Raising Awareness of BPD - Flipping the Script

@tyme,

How was the mentalisation treatment?

I narrowly missed an involuntary admission early this year. Thankfully, my admissions have been voluntary - they have been extended, mostly without leave in a locked psychiatric hospital.

Tell me about PARC.

I have also been to PARCs. Mine were scheduled into my life to help me cope with anniversaries and challenging times.

For me, I had a recovery coach each stay. I went in and set clear goals with the coach. We did a recovery star data collection. While in there, there is a psychiatrist who sees all the people who go in. There is someone there 24/7.

I found it very helpful to support my BPD. My peer support worker visited me there too. Every day starts with a house meeting to talk about the day. We have a calendar of events for each day such as dog walking, coffee club, outing, psychoeducation groups, walking groups, mindfulness, art and craft, shopping.

Sorry @BabyBear , I don't know what else to say about it. Most people stayed about 4 weeks. But it think it has now changed to about 2 weeks.

@BPDSurvivor

Thanks. I appreciate your information.

What sort of setting does Does it take place in? How do you get involved in PARC? Is it a public or private treatment option?

@BPDSurvivor ,

I just looked PARC up - thank you for drawing my attention to it.

@tyme @BPDSurvivor

Has anyone felt a great sense of relief when they received their BPD diagnosis?

I did.

It’s part of the public health system. I’m not saying it works for all but it worked for me @BabyBear Parc was linked to the public hospital in my region. So the consumer doesn’t have to pay anything.

i got involved in Parc because of so many hospital admissions. Clearly hospital wasn’t working. So this was the next option and it was voluntary. If you self harm, you pretty much get kicked out. At that point, I was quite high risk. I was always in the high dependency unit and ‘specialed’ (1:1).

They didn’t think Parc was for me because of my risky behaviour. But I guess I proved myself. Even the private system refused to take me because I was too high risk.

@BabyBear , I felt relief that what I was going through had a name. It showed me I wasn’t making it up.

The label itself didn’t mean anything to me because I didn’t understand it and no one really told me anything.

but yes, I had a lot to learn

@BPDSurvivor,

You have my empathy. What is it about Borderline that puts us naturally at the moderate to high-risk level?

I'm not opposed to the moderate risk rating I’m given. It has the function of making me feel safe & in turn, my family are happier.

Self-harm sees automatic ejection from the private hospital & involuntary admission into another. It must be difficult to be routinely admitted to the PICU.

@BPDSurvivor

I know what you mean about having a lot to learn about BPD. And it’s good that your diagnosis made you feel vindicated - that you were not making it up.

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@BabyBear wrote:

@BPDSurvivor,

You have my empathy. What is it about Borderline that puts us naturally at the moderate to high-risk level?

I'm not opposed to the moderate risk rating I’m given. It has the function of making me feel safe & in turn, my family are happier.

Self-harm sees automatic ejection from the private hospital & involuntary admission into another. It must be difficult to be routinely admitted to the PICU.

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I'm not sure if being regularly admitted to PICU was a blessing in disguise. It sounds bad, but I have to remember:

1) If i wasn't put in PICU, I may not be alive today

2) All the admissions meant I was assigned a case manager.

Please note, I did NOT try to get admitted so many times so I could get a case manager. I know BPD holds the stigma that borderlines are 'attention seekers'. That's a myth.

So once I had a case manager (who was fortunately a psychologist), so many opportunities opened up. They were able to refer me to PARC whenever I needed, I could call psychiatric triage and all my notes were given to my case manager to follow up, I had house visits, CATT intervention when needed, and I pretty much had a therapy session every week, on top of my other therapist.

I'm not going to complain about any of my BPD journey because I feel it has led me to where I am now. I feel I'm here for a reason.

Oh, i haven't even answered your question "What is it about Borderline that puts us naturally at the moderate to high-risk level?" For me, I felt that the emotional pain was so intense that risk was an outlet. Every emotional bump sent searing pain throughout the body. That's the only way I can explain it @BabyBear