Posted by:
Lot's Wife
(
)
Date: June 03, 2019 06:24PM
Finally Free! Wrote:
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> Having BPD doesn't automatically make someone a
> "bad person". My wife was diagnosed with it and
> she is not a bad person, she never was. Such
> blanket statements increase the stigma associated
> with this illness. Do people who have BPD often
> have negative personality traits, sure, of course
> a lot of them do, stereotypes and stigmas are
> built on such things, but not all of them and the
> stigma that is associated with the illness makes
> it very hard for people to get treatment, let
> alone accept that they have a it in the first
> place. Please don't automatically associate a
> mental illness with someone being a "bad person".
You are right. I should have said that the behavioral patterns Denson exhibits are compatible with some forms of BPD, which is true. My shorthand concealed a lot of the complexity in a very complex disorder.
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> "BPD is also a disorder that stems from an abusive
> childhood"
>
> This is a myth that has, if I remember right, been
> largely proven inaccurate. It blames the parent
> when they are often doing they best they can with
> a child that has a difficult, little understood
> mental illness. This too increases stigma and
> makes parents feel ashamed and scared to talk
> about what they are dealing with because of that
> stigma. Does abuse at a young contribute, yes, it
> can, but it's not the only cause. There's a whole
> bio-social theory being looked at to describe the
> causes for BPD that relate to genetic disposition
> for extreme fear and emotion response, lack of
> emotional development (stunted either by
> environment or mental development issues), and
> repeated and extreme invalidation.
I will quarrel a bit with this although I acknowledge that once again I used shorthand too boldly. As you state, there is a significant genetic element in BPD: the odds go up or down depending on prevalence in one's family. But childhood experience, problems in bonding in the better sense and abuse and/or neglect in the worse, play a major role. The NHS in the UK, for instance, lists these factors as major influences:
- being a victim of emotional, physical or sexual abuse.
- being exposed to chronic fear or distress as a child.
- being neglected by one or both parents.
- growing up with another family member who had a serious mental health condition, such as bipolar disorder or a drink or drug misuse problem.
That description seems fairly close to what we know of Denson's childhood, so I believe it reasonable to assume the diagnosis of BPD is good and helps explain her adult behavior. But that does not invalidate your critique. I wrote too hastily and am grateful for the corrections.
https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/borderline-personality-disorder/causes/