[column width=”1/1″ last=”true” title=”What is Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD)?” title_type=”single” animation=”none” implicit=”true”]
Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) is a diagnosis given to individuals who display many or all of the following behaviors:
- Fear of being abandoned or left alone
- Having unstable relationships that alternate between love and hate for another
- Having an unstable self-image or no identity
- Engaging in impulsive behaviors (gambling, spending, shoplifting, sex, substance abuse, binge eating)
- Making suicidal threats, gestures, attempt, and/or engaging in self-injurious behaviors (cutting)
- Having intense mood swings and emotional overreactions
- Having feelings of emptiness
- Experiencing intense and inappropriate anger and having trouble controlling anger
- Being paranoid or losing a sense of reality
Treatment of Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD
Research has shown that Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) is most effective in treating individuals with Borderline Personality Disorder. The ultimate goal of DBT is to help individuals with BPD create a LIFE WORTH LIVING. This is done through teaching new skills to:
- Eliminate life-threatening behaviors (suicide attempts, suicidal thinking, cutting)
- Reduce behaviors that interfere with therapy (showing up late, not attending at all, not completing homework assignments)
- Decrease behaviors that destroy the individual’s quality of life (depression, anxiety, eating disorders, problems at work or school)
- Improve attention
- Improve relationships
- Understand and have more control over emotions
- Tolerate emotional pain
These goals are achieved by involving our clients in 3 modes of DBT:
- Individual psychotherapy once per week for 1 hour
- Skills group once per week for 1 ½ hours
- Phone coaching as needed
-Alina Gorgorian, Ph.D.
[/column]