JPeepers asked this question on 4/22/2000:

Can you give me some information on Borderline Personality Disorder? I have been told by many therapists that my mother most likely suffers from it. One suggested that she may be Borderline Scitzophrenic. Is that different?

She has been under Psychiatric care for many years when I was growing up and has been again for the past 6-7 years. (I'm 38 years old) My Dad only says that the Psychiatrist told him that she would never get better.

As you can imagine, my sisters and I are all in therapy but struggle with what happened to her and why she won't get better. After having my own children, it's very hard to understand how someone can treat their children the way she did and still does.

Thank You.

karunap gave this response on 4/22/2000:

Some of the criteria for borderline personality disorder are

1) frantic efforts to avoid real or imagined abandonment 2) pattern of unstable and intense interpersonal relationships 3) black and white thinking 4) impulsivity in areas such as sex, spending, substance abuse, reckless driving, binge eating. 5) recurrent suicidal behavior, gestures or threats 6) marked mood changes 7) chronic feeling of emptiness 8) inappropriat intense anger, difficult controlling anger 9) transient, stress related paranoid ideation, or server dissociative symptoms

I disagree with whoever told your father that she will always be the same. This disorder is difficult to treat but if your mother wanted to do the work she could do it. Find someone who works with borderline clients. Marcia Linehan (spelling?) is training therapists to work with borderline clients. There is material on the itnernet about that. Her process is called Cognitive Behavioral Therapy. Her work doesn't help the client resolve the deep issues but it helps them live in the world in more comfortable ways. If your mother could do work like that she may be able to get ready to do the deeper work.

I have not heard of the other disorder you mention.

I am glad you are in therapy. I agree, it is horrendous to grow up with a mother with this disorder.

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