Article and video on bpd in kids/teens

[Guest guest]

I just watched a fascinating interview from a site called " Keeping Kids

Healthy " , of a minor teen with bpd and her non-pd mom, and a woman in her late

20s with bpd and her non-pd mom. A psychologist was interviewed as well.

What was interesting to me is that the 20+ year old woman has a lot of insight

about her cognitive distortion: she readily admits that she can't tell if what

she is perceiving (from others, when they communicate with her) is accurate or

not, and tends to automatically see and interpret things negatively. This

individual seems to be the more severely affected and in my opinion has a more

serious disorder than bpd: she actually tried to have her parents killed when

she was still a minor. (Was in the process of hiring a street gang to kill them

when she was arrested.) Her behavioral problems began to show up in preschool,

according to her mother.

The minor teen has some personal insight too, but admits that she does not want

to acknowledge that she has bpd because of the stigma.

Both the young women with bpd relate that they were not abused or mistreated by

their parents; it seems sincere and not forced.

The psychologist explains in a very roundabout and indirect way (intended to

avoid blaming either the person with bpd or the parent) that bpd is due to

inborn predisposition in the form of cognitive distortion (misinterpreting and

misperceiving) and hypersensitivity, which makes the person with bpd perceive

that her environment is invalidating. (The " emotional burn victim " analogy was

used.)

The psychologist says that sometimes the person with bpd did experience abuse

during childhood, but just as often the environment was just regular/non-abusive

and is only perceived as invalidating by the person with bpd.

I personally found it interesting to hear these individuals with bpd describe

how reality still feels and seems to them (even after years of therapy) and I

found it validating that the theories about what causes bpd that have made the

most sense to me (inborn hyper-sensitivity and cognitive distortion) being

offered as the most reasonable explanation.

The psychologist and the interviewees said they experienced very positive

results from learning and practicing the techniques of dialectical behavioral

therapy, but said that its a shame that so very few psychologists choose to

treat those with bpd or offer dbt as treatment.

Here's the link:

http://www.keepingkidshealthy.org/topics/borderline/

The psychologist:

Lori Greene, PhD †" Psychologist; Assistant Professor, Dept. of Psychiatry and

Behavioral Sciences, Albert Einstein College of Medicine/Montefiore Medical

Center; Attending Psychologist, Montefiore Medical Center

-Annie