Enough already!

When it comes to PD’s there’s an awful lot of “bad press” out there.

Since I have not been diagnosed with NPD I am not going to post in the NPD subforum any more. But someone posted a link in that forum about someone who “is thought to be the world's premier expert on NPD”. Good grief!! Where did the poster get that idea? From the INTERNET. There’s been a commercial on TV – I don’t even remember what it was for – but there was a young woman in it who claimed “you can’t put anything on the internet if it isn’t true.” Seems like there’s a lot of that opinion going around.

I am not a people person. I’m an introvert by temperament so there’s no changing that. I probably come off pedantic at times, a leftover from the broken-down OCPD. I don't know how to get a self-help organization for PD'ers off the ground. I’m convinced, though, that we need to “fight back” ourselves because people who don’t have a PD don’t really understand how difficult it is.

Or maybe I’m stuck, obsessively, in that idea and it just won’t work. Please, I would love to have some feedback!

Many do understand the only thing they can... how difficult it is to cope with the behaviors of a person with a PD. There is plenty of suffering and misunderstanding on all sides. It is the nature of the beast.

The thing about the internet is anyone can put anything on it. You have to take information that you get from there with a grain of salt.

Sorry, I didn't mean that I wanted or expected ordinary people without a PD to understand how difficult it was to have one. I meant that unless you have one, you can't understand the struggle and how current treatment is difficult and frequently not very effective even when the person is highly motivated to improve.

I think it is fine for a person without a PD to discuss how difficult it is to cope with someone who has one. That's what they know.

What I wanted feedback about was if other people with PD's thought a self-help organization was needed and possible. Guess I wasn't clear about that. Thanks.

I agree with you, and think it's very possible.

Here in the UK we have Emergence (Personality Disorder | Service User Support | Emergence) and many places have local support groups. Mainly for BPD, though. There are also support groups for people who know people with PDs. I wonder if there aren't already things like that in other countries.

Thanks so much, Starling. I emailed Emergence a few months ago to see if they might be interested in starting a branch over here (in the USA) and they said they pretty much have their hands full with their work in the UK.

I've been involved with support groups here for 12 years but there is nothing specifically for PD's. There is a non-profit organization here concerned with BPD but the focus seems to be on programs for family members.

There's a new general mental health support group in my area that includes PD's in the list of things people may have been diagnosed with. I've just been to it a couple of times. Maybe it will turn into something like Emergence, I hope so anyway.