Topic Tuesday Focus Group // Treatment and support for people experiencing personality disorders // Tuesday 6 March, 7pm AEDT

Hi all,

just dropping in. I received my diagnosis about a year after a big Breakdown too where I ended up in hospital. The hardest part for me is that my diagnosis has been used and changed according to my situations over time. If I ended up in hospital my diagnosis is BPD. In the mental health system it’s been DPD with BPD traits. More generally now though for the purpose of putting me in a box in the hospital system I’m BPD. My therapist has said she considers me to have a personality disorder unsepecified. I much prefer that. The one that causes me the most shame is DPD.

@Phoenix_Rising

This is so close to what my current psychologist thinks! She doesn't agree that they're exactly the same, but she does think that a lot of people with BPD have complex trauma, and that a lot of BPD is really complex trauma and not BPD itself. BPD is sometimes, I think, a handy label for those of us who fit too many other boxes.

@OhanaSystem I'm sorry to hear about your loss - I can only imagine how devastating that would be.

Thankfully the conversation around BPD being a 'life sentence' is starting to change. Compared to some disorders, there is actually very strong evidence that people with BPD can experience great outcomes with the right treatments - which really contradicts earlier messages!

@EliseSunflower I believe that the single greatest improvement that could happen with respect to the treatment of BPD would be for the MH profession to move away from the medical model and towards a trauma informed model. As I said in my previous post (which I wrote before reading your next question ) I believe the focus should be on what HAPPENED to a person rather than what is WRONG with a person.

Is it true that you can't get better from BPD? Once you have it that's it??

My psychologist told me too that BPD is closely linked with C-PTSD which is what i have.

Hi @Teej, thanks for dropping by - I assume you're referring to dependent personality disorder - please correct me if I'm wrong.

If you're willing to share more, I'd love to hear about your experience with diagnosis and treatment for DPD as well as BPD. We tend to talk a lot about BPD in both research and clinical fields and it would be great to have some discussion around other personality disorders too. We also don't talk enough about 'unspecified' personality disorders - an important area to look at too!

@BlueBay

I'm not sure what exactly the current thinking is, but you can definitely get better - whether you can be "cured" is something I'm uncertain about. But treatments like DBT can be life altering, and I know several people who, post-treatment, no longer fit the criteria for BPD. Their lives are less chaotic, more peaceful, and much happier. Hope that helps and gives you back some hope!

@OhanaSystem yeah it is a matter of debate as to whether BPD and C-PTSD are the same thing - hence why the change didn't happen in the DSM-V. My psychologist shares my view.

Even if people don't see them as EXACTLY the same thing, it still intrigues me when someone is diagnosed with both C-PTSD and BPD. I mean, which symptoms are attributable to the BPD and which are attributable to C-PTSD? If one label covers all the symptoms the person is experiencing, why give them two labels???

Hi everyone - thanks for the awesome discussion. I'm going to move on to my next (and probably biggest) question:

There is a large variety in the types of support available - for example, some people access financial and housing support, mental health services, or support groups. What sorts of treatment and support services have you accessed, and what have your experiences been like?