BPD,Menstruation & Estrogen

 3 studies were made to see if estrogen had an effect on the symptoms of BPD.They used oral contraceptives in the 3rd study as they contain estrogen.If you have high BPD and started using oral contraceptives your symptoms increased.During times of rapidly changing estrogen levels BPD symptoms increased.

Values Improve Your Life

 Kidsonroof wishes to re-connect modern life with nature
, rediscovering basic values. 

What are Values?

They are the moral principles and beliefs or accepted standards of a person or social group

Why are they important?
They help improve your quality of life,help us deal with stress.Can help us keep motivated when we want to give up.Values can give you a sense of achievement and something to look forward to.

A quick exercise to see what your values are can be found here Identify Your True Values

Can't Afford Treatment/Want To Further Research ?

Image: FreeDigitalPhotos.net

What You Can Do:
Options include: free online CBT,studies,free/low-cost workshops,peer counselling,support groups,surveys,books,websites and self-care.

Impulsivity & Extreme Thoughts

Slowing Down Impulsiveness

When a question or comment upsets you, wait at least five seconds before responding and repeat “calm down” in your mind several times first.

When you feel a strong impulse, remind yourself that taking action at those times usually results in bad outcomes.Use feelings of regret as helpers.
                            

The Way You Say It Is More Important Than The Words

How to communicate effectively:  

1 Gentle eye contact- it increases trustworthiness and encourages future cooperation, a happy gaze will increase emotional trust.

 2.Kind facial expression.If you think about someone you love,or an event that brought you deep joy & satisfaction, a "Mona Lisa" smile will appear on your face & the muscles around your eyes will soften.

 3.Warm tone of voice-slow down and drop your pitch to convey more trust to others.When expressing joy,your voice needs to become increasingly melodic, whereas sadness is spoken with a flat and monotonic voice.  When we are angry, excited, or frightened, we raise the pitch and intensity of our voice, and there’s a

Self-Harm in Mood Disorders

Why Self Harm Feels Good In The Brain
Self harm is present in a wide variety of mental disorders and in many different forms from cutting,burning,hitting and banging your body against hard surfaces to picking your skin ,pulling out your hair and poisoning yourself.

9 Things you probably didn't know about BPD

1) Borderlines are more likely to have a stuffed toy (teddy bear) than people without the diagnosis they also reported more childhood trauma, rated their early caregivers as less supportive, and had more attachment problems as adults.

Teddy bears a BPD's best friend

Image: FreeDigitalPhotos.net

2)BPD patients suffered a significantly greater rate of nightmares, elevated levels of dream anxiety, and disturbed sleep quality than did controls. In the borderline group,
heightened dream anxiety was correlated with higher rates of early traumatic experiences and dissociative symptoms, and impaired sleep quality.

Anger Management

                               Things to avoid

venting
saying things you will regret
throwing objects
self-harming (you are just re-enforcing the self-hate)

16 Things You Can Do

Seek Warmth-take a hot shower,hold a hot water bottle,hold a cup of tea in your hands(but not so warm that its uncomfortable)

Delay-helps arousal decrease

Different Treatments for Schizophrenia

I came across this by accident when researching emotional lability (really bad mood swings)


The Treatment of Schizophrenia with Chinese Medicine
http://www.encognitive.com/files/The%20Treatment%20of%20Schizophrenia%20with%20Chinese%20Medicine_0.pdf

Yi-gan san (traditional Japanese herbal medicine)as adjunctive therapy for treatment-resistant schizophrenia   http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19471183

Some have had success with a combination of medication with strong vitamins

Symptom & Mood Charting

What?

Basically it is where you will be recording your symptoms & treatments over time.

Why?

It can be difficult to remember especially with a mental illness how you have been doing if your doctor asks and you can get a clearer picture of what has been working for you,your triggers,patterns of how your symptoms may be affected by things such as your menstrual cycle,the seasons,sleep... What treatments are helpful,some triggering patterns, behaviour you may carry out before making suicide attempts,early warning signs

BPD and Mood Disorders

Did you know ?

If you have BPD (borderline personality disorder) chances are very high you will also have a mood disorder (a.k.a affective disorder)

One study found that about 96% of patients with BPD met criteria for a mood disorder. 

•  about 83% of patients with BPD also met criteria for major depressive disorder(aka clinical depression)

• about 39% of patients with BPD also met criteria for dysthymic disorder.

According to NAMI :

Co-morbidity with other disorders:

Major Depressive Disorder                                                --  60 percent

Dysthymia  (chronic, moderate to mild depression)          --  70 percent

Eating Disorders                                                               --  25 percent

Substance Abuse                                                               -- 35 percent

Bipolar Disorder                                                                -- 15 percent

What is Major Depressive Disorder?

New Treatments For BPD an Easy to Understand Detailed Overview (2012-2013) Part 1

(I will try to keep updating this as time goes by & new studies are published...)

*2012 Video update Coming Soon!* It will include the latest scientific info from review papers on RCTs on drugs & therapies for BPD (more recent than Wikipedia,which I plan to update after I've finished the video) You can subscribe to my YouTube to know when I've uploaded it http://www.youtube.com/user/ROMI1AAT
But here is a sneak preview while I'm finishing

Artist-Ferian Moon

We will be looking at Long & Short –Term Treatments like:

DBT (Dialectical Behaviour Therapy)
MBT (Mentalisation Based Treatment) (partial
hospitalization & outpatient)
SFT (Schema-Focused Therapy)
TFP (Transference-Focused Psychotherapy)
STEPPS (Systems Training for Emotional Predicatibility & Problem Solving)
GPM (General Psychiatric Management)
DDT(Dynamic Deconstructive Therapy)
NET (Narrative Exposure Therapy)

DBT-ACES (Accepting the Challenges of Exiting the System)
Drug Treatment,ECT & Alternative Treatments

Suicide

So let me guess you hate your life and want to end it aka die ? Chances are that you have a mental disorder and little information on how to make a successful suicide because if you did you would probably not be searching online.Or you can't access the Peaceful Pill Handbook or Suicide and Attempted Suicide Methods & Consequences by Geo Stone(parts of the book are available free online)

Understanding and Helping a Borderline

Image: FreeDigitalPhotos.net

 During a Crisis

Encourage  them to use crisis skills,see my Crisis Skills Post 

Things I will be discussing today are:(compulsive)self-harm,things to do/say,things to avoid and tips for friends/family of a borderline.

Top 25 Things NOT to Say (or do) to Someone in Crisis

Crisis Skills 1

Feel like its all too much & you want to urgently tear your hair out?
Don't worry this will pass,I've outlined lots of suggestions below to help.



3 things to memorize/write down :

 1) Distract

 2) Relax

 3) Cope

Memory Aid 
Dinosaurs Relax in Coats
or
 Dinosaurs Race Cows
whichever one you like best (or make up your own)

Distract

To distract from urges to self-harm & an anxiety provoking thought.
Hold some ice cubes or splash cold water on your eyes. Use a pipette to let red food coloring

Bad Coping Skills

Note : In certain situations it is best to call the emergency services in your country, if this is one of those emergency situations,take a few deep breaths,call them and try to explain the situation as calmly as possible.

Image: FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Otherwise,hopefully you will find the following tips helpful.

First you need to be willing to identify & change your coping reactions to healthier ones,I know its frightening giving up your safety blanket of things that work for you but they probably have long-term consequences.

May- BPD Awareness Month

Please sign the following petition to help make a difference for the sufferers of this illness
http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/Advocacy-for-Borderline-Personality-Disorder/

Image: FreeDigitalPhotos.net 

Join NEA.BPD's symbol of hope & wear a ladybug pin.

Thank You