Currently the accepted treatment for BPD sufferers is a combination of therapy and Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT), which was devised by psychologist Marsha Lenehan and has a pretty good success rate at helping Borderlines develop the skills necessary to help them regulate their emotions. The DBT course is run in conjunction with a private therapist for each patient and a group which covers the following subjects:
- Core Mindfulness Skills
- These are derived from Buddhist meditation techniques to enable the client to become aware of the different aspects of experience and to develop the ability to stay with that experience in the present moment.
- Treatment lasts for about 2-3 weeks.
- Interpersonal Effectiveness Skills
- These focus on effective ways of achieving one's objectives with other people: to ask for what one wants effectively, to say no and be taken seriously, to maintain relationships and to maintain self-esteem in interactions with other people (comparable to assertiveness training).
- Treatment lasts for about 8 weeks.
- Emotion Modulation Skills
- These skills are ways of coping with intense emotional experiences and their causes. They also allow for an adaptive experience and expression of intense emotions.
- Treatment lasts for about 8 weeks.
- Distress Tolerance Skills
- These include techniques for putting up with, finding meaning for, and accepting distressing situations if there is no conceivable solution at present.
- Treatment lasts for about 8 weeks.
This course actually has a good success rate in rehabilitating BPD sufferers, but the problem is in Australia it is very hard to get into one of these courses. Waiting lists can be up to a year or longer, which is a long time in the life of a borderline. This can be the time between life or death, considering BPD sufferers have the highest rate of suicide (10%) of all mental illnesses. If you also consider that in Australia it can be extremely expensive and difficult to get in to see a psychologist or psychiatrist, and hospitals don’t like to admit BPD sufferers whether they are suicidal or not, then the environment in this country is not very conducive to BPD sufferers getting the treatment they need to stay alive and take control back of their lives.
Currently I do not know of any DBT programs that are being held. If you are aware of any, could you please let us know via the Contact Us page so that we can tell others in the hope that they could get help also. I do know that there is a CBT course offered over the internet for free called MoodGym. I have not used this program so I can not say how useful it is, but some people may find it beneficial. It is run by the Australian National University.
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