Raising Awareness of BPD - Flipping the Script

[tyme]

Hey @BabyBear ,

Only way tooo many to count....

Unfortunately, they were all involuntary, so it wasn't really for therapeutic purposes, but moreso for crisis intervention.

However, my PARC (prevention and recovery centre) admissions were planned and therapeutic.

I also had 2 years of mentalisation based therapy (the full treatment)

DBT and Schema is great. I've had elements of it in my therapy, but not the full treatment.

[BabyBear]

@tyme, 

How was the mentalisation treatment?

I narrowly missed an involuntary admission early this year. Thankfully, my admissions have been voluntary - they have been extended, mostly without leave in a locked psychiatric hospital.

Tell me about PARC.

[BPDSurvivor]

I have also been to PARCs. Mine were scheduled into my life to help me cope with anniversaries and challenging times.

For me, I had a recovery coach each stay. I went in and set clear goals with the coach. We did a recovery star data collection.  While in there, there is a psychiatrist who sees all the people who go in. There is someone there 24/7.

I found it very helpful to support my BPD. My peer support worker visited me there too. Every day starts with a house meeting to talk about the day. We have a calendar of events for each day such as dog walking, coffee club, outing, psychoeducation groups, walking groups, mindfulness, art and craft, shopping.

Sorry @BabyBear , I don't know what else to say about it. Most people stayed about 4 weeks. But it think it has now changed to about 2 weeks.

[BabyBear]

@BPDSurvivor

Thanks. I appreciate your information.

What sort of setting does Does it take place in? How do you get involved in PARC? Is it a public or private treatment option?

[BabyBear]

@BPDSurvivor ,

I just looked PARC up - thank you for drawing my attention to it.

[BabyBear]

@tyme @BPDSurvivor 

Has anyone felt a great sense of relief when they received their BPD diagnosis?

I did.

[BPDSurvivor]

It’s part of the public health system. I’m not saying it works for all but it worked for me @BabyBear Parc was linked to the public hospital in my region. So the consumer doesn’t have to pay anything.

i got involved in Parc because of so many hospital admissions. Clearly hospital wasn’t working. So this was the next option and it was voluntary. If you self harm, you pretty much get kicked out. At that point, I was quite high risk. I was always in the high dependency unit and ‘specialed’ (1:1).

They didn’t think Parc was for me because of my risky behaviour. But I guess I proved myself. Even the private system refused to take me because I was too high risk.

[BPDSurvivor]

@BabyBear , I felt relief that what I was going through had a name. It showed me I wasn’t making it up.

 The label itself didn’t mean anything to me because I didn’t understand it and no one really told me anything.

but yes, I had a lot to learn

[BabyBear]

@BPDSurvivor,

You have my empathy. What is it about Borderline that puts us naturally at the moderate to high-risk level?

I'm not opposed to the moderate risk rating I’m given. It has the function of making me feel safe & in turn, my family are happier.

Self-harm sees automatic ejection from the private hospital & involuntary admission into another. It must be difficult to be routinely admitted to the PICU.

[BabyBear]

@BPDSurvivor 

I know what you mean about having a lot to learn about BPD. And it’s good that your diagnosis made you feel vindicated - that you were not making it up.