[bpdtransformation]

Hi, I just posted this interview with Lloyd Ross, an experienced therapist of people labeled BPD, about his opinion on BPD's curability, causes, how to understand the disorder, and the role of medication.

https://bpdtransformation.wordpress....e-labeled-bpd/

Here are some highlights of his thinking:

On therapists who don’t want to work with people labeled BPD:

Lloyd Ross: “To avoid their own discomfort, poorly trained therapists describe borderline individuals as untreatable. Well trained therapists do not have that opinion. Well trained therapists have done well with these individuals, provided the therapist knows both what to expect and what he is doing.”

On good outcomes for people labeled “BPD”:

Lloyd Ross: “With proper insight oriented therapy, people labeled as borderline do go out in the world and function quite well in relationships, employment, etc. Like the rest of us, the goal is not to be cured from some non-existent disease, but to simply resolve the issues in our development that stop us from functioning in a relatively comfortable manner.”

On BPD as a medical diagnosis:

Lloyd Ross: “(As a medical diagnosis) the only “borderline states” that have any validity for me are on the border of Mexico or Canada… In addition, there is absolutely no real science behind any of the DSM/ICD diagnoses.”

On how the word borderline can be useful:

Lloyd Ross: “To use the term “borderline” from a developmental point of view is very different… Using the term “borderline developmental issues” enables us to go back in time and try to help the individual to undo, modify, and soften development that did not go smoothly the first time around.

On the developmental approach to working with people labeled BPD,

Lloyd Ross: “Using this model, the therapist works toward a stronger continuum of emotional development so that a person can function in a more whole way. Borderline states are not a disease or medical issue and therefore, nobody is “cured.” People just learn to handle various issues in their lives in a smoother, more comfortable manner for them.”

On suicide prevention:

Lloyd Ross: “According to Bertram Karon, Ph.D., one of the world’s most prolific researchers on effective psychotherapy with patients labeled schizophrenic, suicidal, and borderline, ‘The best suicide prevention is effective psychotherapy.‘ ”

On the value of medication in treating people labeled BPD:

Lloyd Ross: “The medication approach (anti-depressants and/or anti-psychotics) is useless in people with borderline, suicidal, and PTSD symptoms. In fact, anti-depressants are probably one of the major causes of iatrogenic (doctor induced) suicide in this country in the past 15 years, especially with individuals labeled borderline.”

On trauma as the cause of borderline states:

Lloyd Ross: “The cause of “Borderline Personality Disorder” as with all of the “made-up” psychiatric diseases, is trauma at various times and stages in a person’s development… The failure of all-good and all-bad perceptions to fuse is the genesis of all pathologically borderline states.”

[Skeezyks]

Thanks for sharing this most interesting article!

[Fuzzybear]

Very interesting.... Especially about poorly trained therapists.

[Atypical_Disaster]

Interesting points. I don't agree with everything said but I particularly like this point:

On the value of medication in treating people labeled BPD:

Lloyd Ross: “The medication approach (anti-depressants and/or anti-psychotics) is useless in people with borderline, suicidal, and PTSD symptoms. In fact, anti-depressants are probably one of the major causes of iatrogenic (doctor induced) suicide in this country in the past 15 years, especially with individuals labeled borderline.”

I was put on four antidepressants in the past, all of them made me horrifically suicidal. Not helpful in the slightest and such "treatment" just exacerbated everything. My self-harm has never been the same since I took antidepressants...

Possible trigger:

When I started taking Zoloft when I was 14, minor cuts turned into gashes and it's been that way ever since I've taken that drug. Now I need stitches literally every time I self injure, it's horrible.

[bpdtransformation]

Thanks for all your thoughts. I have noticed that academic psychiatrists are recently testing out different drugs for people labeled borderline, with the obvious motivation of expanding profits for drug companies, not because it will do anything productive for clients. This effort is doomed to failure, since problems of emotional development and attachment, as Ross talked about, cannot be effectively treated in the long term by drugs... but can be made worse by them.