Article in PC about brain scans of BPD

Brain Scans Clarify Borderline Personality Disorder | Psych Central News

Did any others that have been dx'd with bpd have a hard time with this article about bpd and the inabilities of the brain to overcome some of it? I'm struggling and would love to hear from some others that saw it and how they reacted or felt about it...or perhaps experts that could re-frame it in a less triggering way for me or others.

Thanks,
WB

I think it is a good article. Now they know it is not our fault. They will now have more compassion. They will get better at treating us with this information.

My main issue mental health-wise is my bipolar disorder, which cannot be overcome in the sense of a cure, but can be successfully managed. So since I have already come to terms with that, I am not so affected by the BPD brain scan thing. However I do remember being newly diagnosed with bipolar disorder and told I needed medication, and how devastated and afraid and angry and humiliated I felt back then. So I can understand what it is like initially, when it first hits someone.

saw another link...about childhood trauma and long term physical effects on the brain...since trauma often a trigger for borderlines...how do you absorb such information and keep hope? I'm really, really struggling..and no, this is not a particularly new dx, and not just dealing with the stigma of it...but the path to healing and the feeling like I cannot be. Am so incredibly depressed and out of words to describe all the pictures/emotions/thoughts and honestly anger rising. Anger is not normal for me unless directed inwards...so this is particularly threatening for me... Please help. Feel like need really experienced advice and have no way to access how to interpret or soothe or incorporate the fragmentation within and hopelessness.
Kindly,
WB

Hi Wysteria, I think everyone feels anger sometimes. I feel anger very often. I think it's important to release it as safely as possible. Physical exercise is a great way to do it. So is talking it out to someone, a friend or minister or therapist. Try not to be freaked out by your emotions, they all have their place and time. Best wishes.

thanks for response Angelique...I know you are right, but am having trouble connecting head and heart...but good to hear the compassion from you.
wb

Hang in there, Wysteria, we're here.

(((((((( Wysteria ))))))))

I understand your anger and anxiety about this news, but I have to admit that I was actually uplifted by the recent studies of brain functioning of people with BPD. I have always felt that labeling this disorder a "personality disorder" was wrong. I have felt that it is much more in line with Bipolar Disorder, physiologically/neurologically based. I do think that trauma can make the disorder more intense, but we also see many people without a "trauma history" suffering from BPD. We also see it in families, so the genetic component is probably strong.

The reason I was initially so devastated by the diagnosis is that BPD carries such a stigma both in the general population and in the mental health professional community. I've even seen the bias on Psych. Central forums when people post about being relieved that they don't have the diagnosis of BPD or that they might "manipulate" sometimes but at least they aren't as bad as someone with BPD. I've heard professionals talk about: "I'll only have one or two BPD's on my caseload at a time. " Or "I don't accept clients with BPD. They're too intense and time consuming and they don't get better! I just refer them out!" I've talked with people who have BPD who go to their primary doctor due to a physical problem but because the doctor knows that he/she has BPD, they are pooh poohed and their physical complaints/issues are pushed aside and they feel discounted.The stigma against our disorder is intense and painful!

I think the research showing that this disorder is actually brain based will allow the mental health profession to stop stigmatizing it and dismissing the clients as "manipulative" and malingers who never make any progress or who don't want to change. Currently, they view it as a personality disorder that develops during childhood, rather than seeing the behaviors people with BPD exhibit as adaptations that people develop to SURVIVE the pain and anguish of the brain's dysfunction in regulating emotions. I don't think medication in my lifetime will ever "cure" BPD, but I can't help wishing that at some point scientific research will allow researchers to find the gene that causes this disorder and they'll find a way to test and manipulate things to prevent it from ever occurring!

I am neither a doctor no an expert in anything but I'll offer this. The brain is one majorly complex muscle. Doctors have barely scratched the surface of what it can and therefore, conversely, can NOT do.

Plus, I've watched documentaries detailing people with TBI learning how to walk, talk, feed themselves again by re-training their brains neural pathways. The premise is that the brain, like a house with many lightbulbs, some that never worked, can be made to "turn on" and work in place of a formerly working "bulb" that's blown out.

Does it necessarily follow that this would be the case for psychiatric conditions, no. BUT, who's to say for sure? You just never know.

<- disclaimer: my response is a totally bpd black and white one.

Oh well I think the opening paragraph sucks:

Using real-time brain imaging, a team of researchers have discovered that patients with Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) are physically unable to regulate emotion.

I thought therapy was supposed to help me deal with things more effectively now why is this article saying we are PHYSICALLY unable to regulate emotion? My therapist would probably love the article. I never believed in CBT anyway.

The second paragraph doesn't make me feel much better either

The findings, by Harold W. Koenigsberg, MD, professor of psychiatry at Mount Sinai School of Medicine suggest individuals with BPD are unable activate neurological networks that would help to control feelings.

I feel crap after reading that.

I'm not disputing the findings. Looks all legit to me.

I'm kind of doing exactly what the article says ... feeling all "emotional". Pfffft.

I'd get some more info about this before choosing to get worked up over it.

This is the first time I have ever read anything like this about BPD, I have always been taught/lead to believe that it is a personality disorder developed in childhood that can be overcome with the right treatment and therapy.

Why would there be so many thousands of people practically cured from DBT if the brain could not relearn how to regulate emotions?

I'm afraid I've had many of the same reactions as Hooligan, and not the first nor even third type article I've read...been seeing more and more such 'findings' and their implications more disturbing in terms of how much I learn, read, try to moderate, try to control, etc my emotions. So yes, the initial knee jerk is despair. But that is also why I bring to people smarter than I too find more hope, and like others have mentioned, new possibilities for progress and more cure than just toleration of symptoms. I'm aware of the plasticity of the brain to overcome, but also the long term damage of depression and bpd on the various parts of the brain.
I'm discouraged and depressed and terribly tired. That does not help.
I will continue to seek and learn, but just wanted some extra input. I'm glad we can come to others that also fight this, to compare notes and encourage one another. It is hard enough already without more ignorance, stigma and lack of understanding and outright cruelty.
Thanks for all the answers and ideas and points of view...hope we can continue to share...
wys

I'm sorry that you're feeling so distraught, wysteria. I can understand and relate to where you're coming from. I am similar. I have a huge tendency to internalize my feelings & blame myself for most everything. Every now and then, I have moments of rage that come out aimed against someone/something else and it isn't pretty. Those experiences are soon used against myself as well.

I don't know how I feel about this news. I'm encouraged but confused. Excited but depressed. I am all over the place! It would be nice to gain some more emotional support from professionals, rather than continue being largely mis-trusted and/or disregarded. But, I have been working on myself in DBT for several years now. Is it hopeless for me to work so hard at finally being able to forgive, so I am able to Accept and move forward in my life?? While I have been stuck on this concept for many years, I am trying hard to forgive. SO HARD!!!

I guess that says it all. (((hugs))) sent your way.

Just wanted to say, I am going to start DBT in a center specialized in BPD in September, and since the therapy's in the context of a scientific trial, they told me I will have to have an fMRI done twice a year (I think it was twice a year). They say the brain scan is supposed to look different before and after the therapy. I had never heard of this for personality disorders, either, but it doesn't make me feel bad, quite the contrary in fact. I don't have a history of trauma (although I have been sexually abused aged 17 by a date) so if the brain scan is different from a "normal person"'s one this is going to explain a lot. Plus, they claim DBT can actually change the way our mind and our brain work. This makes me feel a wee bit uncomfortable, that's true, but I am quite relieved by this idea.