[jen3019]

I am just sorta learning about borderline personality disorder. Can anyone help me understand it more, how u reach the diagnoses, and would it cause wide-spread pain too??

[Flooded]

Physical pain or psychological?

It certainly causes GREAT emotional pain. I remember reading something by Marsha Linehan (therapist who focuses almost exclusively on BPD research & treatment) several months ago and she wrote about an incident that described how emotionally painful BPD is. She treated a young woman with BPD early in her career. The young woman was one of the most seriously compromised individuals with BPD that she every worked with (multiple su attempts and extreme si). The young woman was able to get her life together to the point that she moved away and started college. Marsha Linehan was going to a conference in CA and made plans to have lunch with the young woman. During lunch, the young woman revealed that she had recently been diagnosed with another mental illness (can't remember what it was--perhaps Biplor or OCD). But in spite of this diagnosis, she was doing well in school and in her personal life. At their parting, Linehan expressed deep empathy for the young woman's new struggles and the young woman laughed and told her that the pain/struggle from the new diagnosis was nothing compared to the pain, anguish and dispair she had dealt with in her struggles overcoming BPD. That really stuck with me because I think that people who do not suffer from the disorder have a hard time realizing just how overwhelming the pain from BPD can be.

As for physical pain, depression is a common ocurrance in people who deal with BPD. There is definitely physical pain associated with depression, often a generalized aching through out the entire body. I believe (not sure but thought I read about it somewhere) that there is a brain chemical release component to that physical pain.

[Direction]

Welcome to PC!

I found that labeling the emotional intensity i was experiencing very helpful in pointing me in the direction of how to combat it...Jaybird mentions Marsha Linehan who really is the pioneer who started DBT one of the main stratgies of overcoming bpd.

I suspected bdp early on in seeking treatment for what I though was also depression (actually bipolar), unfortunately the pdoc/therapist I went to see was not so much into labels. It felt a lot like training the white elephant in the room we couldn't talk about. Anyway its not an easy battle, but one I would rather take on knowing about...