Borderline is Brave.

"Individuals suffering from borderline personality disorder have often been treated as psychiatric lepers, with treating professionals approaching them armored with rigid boundaries, negative expectations and a poor prognosis. This does not need to be the case. Another alternative exists: to see the individual suffering from this disorder as courageous and full of creative potential."

- Laura Paxton, from Borderline and Beyond, The original edition 

 Just waking up every morning to face the day can be an act of courage for someone suffering from BPD. It is not self-pity or wallowing in turmoil that creates this difficulty. 

A person suffering from BPD continually encounters emotional over-stimulation and overwhelm, often beyond his or her capacity to cope. This is through no fault of their own, but through having a different threshold for stress. Other conditions have similar low thresholds at times, such as autism, PTSD and ADHD. 

However, in addition to this greater propensity to overwhelm, a person with BPD  must face a lifetime of learning basic skills that most others take for granted, such as distress tolerance and alternatives to self-harming behavior. 

Every day presents a challenge in facing fear and coping effectively. This can be exhausting for many. Sometimes, trauma from the past must be worked through in therapy. 

While it might be easier to turn to alcohol, drugs or cutting, a borderline in recovery works very hard to stand up to many fears. To be borderline and recovering is to be brave, and that is commendable and worthy of respect.

Borderline and Beyond, Original- New Hope, Different Era

I'm blogging today to say a few words about Borderline and Beyond. I'm happy to have the original book and workbook editions back in print.

Some of you might remember the latest editions in 2001 and 2007, but the revised editions did not improve upon the original in any significant way.

Feedback has been that the 1996 edition surpassed the 2001 or 2007 revisions and so I'm bringing the books back in their original form.

Lots of progress in the field of Borderline Personality Disorder has been made in the past seventeen years since I wrote Borderline and Beyond. Back when I wrote it, the diagnosis was baffling in its very existence. Why take a chronically suicidal, emotionally fragile person and tell them they have an incurable personality disorder? What sense did that possibly make? It was like damning people to their own personal hell.

I fought back. If professionals weren't going to help me, I was going to do all I could to help myself. I worked really hard at it. The result of that work was Borderline and Beyond.

Today, people diagnosed with BPD are told that the chance of their making significant progress of recovery in the first year is good and that 80% of people with BPD eventually experience remission of symptoms.  Researchers and clinicians finally got on the ball and started to try to do something about the problem besides throwing their hands up in the air and blaming it all on the difficult patient.

There is much more hope for recovery from borderline personality disorder today. I'm glad I was one of many writers and bloggers who helped usher in an era of change. I was a "poster child" for people who actually got better and recovered from BPD.

Many clinicians do not believe full recovery from BPD is possible, yet I have changed and a great number of others have experienced recovery. Through using the principles and tools in my book, I have not been diagnosed with BPD in over fifteen years.

Therefore, I'm bringing my book back into print. It worked before- It can help again. I hope many who are struggling will benefit from it.

Here's where you can buy my books-

 http://www.carmelheart.com/#!portfolio/cjg9

and

On Amazon

Thanks,
Laura

Now Limited Availability of Borderline and Beyond

What a busy week! My focus right now has been finding ways to cut back on stress and define priorities. I can't think of many things more difficult, but I'm pushing through.

Exciting previews into the publishing world!

Barnes & Noble online has my books in stock. You can also get your local B&N to special order it. They have it in their catalog.

My books are listed on Amazon for pre-orders. I have no idea why there are four independent booksellers already carrying and selling them but they are, so you can order from them via Amazon. I have no idea what my distributor is up to and why Amazon does not have their shipment yet, but you can still get the books there.

The workbook to accompany the text is here. This one used to have the picture up but it's temporarily down. Why, oh why? Two independent booksellers have it and are selling it on Amazon but Amazon itself apparently doesn't have a shipment yet.

My new website is almost ready to launch, and of course I'll be selling it there.

Come one, Come all, Buy the gift of mental health!
(or at least a creative approximation)

St. Teresa, Shock and Trauma

I've thought a lot this week about a class Father Stephen Watson, OCD taught at our last secular Carmelite meeting. He was teaching us about “St. Teresa and the Resurrection,” from Volume 1, Testimony #12 by Kieran.

In this example, St. Teresa of Avila had emotionally merged so much with the passion of our Lord Jesus and identified so much with the experience of His mother that she was unable to be happy and celebrate the resurrection on Easter Sunday. St. Teresa was still deep in mourning for what our Lord had experienced. She even said her “hands grew numb in affliction.” Her soul became suspended. St. Teresa experienced something known as a “rapture of affliction.”

I had never heard of this, but a “rapture of affliction” is an experience that takes us beyond ourselves but not in the sense of ecstasy. While in this state, St. Teresa contemplated Jesus and Mary. In her contemplation, she saw Jesus with Mary after the resurrection. Mary was in such trauma after the experience of watching God, her son, be tortured to death, she could not shake herself out of it. She stared, numb, as if “shell-shocked” even when her son returned from the dead in his glorified body. She needed help, and he stayed with her a long time, St. Teresa said. So, St. Teresa let Jesus “stay with her a long time” as He did with His mother, helping her to recover from all of that agony in order to celebrate new life.

Nowhere in the Bible is there reference to Jesus going to visit His mother, but that was a personal thing and not a public one. I can imagine the disciples would not feel this relevant to include while recording Jesus's public mission. Perhaps this was one of the many things that happened that was not written? Regardless of whether Jesus was there to help comfort Mother Mary in her trauma, He will always be there for us.

How often does that happen to us, after an occasion such as the Boston Marathon bombing or one of the many school shootings or other mass murders our nation has faced? Trauma is a fact of life. Our Blessed Mother may have gone through it. It is during our deepest trauma that Jesus comes to us and wants to help heal us until we are able once again, to celebrate His resurrection and the miracle of life. He is always there, patient and waiting, even if we are too in shock to see Him there.