Follow up question for

[Guest guest]

This is from RANDI:

The following is a follow up question for rachel regarding religion. Please

remember that this is one opinion of one person who overcame BPD (as

chronicalled in her book). She talked about how spirituality helped her in

paticular; this does not mean that EVERY person with BPD used spirituality. In

my own experience some people don't and some people do. If you are borderline

and have not used spirituality to get better I would be happy to share your

method as well. In my experience--and when someone gets better I always ask how

and why--people differ, and different experiences help different people.

________________________________

THIS IS FROM A LIST MEMBER

Follow up question for :

>

, you mention the Footsteps Prayer and in the

book you wrote about your struggle with God, the

strength you received from your faith community, and

then ultimately identifying with Jesus on the cross.

Do you believe that in order to heal BPD you had to

make a Christian faith leap of sorts ? an embracing of

God?s love and forgiveness as articulated by Jesus in

the Gospels? If so, are you aware of other religions

that may also offer the same love/forgiveness faith

element in such a way as to allow healing from BPD?

> -Dan

FROM RACHEL:

That's an excellent question, Dan. I don't believe that any religion has an

exclusive on healing or spirituality, nor do I believe that organized religion

is a necessity to attain spiritual harmony. I do, however, think organized

religion is a link to spirituality that works for a lot of people.

In my own case, I was born and raised Catholic. Culturally, that has been my

connection to spirituality. Catholicism is a connection for many people, as

is Christianity, Judaism, Hinduism and, most likely, a number of religions

with which I am simply not familiar.

>

That being said--that it wasn't the denomination itself, but the spirituality

that helped me to heal--I don't believe real psychological healing is possible

without some type of spiritual healing as well. The common element of nearly

any religion is both its premise that there is some type of " higher power "

which is larger than ourselves, and that each of us is endowed with a soul,

that is in someway connected with every other soul.

In sum, do I believe that adherence to a specific organized religion--or any

organized religion, for that matter--is necessary for emotional healing? No.

Do I believe that spiritual healing is necessary for emotional healing?

Absolutely. At the very least, that was certainly the case for me. In my

case, I made the spiritual connection though the Catholic faith of my

childhood--but I'm certainly not saying that's the only way

to get there.

Reiland

" I'm Not Supposed to Be There "

Available at 888 35 SHELL

Different opinions are welcome; please send to randiBPD@... if you want

theem sennt out to the lists.