Topic Tuesday // BPD Awareness Week 2021 – Discover Creative Wellbeing // Tues 5th October, 7pm-8:30pm AEDT

[KirstyNEABPD]

Question 4. @cloudcore 

Before my current role as DBT Coordinator, I was in a Social Work role in a Mental Health Short Stay Unit, where most of the people admitted were in crisis, most often with BPD. I worked within a very medical model, I worked with a lot of nurses who had been in mental health nursing for 30 years plus, and with the more recent change of working with people with BPD in the mental health system, had not been provided with the training and skills to work most effectively working with BPD. I had one nurse who said ‘back in the good old days it was just people with Schizophrenia and Bipolar, and you could just give them a pill’. Reading (and seeing) between the lines, she was unequipped. By being unskilled around what helps someone with BPD, I often felt like while they were doing the best that they could, but that the system and individuals could definitely do better.

Saying that, there are shifts in the healthcare spaces. In SA, since July 2019, we now have a State-wide BPD Specialist Service called BPD Collaborative and amongst other great initiatives, they provide a lot of training and psychoeducation to clinicians. There is so much power in education, and being more skilled, I know that if myths can be dispelled, genuine understanding and compassion can be regained for those who have BPD and how it presents, then further trauma and invalidation won’t need to be continued in a space which is meant to be healing and restorative.

[Scarlet72]

Definitely, very validating..

[Daisydreamer]

Hi @DrZoidberg, glad you could join us tonight and thank you for reaching out. 

Seeking support take lots of courage, and it's so hard to look for support and find the options are limited. That must be hard to access the support that you are looking for and deserve. It sounds like where you live, there are very few options with long wait lists. Have you noticed any changes in access related to covid with services going online? Has there been more availablity, or still really hard to access?

[BPDSurvivor]

@Jacques ,

I can only imagine the pain you must go through to see your loved one hurting.

The pain is so real. It has been often said, for pwBPD, it is like having third degree burns to the emotional self. Every bump is excruciating - I've lived it.

[DrZoidberg]

Thankyou! I will look into online groups. I find it is good for me to get out and get experience dealing with people face to face (until it isn't haha) rather than doing everything online, but have to work with what there is available.

[Scarlet72]

I’m getting there. I have found a psychologist that uses some DBT principles. My psychiatrist is also trying to fast track me starting DBT where he practices.
My family aren’t really interested in finding out more about BPD.

[KirstyNEABPD]

@Scarlet72- that sounds like a very validating opportunity for you to be able to have some clarity on your life...and at the same time, I imagine it may have brought up a lot of other emotions and thoughts being that it's been diagnosed so late in life. Really highlights how unique everyone is and how no one is the same despite the diagnosis.

[DrZoidberg]

thankyou!

unfortunately it was only recently my GP re-checked what's available 

[Daisydreamer]

Thank you for being here today @Sophia1 We really appreciate your openness in this conversation, and bringing your passion and ideas. You are such a strong advocate, and I really appreciated what you wrote today. Hope you can catch up on this discussion tomorrow

[Judi9877]

Hi @cloudcore 

For me being a pwBPD, I wish health professionals would stop thinking of me as being manipulative and that I'm too much for them to treat and handle. Also that self harm is my way of just getting attention and I'm not serious when I hurt myself. Often, I'm hurting so much that self harm is my way of dealing with all of my emotions that are going on in my head that I struggle to express properly in words. I'm slowly learning not to self harm and have been able to put that into practice after having an inpatient stay in hospital which my psychologist referred me to PARCS as a way of dealing with this part of my BPD but I also have to accept that self harm is something that is always going to be a part of me and something that I have to deal with each time I get triggered. I'm slowly learning ways to combat the self harm side of things but it is a struggle and I wish health professionals knew and understood this. I don't want to resort to self harm when I get triggered because of the ramifications but it's something that's worked for me which I'm now trying to fix for the better.

Judi9877