Your doctor is very misinformed. Borderline personality disorder IS treatable. Both medications and psychotherapy are extremely helpful. Two key medicines are usually an antidepressant and some sort of anti-impusiveness drug. Every borderline patient I've seen has definitely needed an antidepressant and has gotten better once we found the right dose (usually when I start an antidepressant for them I go ahead and get them up to the highest dose over several weeks). The antidepressant will improve and stablize people's mood, usually reducing suicidal thoughts, anger and improving their quality of life.

The second key medicine for severe borderline personalities is an anti-impulsiveness drug. This group includes a lot of medicines that quickly and rapidly blunt the anger/rage, dissociation, and feeling that one is "falling apart". Typical choices would be low doses of the antipsychotics such as Abilify (2.5 - 5mg a day ; this is my first choice med), Risperdal (0.5mg - 1mg at night, some prefer the dissolvable tablet for rapid as needed doses), Geodon (20mg - must take with food!), Seroquel (50mg -100mg at night), Zyprexa (2.5mg - 5mg at night - due to risk of diabetes/weight gain this is not a 1st line choice to me). Haldol is an older medicine I might use if I had to since it is dirt cheap.

Some of the mood stablizers such as Depakote and Tegretol can blunt impulsivity too. I, however, much prefer to use one of the above anti-psychotics because 1.) I don't have to worry about checking blood work for liver problems, 2.) there is much less risk of drug-drug interactions, 3.)anti-psychotics are better suited to helping the dissociations and sometimes "static" noises borderlines have and 4.) I don't have to worry about increasing the dose of tegretol later on because it stimulates its own increase in metabolism.

I can't say enough about how much an antidepressant and an anti-impulse medication help people. I have had borderline patients in meltdown experience rapid improvement in 3-4 days once we begin a low dose anti-psychotic. One borderline patient got promoted at work because we got her symptoms under such control.

I also need to emphasize that psychotherapy is vital too. There is even a very special type of cognitive - behavioral psychotherapy called dialectic behavioral therapy (DBT) that has been designed to help borderlines. Traditional psychodyamic therapy (what I usually practice) is very helpful too. Basically these therapies help the patient to accept limits on the help they expect from others and slowly develop ways to decrease their own anxiety with techniques they can use to help themselves.

There is much research going on now in the psychiatric community in personality disorders. The idea that personality disorders are "untreatable" is 10 - 20 years old. Personality disorders are regarded by many psychiatrists as the next frontier to conquer. There are several books commonly available in the bookstore for people with borderline personality disorder. You need to find a doctor who has some experience with borderline personality or dissociative identity disorder (multiple personalities) as they will be of the most help to you. Many psychiatrists devote their entire practices to borderline patients, and new drugs and treatments are continually becoming available. Don't give up hope.