. Similarly, these three disorders arise from traumatic experience with slight variations: borderline personality disorder has a higher incidence rate of childhood trauma than the other two disorders. Another difference is that borderline personality disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder can happen to children while complex post-traumatic stress disorder has very few and isolated cases of children having been diagnosed with the disorder.
Complex post traumatic stress disorder usually arises from having been exposed to a dangerous situation for a long time. Usually people who have been kidnapped for a long period of time or those war prisoners are at high risk for this type of disorder. They become exposed to their perpetrators ideals and often, the victims find themselves willing and able to sympathize with them. They begin to have an idealized perception of their perpetrations, turning from ?bad? to ?good?, which is the exact opposite of those with borderline personality disorder. Often borderlines would perceive a person as ?good? first then see them as ?bad? after being disappointed.
Complex post traumatic disorder is very similar to post-traumatic stress disorder and borderline personality disorder in that this disorder shares some of their symptoms. Similarly, these three disorders arise from traumatic experience with slight variations: borderline personality disorder has a higher incidence rate of childhood trauma than the other two disorders. Another difference is that borderline personality disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder can happen to children while complex post-traumatic stress disorder has very few and isolated cases of children having been diagnosed with the disorder.
Complex post traumatic stress disorder usually arises from having been exposed to a dangerous situation for a long time. Usually people who have been kidnapped for a long period of time or those war prisoners are at high risk for this type of disorder. They become exposed to their perpetrators ideals and often, the victims find themselves willing and able to sympathize with them. They begin to have an idealized perception of their perpetrations, turning from ?bad? to ?good?, which is the exact opposite of those with borderline personality disorder. Often borderlines would perceive a person as ?good? first then see them as ?bad? after being disappointed.
Borderline personality disorder patients often create their own realities to protect themselves from getting hurt or getting disappointed when their perceived expectation of people and events become ruined.
Those who have borderline personality disorder treat someone or something either as ?good? or ?bad?; nothing comes in between. They perceive everyone initially as good and treat them nice but when the person they idealized disappoints them even in small ways, they will start to see that person as bad. Creating perceived realities is a characteristic diagnosis for dissociation disorder. People with borderline personality disorder experience other mental disorders like dissociation and narcissistic personality disorder.
People with dissociation disorder create their own realities and fantasies by holding back memories or assuming multiple personalities or identities. Similar to people with borderline personality disorder, this disorder is also said to have stemmed from childhood trauma or the innate disability of the person to control traumatic experiences from surfacing.
People with borderline personality disorder are often called difficult to deal with because one minute they?re normal, the next they?re aggressive. They have difficulty regulating their emotions and are easily offended. Their demands are high, especially when they want to spend time with their loved ones. They have difficulty to emotionally connect to an image or memory that is why they need to physically touch or be with someone just to feel intimacy and value.
In addition, people with borderline personality disorder tend to become clingy and this leads to conflicts in their relationships. Most of the patients of this disorder are also non-conformists that is why they tend to break norms or rules either in the home or in the office. They have terrible mood swings that last for a couple hours to almost an entire day.
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