Raising Awareness of BPD - Flipping the Script

[SanSan]

Hi @BPDSurvivor , thanks for your +ve message of concern and support 🙂

So, the psych appt already happened - it's where I received the diagnosis. Now it's just a matter of getting the support needed to progress which has now been made more difficult by the govt's decision to halve the number of psychologist appointments next year.

My GP doesn't know of any dialectical treating psychologists where I live and I can't afford to travel into the city and pay for the necessary treatment. I have been prescribed a drug to attempt to treat the lows pharmacologically with the understanding that it might not work and that it could take some time for any +ve effect(s).

And, as I am on other drugs to treat physical, ongoing, neuropathic pain, I need to be weaned off one of those drugs for the next few weeks before I can start taking the newly prescribed drug (an SSRI) so that serotonin syndrome or serotonin toxicity doesn't occur.

However, I do have a clinical psychologist that I've been seeing for some time now and he quite generously has bulk-billed me since my first visit. In our last meeting we discussed about approaching a dialectical treatment plan as a way to move forward (we had already been teasing CBT anyway) and that's something I wish to explore with him with the recognition and understanding that dialectical treatment really needs to be group/single in-person sessions possibly twice a week for beyond a year. So I really don't know what on earth 2023 is going to be like but hey, no-one does anyway so let's give it a shot and see what happens.

Plus I joined a university library to get hold of a copy of 'Cognitive-behavioral [sic] treatment of borderline personality disorder' by Marsha Linehan which is now my summer (is it really still winter?) reading to finish before our next meeting in early January. And by then it should be the first week of me taking the SSRI so we'll see what side-effects come to the fore.

So anyway, that's where I'm at - thanks for asking 🙏 - where my days seem to be the holding pattern that have been my quotidian over the last few years, and I strive to remain creative on a daily basis (with some very pleasing recent breakthroughs I must add).

This time of year has always been extremely stressful for me (as it is for others too) but this year I have something in place that gives hope to the possibility that maybe, just maybe, those times at least are behind me!

Many thanks for your concern 🙂

[BPDSurvivor]

Thank you for sharing @SanSan . Have you looked at online DBT courses? Spectrum VIC and Project Air in NSW often have free online sessions for people diagnosed with BPD. Some for for carers too.

Hope you get the support you deserve. Please don’t give up on looking for supports. 

I’ve been through treatment for very acute BPD. I felt like I was destined to die. But I am alive for a reason - to share this hope.

For me, meds helped stabilise me so I could attend and engage in therapy. But the real work is done through talking therapy.

Please let me know how you go.

[SanSan]

Thank you @BPDSurvivor, I'll take a look to see if there are any available online courses

[BPDSurvivor]

I think for Spectrum, you need to book through Eventbrite. I am on their mailing list so they just send the emails to me @SanSan 

As for Project Air, I just check out their website once every so often.

All the best.

[tyme]

Hi everyone!

I came across this online session running for people in Vic with BPD. It is an online psychoeducation session: https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/online-psychoeducation-session-for-individuals-recently-diagnosed-wi...

It is free of charge.

@SanSan @Sirine @Melbpdptsd @Ferylgirl @Determined @Judi9877 - please tag anyone you know who may be interested.

[SanSan]

Thanks @BPDSurvivor , I'm now on their mailing list 🙂

[SanSan]

Thanks @tyme , I've registered 🙂

[tyme]

https://documents.uow.edu.au/content/groups/public/@web/@project-air/documents/doc/uow272098.pdf 

This is the project air peer led sessions too. It is free also.

[BPDSurvivor]

I’ve never posted here when I’m so upset. This post is for no one in particular but I just want to get things off my chest.

I haven’t cried for a very long time, but today I’m bawling. I’m so out of whack, so out of routine that I’ve found people around me so triggering.

In this emotionally amplified state, my head is turning to hurt myself. So much of me is wanting not to be around here. I’m tired of being around judgmental people. People who think they are perfect. People should just shut their gap.

As far as I’m concerned, he who has never done wrong can throw the first stone. Otherwise just shut up for goodness sake. 

I am finding that because I am so out of control lately, I am somewhat rebelling against what I know is ‘right’ - like a form of risk taking? There’s obviously something brewing because my impulsivity was seen last night when I randomly spent several hundred dollars on an online shopping spree…

Im not asking to be taken out of this situation, nor for things to change. I know there’s a reason for this and that’s okay.

I just don’t know what the future holds. Thanks BPD. Love you for it. At least I can better articulate it now.

[Sirine]

@BPDSurvivorbig hugs hun.  I think it’s just the time of year.  I too am having issues with people who are never wrong and like to blame me for the abuse they throw at me.

do you have a favourite safe place to go?  I spent a week with my ex sister in law and found some peace.  Maybe you have someone like that to go too. If not find somewhere in nature to just sit , chill maybe write.

I hope things settle for you xxx