Borderline Personality Disorder Awareness is still something that needs to be raised. Awareness of Borderline Personality Disorder needs to be raised generally. Awareness in Borderline Personality Disorder still needs to be further addressed within the community of those who have BPD, treat those with BPD, or those who are loved ones, family members, or relationship partners – non borderlines of those with BPD.
What can be done about this?
Well, no one person can change a mental health care system that is still steeped in systemic stigma. But what each person with BPD can do is insist now on being treated with more respect and shop around for a therapist that has caught the new wave of thinking and that is knowledgeable about BPD and how to treat it. Each person with BPD can refuse to stay engaged with the old-school professional that insists that you are not going to be able to get better and that really BPD isn’t treatable.
I hear in email and as a life coach, I hear from clients, often, still, that they have been working with a therapist who doesn’t believe that they can get better, get well, and/or recover. When this is the case I think it is important to become your own advocate. It is important to dare to have hope and to, appropriately insist that you deserve to be treated with respect and dignity.
Recovery Is Possible
Recovery from BPD really is possible. BPD is highly treatable. What is needed in order to get on the road to recovery, if you have BPD, is seven main things:
- You believe that you can recover
- You find and hold onto the hope that you can recover
- You refuse to allow anyone to tell you otherwise
- Educate yourself as much as you can
- Find a therapist who supports you in believing you can get better
- Engage the process and commit to the work that recovery requires
Approach your journey of recovery in an aware way. Understand that no matter how tough things are right now, there is hope and if you are newer to the process you can even actively make a choice to take responsibility for preparing to recover
You can learn more about BPD Awareness and recovery – the need to learn to lay down the protection of the borderline false self by educating yourself more about it and by watching my BPD Video Podcast where I have two videos currently about BPD and awareness and one about learning versus protecting – videos that speak to the reality that BPD is treatable and that more people are able to recover than ever before.
You can also subscribe to my video podcast via itunes, like my BPD Audio Podcast and both are free to watch on my site and subscribe to on itunes. My video podcast and the audio podcast do not have the same content. From time to time I may address different aspects of the same issue but the content in each is not exactly the same.
© A.J. Mahari, February 17, 2009 – all rights reserved.
