Hi everyone,
I'm a newbie, nice to meet you all. I've been dx w/ Borderline Personality Disorder & severe depression ( & possibly Bipolar Disorder Type 2). For almost two decades, the books I've read on PD's have concluded that they are a manifestation of learned maladjusted traits & behaviors in one's personality brought on by a dysfunctional environment. But recently, I've been reading a lot about new evidence which has proven that people w/ PD's have defects in the areas of the brain which regulate emotion, impulsiveness, aggression, etc. It's speculated that these brain defects could be caused by trauma & other adverse environmental factors. And some of us have gone through abuse, but others haven't. Many people go through the same levels of abuse & never develop a PD. That kinda proves that our brains are more vulnerable. Are we just BORN this way? Are all of those books I've read wrong? Can we really overcome our PD's by doing the exercises in books like I Hate you, Don't Leave Me,or The Angry Heart, etc., that were written by experts on BPD, & can we really be helped by DBT (Dialectical Behavioral Therapy)? Can we really be cured without taking meds? I'd like to think the answer is yes, especially b/c pills don't work for me or many others I've known. I don't mean to sound pessimistic; I just want to know what the real culprit is, b/c how can we get better if we don't know what needs to be fixed? What are your thoughts???