It's BPD awareness month!!

So it's officially May (I know, crazy right?!?) and that means it is Borderline Personality Disorder Awareness month.

BPD is a misunderstood and stigmatised mental illness characterised by instability in relationships and sense of self, intense feelings of loneliness or abandonment, intense fear of rejection, self-harm, impulsive and dangerous behaviour, intense anger and dissociative symptoms.

Until recently it was consider largely untreatable. People diagnosed with the disorder were shunned by the general public and psychiatric/medical community.

However, recently there has been much success in treating BPD through psychotherapy and Dialectic behavioural therapy.

The statistics are pretty scary.

10% of people with BPD, who seek treatment, will kill themselves (as opposed to around 6% of people with mood disorders such as depression).

A person with BPD is 9 1/2 times more likely to kill themselves than to recover fully.

While the symptoms can be treated there is no cure.

People with BPD are also more likely to be diagnosed with secondary mental illnesses such as Bipolar disorder, Complex Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and drug and alcohol abuse problems.

It is often difficult for family and friends of BPD sufferers to understand to what is going on. It can be challenging, frustrating and upsetting dealing with someone with BPD.

However the thing they need most is love and support. It's not easy to give your love and support to someone with BPD, at times they will push you away, tell you they hate you, insist that your hate them. They will get angry with you. They may seem like they are trying to manipulate you, but that is the illness, not the person.

With the right treatment, love and support, they can get through this. It will take time and patience but there is a light at the end of the tunnel.

It is worth sticking around for a BPD sufferer, they experience intense emotions and this gives them the ability to love more wholly and truly than others.

If someone you know has or might have BPD, give them a hug and try to understand.

If you have or might have BPD, stay strong, it will all be worth it in the end. There is hope. You can get through this.

If you would like to find out more about BPD I have compiled some good links below.

http://www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au/bhcv2/bhcarticles.nsf/pages/Borderline_personality_disorder

http://www.borderlinepersonalitydisorder.com.au

http://www.mifa.org.au/sites/www.mifa.org.au/files/documents/UnderstandingBorderlinePersonalityDisorder.pdf

Until next time :) xoxo