I’ll be quite honest here, I am only speaking for myself.
I am 55 years old and have suffered from BPD since my early teens. I have had pretty much every possible treatment going from drug therapy and narcosis to Dialectical behaviour therapy so I do speak with a certain amount of experience. I would also very much like to know what has benefited other sufferers so do please contact me and let me know?
Some BPD symptoms are easier to treat than others. Fears that others might leave, intense, unstable
relationships or feelings of emptiness are often hardest to change. They are deeply ingrained and often stem from unstable childhood and trauma.
One of my main problems at present is self-harm. It has been an issue since my teens and has continued throughout my life. Currently I self harm 2-3 times a year and I admit my cutting is severe. Over the years I have self harmed less and less frequently but when I do cut myself it is always an emergency situation. These days in order for me to get relief from harming the injuries need to be severe.
What helps? It is so hard to explain what is going through my head when I self harm. I am so rigid with tension, so emotionally unable to cope with the flood of thoughts racing through my mind that I have to turn it off somehow. I have to mentally shut down and that is what cutting does for me. It turns off feelings that I feel completely unable to deal with.
For 25 years I suffered from anorexia nervosa and when my weight was very low I felt nothing. I did not cut when my weight was low. I was hospitalized, my weight went up and the cutting always resumed because the uncontrolled emotions would roll back like a tsunami.
So I guess the answer must lie with trying to mange emotions. Yet we know that BPD sufferers feel emotions in the extreme so how can we find healthy ways to manage out of control feelings?
borderline personality disorder 