BPD recovery

Oh! Great question! To add another complexity to the question - what do people classify as "recovery". I think other members will be a bit sick of me using this image - but I really think it represents what I believe 'recovery' looks like 🙂

I like your point NikNak and your image is a good one, frustrating but very true, It does as you say, add complexity to my question but also I believe a very important aspect.

I see a lot on the internet that recovery from BPD is possible... I do wonder what exactly they mean by that?

To try and act 'normal' is the hardest thing. My moods fluctuate constantly and I feel like I'm constantly on a roller coaster (and I know others around me feel like they are on it too). Recovery intrigues me, is there light at the end of the tunnel?

Hi @Billamba,

I'm sure many other people experiencing BPD also wonder about the possibility of recovery, thanks for starting this discussion!

I recently heard a talk by a psychologist who works with people experiencing BPD, who said that the recovery period is shorter than that of Major Depressive Disorder - that was a huge surprise for me!

@NikNik I love that image every time you use it, it's so true! Recovery is generally not a straight line. I'd also add that it doesn't always have to end up in the same place - people can decide for themselves what they're aiming for, whether this means overcoming all symptoms or learning to manage them so that they can live the life they want to.

@Billamba, do you have an idea of what recovery might look like for you?

I'm curious, does anyone feel a sense of pressure about getting recovery "right"?

@AlienBP2, it sounds like you are describing Bipolar Disorder, is that right? Regardless, I think you make a good point about tuning in to signs of how you're going and adjusting your treatment plan accordingly.

Interested to hear more of your thoughts @Billamba and others!

Shimmer

I like the positive message behind the idea of recovery but in my case (diagnosed with bipolar) I can't really think of a moment in life where I have really 'recovered' from mental health problems. They seem to always be a part of my day to day life in some way or other, to varying degrees. I like the idea that someone else on the forum mentioned of recovery as an ongoing journey, like life is a journey for all of us.

I was born with BPD so I expect to die with BPD. That may sound morbid to all the hopefuls but it frees me. It frees me from unrealistic expectations which if you think about it works in favour to one of the symptoms of BPD being living in fear of the unrealistic expectations I perceive of others having in me.

I am a little confused as to BPD in this case (Borderline Personality Disorder or Bi-polar Disorder). As someone who can relate to the personality disorder I see that recovery is a 'journey' ( sorry for the use of that word) rather than an end product. For now I see every time I do something that doesn't make things worse as a step in recovery. For me right now at the very beginning, it's about learning about myself and finding out how to predict patterns and learns skills to combat the unhelpful patterns. I am very new to this and am still totally messing this up but after reading lots of stories on the forums it feels like recovery is about finding the things that make living worthwhile and working towards that one step/day/week/year at a time. I don't believe that I will ever be rid of my disorders because biologically I have a predisposition to them but I hope to manage everything better in the future.

Maybe to avoid confusion - psychiatrists use BPD as an acronym for Borderline Personality Disorder, and BPAD for BiPolar Affective Disorder (i.e.bipolar). Not that we all have to do what they do, but the abbreviations are so similar it can be hard to know what we are all talking about sometimes!

My understanding of BPD is that you might be born with a predisposition towards developing it, but the actual condition is a "mis-shaping" of the personality during development due to environmental influences (e.g. parenting, trauma, schooling) that detrimentally affect who we become. In other words, you can be predisposed but not develop BPD because you don't encounter the necessary triggering factors, or you can encounter those factors in varying measure and hence develop BPD to varying degrees. Because the end result is "baked in" to the personality of the individual (hence being called a Personality Disorder) it is not ever "cured" per se. Treatment approaches focus on raising personal awareness by the individual of their disorder, its effects on them and those around them, and providing strategies to manage it so as to offer the best functional outcome. Dialectic Behaviour Therapy (DBT) is the current favoured modality for treating BPD, with medications as required to help manage symptoms - but meds will not cure BPD.

So I guess the idea of recovery really depends on your expectations. If recovery means learning to manage a chronic condition effectively to get the best outcomes achievable - yes, definitely possible. If it means achieving a cure from the condition so that you never have to think about it again - according to our current best understanding, no - that's not possible. Who knows though, maybe future research will change that view.