Raising Awareness of BPD - Flipping the Script

Hi there

fellow bpd gal here x

@Melbpdptsd hi hun I'm no longer sure I have bpd but I believe you can have both bpd and bipolar.

Just finding my way.

Have a great day xx

Hi @Sirine ,

Hope you are well my dear. How is treatment going?

Whether you have BPD or not, I hope you are getting the support you so deserve.

BPDSurvivor

Welcome @Melbpdptsd ,

Good of you to join us 🙂

Yes, I have to say I have BPD. There have been crap moments, but now that I'm on the other brighter side, I am so grateful for the lesson BPD has taught me.

How's things going for you anyway?

I look forward to connecting with you more.

Hi @SanSan ! I read your initial post in the intro thread and thought I'd post here.

I perhaps felt a little the same as you when I was first diagnosed. It was like....'oh... so my crazy behaviour actually has a name to it?'

But yes, I was up and down and round and round for years when I was diagnosed with BPD.

It's been tough finding treatments that work and are accessible. I have to say I was a lucky one and did get treatment in the public system over a number of years. It has made a remarkable difference on my life.

Are you currently undergoing any therapy, or have any supports in place? It can such a lonely journey sometimes.

It's a very recent diagnosis and my notes weren't sent to where they needed to be, so I'm seeing my gp soon about what the next steps are.

I saw many psychiatrists and they all diagnosed me with bipolar @SanSan . I carried this diagnosis and was on meds for over a decade....

But my regular ED presentations and hospital admissions did not match the bipolar diagnosis. It was the treating team during my hospital admissions that diagnosed me.

Even then, the psychiatrists outside focused only on bipolar... which I didn't have. For me, I feel that this was probably because BPD doesn't heal itself with meds.... it's psychotherapy which is needed.

I hope you will be able to find the talking therapy supports that you need. It is so challenging to find long term psychotherapy for BPD. But just keep looking don't give up.

A good place to start is probably The Australian BPD Foundation- if you go to their newsletter, they have a list of BPD services in each Australian State. Some of these supports are online which make them more accessible e.g. with Project Air.

I look forward to hearing how you go with everything. Please take care and be kind to yourself.

Thx @BPDSurvivor , that's very supportive of you.

I see my GP tomorrow for the first time since receiving the diagnosing psychiatrist's report; I'll see what can be presented. I'm not holding my breath for local therapy support though.

Hi @SanSan ,

I haven't heard from you in a while. How is everything going? How was the psych appointment?

Hope you are okay. Thinking of you.

Hi @BPDSurvivor , thanks for your +ve message of concern and support 🙂

So, the psych appt already happened - it's where I received the diagnosis. Now it's just a matter of getting the support needed to progress which has now been made more difficult by the govt's decision to halve the number of psychologist appointments next year.

My GP doesn't know of any dialectical treating psychologists where I live and I can't afford to travel into the city and pay for the necessary treatment. I have been prescribed a drug to attempt to treat the lows pharmacologically with the understanding that it might not work and that it could take some time for any +ve effect(s).

And, as I am on other drugs to treat physical, ongoing, neuropathic pain, I need to be weaned off one of those drugs for the next few weeks before I can start taking the newly prescribed drug (an SSRI) so that serotonin syndrome or serotonin toxicity doesn't occur.

However, I do have a clinical psychologist that I've been seeing for some time now and he quite generously has bulk-billed me since my first visit. In our last meeting we discussed about approaching a dialectical treatment plan as a way to move forward (we had already been teasing CBT anyway) and that's something I wish to explore with him with the recognition and understanding that dialectical treatment really needs to be group/single in-person sessions possibly twice a week for beyond a year. So I really don't know what on earth 2023 is going to be like but hey, no-one does anyway so let's give it a shot and see what happens.

Plus I joined a university library to get hold of a copy of 'Cognitive-behavioral [sic] treatment of borderline personality disorder' by Marsha Linehan which is now my summer (is it really still winter?) reading to finish before our next meeting in early January. And by then it should be the first week of me taking the SSRI so we'll see what side-effects come to the fore.

So anyway, that's where I'm at - thanks for asking 🙏 - where my days seem to be the holding pattern that have been my quotidian over the last few years, and I strive to remain creative on a daily basis (with some very pleasing recent breakthroughs I must add).

This time of year has always been extremely stressful for me (as it is for others too) but this year I have something in place that gives hope to the possibility that maybe, just maybe, those times at least are behind me!

Many thanks for your concern 🙂