We had talked before on one of my previous posts not long ago. If you could please get back to me i have a few questions concerning the topic we discussed. Thank you.
I’ll assume the questions are about BPD. I’ll be happy to answer when you’ve got them.
I’ll just say I’ve worked with a number of BPD patients in the past. The main issue I had the most difficulty overcoming was the intuition. How do you tell somebody that their feelings of suspicion are totally unwarranted or that the intense love they feel for the guy they just hung out with is true love? Sometimes their intuition was dead on, other times completely off, but the one thing they all had in common was they were absolutely sure about what they were feeling.
Of course there were also secondary issues to deal with, previous betrails, long histories of abuse, a lot of time I suspected much of this was… over emphasized, or that they had in some ways re-written their experiences to be better or worse than they actually were, and of course they were absolutely sure of what they were expressing and to suggest they weren’t was tantamount to calling them a liar (and super pissing them off), this happened so often I was fairly sure whatever the truth was originally they had completely convinced themselves of what they were saying regardless of the actual events.
another thing about BPD… understand that the DSMV has always been off when it comes specifically to personality disorders especially those where the diagnosis could be many things. oh so you have rapid cycling mood swings? clearly Bi-polar. Oh you have a side order of “deep sense of emptiness” with your mood swings and you tend to be highly dramatic? clearly BPD. I honestly think therapists put too much… faith (?) into those diagnoses. you have emotional problems, linked to some organic issues dealing with your sense of well being (serotonin) along with traumatic events in your past. pretty damn hard to nail that down to one specific thing and not any one of 100 other possibles.
so that’s why I was so dedicated to RET as a treatment modality. If some screws are loose or not everybody responds to things in similar ways. If you have no job, no volunteer work, no kids to deal with, no church, no art or serious hobbies, when your partner doesn’t say “god bless you” when you sneeze it’s really gonna piss you off, and if you have BPD you might take it farther to believe he really hates you and wants you to die from illness, and the bastard didn’t even ask if you were sick! but if you have all those other things going on, a little thing like somebody being a little distracted and forgetting a god bless you is a minor occurrence, you have so many more serious things demanding your attention, it probably wouldn’t even register.
the other aspects… the having a strict daily routine and very clear and well drawn boundaries… those help people with distracting personality disorders almost universally and generally aren’t bad things for anyone to have. We find comfort in predictability especially when our thoughts or feelings can be wildly unpredictable. and the boundaries… not having them and being an open book puts you in a lot of really weird relationships, opens yourself up to being hurt and confused much more often. This was often one of the most difficult things for the BPD patients to overcome, they were just so used to sharing everything with everyone.
This article says it’s fairly common in BPD but in my own observations it only happened with the patients when they had a psychotic break. basically when they worked themselves up and stressed themselves out so completely they sort of created their own reality. Their thoughts were just not right and in a lot of ways it looked like schizoaffective disorder, and just about all the hallucinations were auditory of course it was tough to say what they were seeing or experiencing as they were so out of touch with what was going on. Typically it took days in the hospital before they started to come out of it and afterward what they remembered was pretty fragmented.
Man says to doctor “whenever I poke myself in the leg like this it really hurts!”
Doctor says “then quit poking yourself in the leg!”
Try and avoid the conditions that lead to the trigger. Night lite? Im not a big believer in therapy for organic disorders but for phobias it could really help. There are antipsychotic meds you can take but there are huge side effects and the long term effects create a shaking condition similar to Parkinson’s disease so I woulden’t suggest those unless the benifits really outweighed the problems.
The problem is my job is at night. And its only really a problem for about 15-20 minutes a night when I’m alone doing my walking route. I started listening to music to distract myself and that helped until it didn’t. Then I started calling my husband when I was having a really bad night and that was helping until Saturday i think. I was out doing my route listening to music then I saw “something” then I saw something else so I called him..it was fine for a few minutes then I saw something else and just about starting crying. It was at that point I said enough is enough I have to do something now.
The problem is my job is at night. And its only really a problem for about 15-20 minutes a night when I’m alone doing my walking route. I started listening to music to distract myself and that helped until it didn’t. Then I started calling my husband when I was having a really bad night and that was helping until Saturday i think. I was out doing my route listening to music then I saw “something” then I saw something else so I called him..it was fine for a few minutes then I saw something else and just about starting crying. It was at that point I said enough is enough I have to do something now.
i was on my phone and i have no idea anyway i was trying to send something else. i had just told my husband about our conversation and he had offered to drive me around my route. which yes would help however i would like independence to do things by myself.
13 comments
sure, I’ll answer anything.
I’ll assume the questions are about BPD. I’ll be happy to answer when you’ve got them.
I’ll just say I’ve worked with a number of BPD patients in the past. The main issue I had the most difficulty overcoming was the intuition. How do you tell somebody that their feelings of suspicion are totally unwarranted or that the intense love they feel for the guy they just hung out with is true love? Sometimes their intuition was dead on, other times completely off, but the one thing they all had in common was they were absolutely sure about what they were feeling.
Of course there were also secondary issues to deal with, previous betrails, long histories of abuse, a lot of time I suspected much of this was… over emphasized, or that they had in some ways re-written their experiences to be better or worse than they actually were, and of course they were absolutely sure of what they were expressing and to suggest they weren’t was tantamount to calling them a liar (and super pissing them off), this happened so often I was fairly sure whatever the truth was originally they had completely convinced themselves of what they were saying regardless of the actual events.
another thing about BPD… understand that the DSMV has always been off when it comes specifically to personality disorders especially those where the diagnosis could be many things. oh so you have rapid cycling mood swings? clearly Bi-polar. Oh you have a side order of “deep sense of emptiness” with your mood swings and you tend to be highly dramatic? clearly BPD. I honestly think therapists put too much… faith (?) into those diagnoses. you have emotional problems, linked to some organic issues dealing with your sense of well being (serotonin) along with traumatic events in your past. pretty damn hard to nail that down to one specific thing and not any one of 100 other possibles.
Continuing or other conversation…
so that’s why I was so dedicated to RET as a treatment modality. If some screws are loose or not everybody responds to things in similar ways. If you have no job, no volunteer work, no kids to deal with, no church, no art or serious hobbies, when your partner doesn’t say “god bless you” when you sneeze it’s really gonna piss you off, and if you have BPD you might take it farther to believe he really hates you and wants you to die from illness, and the bastard didn’t even ask if you were sick! but if you have all those other things going on, a little thing like somebody being a little distracted and forgetting a god bless you is a minor occurrence, you have so many more serious things demanding your attention, it probably wouldn’t even register.
the other aspects… the having a strict daily routine and very clear and well drawn boundaries… those help people with distracting personality disorders almost universally and generally aren’t bad things for anyone to have. We find comfort in predictability especially when our thoughts or feelings can be wildly unpredictable. and the boundaries… not having them and being an open book puts you in a lot of really weird relationships, opens yourself up to being hurt and confused much more often. This was often one of the most difficult things for the BPD patients to overcome, they were just so used to sharing everything with everyone.
i read that its not only mood swings and what not but hallucinations. how true is that?
well… this says a lot about that…
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5654997/
This article says it’s fairly common in BPD but in my own observations it only happened with the patients when they had a psychotic break. basically when they worked themselves up and stressed themselves out so completely they sort of created their own reality. Their thoughts were just not right and in a lot of ways it looked like schizoaffective disorder, and just about all the hallucinations were auditory of course it was tough to say what they were seeing or experiencing as they were so out of touch with what was going on. Typically it took days in the hospital before they started to come out of it and afterward what they remembered was pretty fragmented.
Let’s say a phobia triggers it. Example being alone in the dark. And mostly only happens at this time. Like 99 times out of 100.
Also is there anything that can be done for it because it’s recently become a bigger pain then I’d like to deal with
Man says to doctor “whenever I poke myself in the leg like this it really hurts!”
Doctor says “then quit poking yourself in the leg!”
Try and avoid the conditions that lead to the trigger. Night lite? Im not a big believer in therapy for organic disorders but for phobias it could really help. There are antipsychotic meds you can take but there are huge side effects and the long term effects create a shaking condition similar to Parkinson’s disease so I woulden’t suggest those unless the benifits really outweighed the problems.
The problem is my job is at night. And its only really a problem for about 15-20 minutes a night when I’m alone doing my walking route. I started listening to music to distract myself and that helped until it didn’t. Then I started calling my husband when I was having a really bad night and that was helping until Saturday i think. I was out doing my route listening to music then I saw “something” then I saw something else so I called him..it was fine for a few minutes then I saw something else and just about starting crying. It was at that point I said enough is enough I have to do something now.
The problem is my job is at night. And its only really a problem for about 15-20 minutes a night when I’m alone doing my walking route. I started listening to music to distract myself and that helped until it didn’t. Then I started calling my husband when I was having a really bad night and that was helping until Saturday i think. I was out doing my route listening to music then I saw “something” then I saw something else so I called him..it was fine for a few minutes then I saw something else and just about starting crying. It was at that point I said enough is enough I have to do something now.
i was on my phone and i have no idea anyway i was trying to send something else. i had just told my husband about our conversation and he had offered to drive me around my route. which yes would help however i would like independence to do things by myself.
i thought about it. would it be easier to talk on fb then we can talk when ever?
https://m.me/hope.taylor.75248795