Hi Interrupted Girl,



I just wanted to pipe in and say that this is an awesome thread! Thanks for starting it.

I have been diagnosed with Borderline Pd, Avoidant Pd, and Dependent Pd. I feel that these pretty much sum up the majority of my issues if we were to look through the personality disorder lens.


BUT...


I would argue that a lot of us are actually suffering with Complex PTSD.

Several researchers believe this to be the case as well - and now Complex PTSD has been included in Europe's diagnostic system.


Some consider Personality Disorders to be a manifestation of abuse and trauma, normally from early childhood. So is PTSD. Depending on the trauma along with the particular abuse dynamics at hand, parenting, attachment, and an organic combination of nature and nurture, we begin to develop defense mechanisms that protect us from harm; in those environments.


What may have helped us at the time, may not serve us well in the future.


And this is the behavior that we arguably see from those suffering from personality disorders.


At least, that is my understanding of things.


Along with trauma comes increased potential for long-term PTSD symptoms, and if the trauma is repeated, the trauma pathways in our brain gets re-wired over and over, resulting in additional triggers,


Our abusers damage us physically. Trauma is a physical brain injury.


These defense mechanisms were required in childhood and allowed us to survive in threatening environments. They acted as effective survival instincts in the face of danger, but with subsequent threats, we can often times fail to accurately discern real danger from fake, thus our defense mechanisms are sometimes deemed, not appropriate. If we remain stuck in these patterns whenever we become triggered, threatened or intimidated - it is then considered pathological and according to psychiatry, is then considered diagnosable as a Personality Disorder.


This is what baffles me though.


We need our defense mechanisms in order to survive. And if we literally needed them to survive when faced in past trauma's - shouldn't we treat clients to simply be aware of their triggers, learn to respond, not react - and learn healthier defense mechanisms through showing genuine compassion, empathy and understanding? Seems to me that not until recently, did any professional body recognize thi



This might just account for why professionals always say, "Borderline patients are horrible to deal with!" When really - they are simply treating them wrong.


When someone with trauma is triggered - they react. With self-awareness and mindfulness and learning the ins and outs of coping skills - we can learn to respond in ways that may have been appropriate in our past traumatic circumstances, but might not be in our current ones. If we learn to adapt in this way, we can approach challenging traumatic situations differently.

I'm going to assume this all makes sense, I have written this and have no time to go back and soak it all up.

Thanks,
HD7970ghz