[dancinglady]

Now that we have done the stats and most including me have spent thousands, is it worth it. In my case it has just kept me alive to continue to suffer. Everyone was always "get treatment" but with this disorder it is ongoing and expensive.

Even with DBT, once in America you have a mental health record your vocational life can get damaged. Before anyone goes on about ADA and how it helps prevent discrimination save it. I know first hand by working in health care information and the HIPPA rules. I also work in government employers can find out everything about you. I mean look at how employers can now make employment decisions about Facebook entries. Of course then you have highly educated HR staff who can interview like a psychologist and figure out pretty fast you have a mental illness.

Again is the cost of staying alive really worth you decide.

[geis]

I feel the same way a lot of the time. That being said, I have gotten good treatment before that was helpful and worth it--but now that I'm disabled and poor, I can't afford anything close to adequate treatment. All they'll do is keep me alive to suffer more. No one's willing to address the reasons I don't want to stay alive.

I'm sorry you're in the same boat. It's a crappy place to be stuck.

[Crazy Hitch]

I hear you about the expensive part. Krikey I wouldn't even want to begin or think about how much I've spent on pdocs, psychologists, family Dr and medication. And where do I currently sit? Without a job for the past month and a bit. Can we really get better? I don't know if I'm holding on to false hope but I'd like to believe that there are aspects of my life and my personal life that I can improve upon. Losing my job was a real blow and part of me solely blames my old PDOC for never picking up that I had bp AND BPD, which need to be managed separately.

I'm starting DBT in around 2 weeks time and I just have to have faith that although it may not "cure me" it may help alleviate some of the symptoms of BPD.

I'm a teacher and the problem is although they can't ask discriminatory questions in an interview, once you are hired you have to fill out paper work and part of it asks about mental health or pre existing psychiatric conditions grrrrr ..... It's like this "thing" that will keep following me around. Fortunately for me, there's never been a HR person on the interview panel when applying for jobs - ever. My biggest trick when applying for another job is how to explain why I left my previous job ... A private all boys school that pays above normal teachers salary ... And has a damn good reputation in the community .... With a sudden gap of unemployment ... Just can't think about that right now .... I have twice been made to go for a psychiatric assessment by 2 different schools - just goes to show what forced disclosure does because ignorant people know nothing!

My facebook has the tightest of security settings. No one can see anything at all on my fb unless they're my friend because I've set everything to private and have asked people to check it out and it just comes up as a blank page with my profile picture.