Success in treating borderline personality disorder with DBT therapy.
Dear BPDsecrets.com ask@bpdsecrets.com
Has anyone out there in the BPD community had any success in treating borderline personality disorder with DBT therapy? I've done a little bit of research on the possible success in treating borderline personality disorder with DBT therapy but am hoping to find some real world examples of the program actually making a difference.
I have been to several therapists over the last few years and have not had any help in treating my borderline personality disorder. Is DBT therapy the miracle cure that many people are making it out to be? Also I've placed some information below on the four modules of DBT therapy What I'm most interested in hearing from others with BPD on whether or not they have had success in treating borderline personality disorder with DBT therapy.
Hopefully I can find real world comments and feedback that in regards to success in treating borderline personality disorder with DBT therapy. I have heard many great things about DBT therapy and to answer your questions on the four stages they are actually called modules. The four modules of DBT therapy are:
DBT therapy module number one: Mindfulness
Mindfulness is one of the core concepts behind all elements of DBT. Mindfulness is the capacity to pay attention, non-judgmentally, to the present moment. Mindfulness is all about living in the moment, experiencing one's emotions and senses fully, yet with perspective. It is considered a foundation for the other skills taught in DBT, because it helps individuals accept and tolerate the powerful emotions they may feel when challenging their habits or exposing themselves to upsetting situations. The concept of mindfulness and the meditative exercises used to teach it are derived from traditional Buddhist practice, though the version taught in DBT does not involve any religious or metaphysical concepts.
DBT therapy module number two: Distress Tolerance
Many current approaches to mental health treatment focus on changing distressing events and circumstances. They have paid little attention to accepting, finding meaning for, and tolerating distress. This task has generally been tackled by psychodynamic, psychoanalytic, gestalt, or narrative therapies, along with religious and spiritual communities and leaders. Dialectical behavior therapy emphasizes learning to bear pain skillfully.
Distress tolerance skills constitute a natural development from DBT mindfulness skills. They have to do with the ability to accept, in a non-evaluative and nonjudgmental fashion, both oneself and the current situation. Although this is a nonjudgmental stance, this does not mean that it is one of approval or resignation. The goal is to become capable of calmly recognizing negative situations and their impact, rather than becoming overwhelmed or hiding from them. This allows individuals to make wise decisions about whether and how to take action, rather than falling into the intense, desperate, and often destructive emotional reactions that are part of borderline personality disorder.
DBT therapy module number three: Emotion Regulation
Individuals with borderline personality disorder and suicidal individuals are frequently emotionally intense and labile. They can be angry, intensely frustrated, depressed, or anxious. This suggests that these clients might benefit from help in learning to regulate their emotions. Dialectical behavior therapy skills for emotion regulation include:
- Identifying and labeling emotions
- Identifying obstacles to changing emotions
- Reducing vulnerability to emotion mind
- Increasing positive emotional events
- Increasing mindfulness to current emotions
- Taking opposite action
- Applying distress tolerance techniques
DBT therapy module number four: Interpersonal Effectiveness
Interpersonal response patterns taught in DBT skills training are very similar to those taught in many assertiveness and interpersonal problem-solving classes. They include effective strategies for asking for what one needs, saying no, and coping with interpersonal conflict.
Individuals with borderline personality disorder frequently possess good interpersonal skills in a general sense. The problems arise in the application of these skills to specific situations. An individual may be able to describe effective behavioral sequences when discussing another person encountering a problematic situation, but may be completely incapable of generating or carrying out a similar behavioral sequence when analyzing his or her own situation.
The interpersonal effectiveness module focuses on situations where the objective is to change something (e.g., requesting that someone do something) or to resist changes someone else is trying to make (e.g., saying no). The skills taught are intended to maximize the chances that a person’s goals in a specific situation will be met, while at the same time not damaging either the relationship or the person’s self-respect
I am hoping that you post this request upon your questions message board and I will get some feedback from anyone who has had access in treating borderline personality disorder with DBT therapy or anyone who has not had success in treating borderline personality disorder with DBT therapy.
Thank you for all your help
- Marissa
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{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
I just started DBT a week ago so cant really answer your question because I am still learning I figured it couldnt hurt to try it. I couldnt before because all of my children were not in school and now they are. I got diagnosed in January after admitting myself to the hospital because I was having a mental breakdown. I had never heard of BPD till I was told I had it. For years I denied having an issue. I say at least give it a try
About five years ago I was hospitalized twice within 3 months for self-injury and suicide threats. When I left the second time, I realized that I needed to do something different with my treatment or I would not be able to live my life successfully. I was fortunate enough to get linked up with a DBT program. I went to group and individual therapy twice a week for a year and a half. I graduated that program and had learned some very valuable lessons, but I was not automatically cured. After the program I went through 3 non-DBT therapists before I reunited with my original DBT individual therapist with whom I still see regularly. It is only in this past year that I have stopped self-injury and am able to start working on emotional regulation. It is now that I have more clarity that I see how DBT taught me so many skills that I can now put into practice. Without DBT I wouldn't have learned the skills to function in this world, but without time, hard work, and determination I would not be able to use any of the DBT skills. I owe a lot to DBT, but DBT alone was not enough.
I hope this is helpful.
**Don't give up! Don't ever give up!**
Please Marissa, If you've returned to this site. Have you taken the DBT treatment or are you in treatment.? What has been the result? Is there anyone out there with more input on this ?
My son has recently been diagnosied with BPD and I am considering sending him though this therapy.