 - Last login: 8 hours agoElle-ba
- elle is a 41 year old woman from Scotland, UK.
- Likes 4,123 pages, 17 videos, 296 photos • 1,079 fans • Received 235 reviews
- Member since Dec 03, 2004
Treat every person with kindness and respect, even those who are rude to you. Remember that you show compassion to others not because of who they are but because of who you are.
~ Andrew T. Somers ~
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NHP: Can you discuss the tendency of those with BPD towards self-harming or suicidal behavior?
ALC: Self-harming and suicidal behavior are very common among persons with BPD. One of the reasons for this is that they actually make up one of the nine symptoms of BPD. Approximately 75 percent of people with BPD have attempted suicide at least once, and eight to ten percent of people with BPD die by suicide. People with BPD also have high rates of self-harm (without intent to die), with some studies suggesting that up to 80% of people with BPD harm themselves. People with BPD struggle intensely with their emotions and often do not know how to reduce overwhelming emotional distress. As a result, when asked, the most common reason people with BPD give for attempting suicide or self-harming is that they were trying to escape their emotions and get some relief from their pain. Therefore, it is critical that treatment for BPD helps patients learn how to effectively manage their emotions.
NHP: In The Borderline Personality Disorder Survival Guide you mention several myths associated with BPD. What are a few of the biggest myths about those with BPD?
ALC: Two of the biggest myths have to do with whether BPD is something that people can recover from. One of these myths is that BPD is incurable. In fact, until several years ago, people thought that once you had BPD, you were stuck with it for life. However, we now know that this is not true, and that BPD actually has a very good prognosis. In fact, recent research suggests that people are more likely to recover from BPD than from bipolar disorder. The second myth related to this idea that BPD is incurable is the idea that BPD is untreatable, and that treatments don't work for people with this disorder. Just like with the other myth, this is definitely not true. In fact, we now know that people with BPD can make incredible progress in short periods of time when treated with therapies developed specifically for BPD.
The third myth that is quite common - and also completely untrue - is that people with BPD are manipulative and attention-seeking. As we discuss in our book, this myth probably came about as a misguided attempt to explain some of the problems that people with BPD tend to struggle with (especially suicidal and self-harm behaviours), as well as others' reactions to these behaviors. Basically, because these behaviours are so serious and life-threatening, many people find that they want to intervene quickly to help the person engaging in these behaviours. However, when they see themselves acting this quickly to provide support and reassurance to people with BPD, they conclude that people with BPD use these behaviours to "manipulate" others into paying attention to them or helping them. The problem with this way of thinking is that you can't infer what someone's intentions were based on the effects of her or his behavior. That is, knowing that self-harm and suicide attempts may lead others to provide attention or help does not actually tell us why someone engages in those behaviors. What's more, even if people have learned that the only way to get any kind of attention from someone else is to engage in a behavior as extreme as self-harm, the fact that they resort to this behavior does not mean that they are manipulative. It may simply mean that they are desperately in need of some kind of attention from another human being, and have not yet learned any other way of getting that need met.
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