Ever since entering the field of Social Work, I have been exposed to many disorders, therapies, frameworks, and strategies in my studies. My worldview for much of my life had been that I would never need to use any of the treatments or skills, because I was not “broken”, or “too underprivileged” to have gained the education to “know better”. But, as I progressed through my education, I have come to realize that everybody is constantly learning and using acquired skills to function better in everyday life. For myself, I found the skills within Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT) treatment to best addressed the areas I was lacking.
DBT was originally developed to focus on individuals suffering from Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD). As described by the National Institute of Mental Health, the criteria an individual must meet to be diagnosed with BPD are some of the following: extreme emotional reactions, a pattern of intense and stormy relationships with family, distorted and unstable self-image or sense of self, impulsive and dangerous behaviours, recurring suicidal/self-harming behaviours, intense and highly changeable moods, chronic feelings of emptiness/boredom, inappropriate and intense anger, and having stress-related paranoid thoughts or severe dissociative symptoms (n.d.). To meet the needs of these complex symptoms, a four module skills training group was developed to known as “DBT skills”, 1) mindfulness, 2) interpersonal effectiveness, 3) emotion regulation, and 4) distress tolerance (Feigenbaum, 2008). The model of DBT assumes that individuals with BPD lack in the areas of interpersonal, self-regulation, and distress tolerance skills, and recognize that an individual’s personal and environment factors are influenti...
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...e personally. As I have mentioned previously, I have always had a challenging relationship with my mother. I felt like nothing I did was good enough, and the things I did accomplish were dismissed to the point where I felt like my life was nothing of importance. Why I was so fixated on my mother’s approval is a discussion for another paper, but according to such social contingencies result in the child’s oscillation between emotional inhibition and extreme emotional reac- tivity. In support of these proposals, research has found that parental punishment or minimization of emotional expres- sion is correlated with children’s proneness to frequent or in- tense negative emotions (e.g., Eisenberg, Fabes, & Murphy, 1996) and low socioemotional competence (e.g., Jones, Eisenberg, Fabes, & MacKinnon, 2002).
People with Borderline Personality Disorder tend to view the world as simple as possible. People who view the world like this, confuse the actions of others. (Hoermann et al, 2005) Recurrent thoughts about their relationships with others, lead them to experience extreme emotional reactions, great agony which they have a hard time controlling, which would result in engaging in self-destructive behaviors. Diagnosing a patient with this disorder can be challenging which is why is it is labeled as one of the difficult ones to diagnose. (Hoermann et al, 2005)
This paper looks at a person that exhibits the symptoms of Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD). In the paper, examples are given of symptoms that the person exhibits. These symptoms are then evaluated using the DSM-V criteria for BPD. The six-different psychological theoretical models are discussed, and it is shown how these models have been used to explain the symptoms of BPD. Assessment of
Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) has been a disability surrounded by stigma and confusion for a long time, and the time to bring awareness and public understanding to this disability is long overdue. The disability itself often gets misdiagnosed as an other disability since the symptoms overlap with many other disabilities (NIMH, n.d, para 16), or worse case scenario, a medical professional refuses to diagnose or treat the disability due to the belief that these people are untreatable because of a negative schema about the disability and clinical controversies on whether BPD is a legitimate diagnosis (Hoffman, 2007) . However, after nearly three decades of research, it has come to light that BPD does indeed exist, does have a good prognosis for remission with treatment (BPD Overview, n.d, para 3), and that there are many treatment options available such as three different types of psychotherapy (Dialectical Behavior Therapy, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, and Schema-focused therapy), omega-3 fatty acid supplements, and/or medications (NIMH, n.d, para 29, 30, 31, and 39, 41). Even though the disability started as a psychoanalytic colloquialism for untreatable neurotics (Gunderson, 2009), BPD is very treatable and doesn’t deserve the stigma it currently carries throughout society.
According to the DSM-5, Personality Disorders are characterized by “impairments in personality functioning and the presence of pathological personality traits”. Borderline Personality Disorder is one of ten personality disorders listed in the DSM-5. The DSM-5 lists several criteria that must be met in order for someone to be diagnosed with Borderline Personality Disorder. They are quoted as follows:
In the future, awareness of borderline personality disorder and other mental illnesses is critical.We need to be rewired to say the least. Our society needs to better informed on mental illness.These clients should not be ashamed of something they cannot choose to change. As healthcare professionals, we need to become more involved and lend a helping hand to those suffering from mental illness.
Borderline Personality Disorder is diagnosed predominantly in females. There is approximately a 3:1 female to male gender ratio for this disorder.
Dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) is a form of cognitive behavioral therapy, specifically developed for borderline personality disorder (BPD), in which the clinician attempts to motivate the client towards change in behavior while simultaneously validating existing thoughts and feelings. (DeVylder) The goal of dialectical behavior therapy is to minimize maladaptive behaviors related to impulse control and emotion regulation, especially those that may result in self-injury or death. (DeVylder) The desired outcome of DBT is a resolution of maladaptive behaviors related to impulse control and emotion regulation, especially those behaviors that may result in self-injury or death. (DeVylder)
Some of the most common actions or responses for individuals with borderline personality disorder are suicidal. Incorporating the teaching of problem-solving skills will hopefully, again, reduce the number of suicidal thoughts or behaviors an individual has that could result in serious self-injury (Van Goethem, A., et al.). Lastly, arguably the most important component of the dialectical behavior therapy is allowing those who have undergone the treatment to test what they have learned. The final stage of this therapy involves having the patients visualize themselves in certain scenarios and creating a response to what they are envisioning. The most important part of this process is having patients trust their responses without utilizing the help and opinions of other individuals (Van Goethem, A., et al.). Though there are several different components that make up the dialectical behavioral therapy, they are each crucial to the treatment for individuals with, not only borderline personality disorder, but many other psychological disorders as well. Some of the effects of how this treatment has worked can be observed in a couple of different
Linehan addressed the need for effective and empirically supported psychotherapeutic treatment for borderline personality disorder. She discovered important shortcomings in standard cognitive and behavioral (CBT) treatments (Chapman & Robins, 2004). DBT was developed to address difficulties faced when implementing standard CBT to ...
Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) hinders people’s security, makes interpersonal and interpersonal relationships difficult, worsens the person suffering from the disorder’s life and those around them, effects their affect and self-image, and generally makes a person even more unstable (Davidon et al., 2007). This disorder is a personality disorder which effects the people’s emotions, personality, and daily living including relationships with other and job stability. People with BPD may experience a variation of symptoms including but not limited to: intense contradictory emotions involving sadness, anger, and anxiety, feelings of emptiness, loneliness, and isolations (Biskin & Paris, 2012). This disorder makes it hard for the person with the disorder to maintain relationships since they have tendentious believe that people are either strictly good or bad. Also, they are sensitive to other people’s actions and words and are all over the place with their emotions so those in their life never know which side to expect. (Biskin & Paris, 2012)
DBT is effective when working with clients experiencing anxiety disorder and depression. Individuals in DBT therapy are taught to notice, rather than react to thoughts and behaviors. DBT teaches clients to accept their emotional reactions and learn to tolerate distress while being mindful of their present experiences. DBT has four stages for therapy. In stage one the pre-commitment stage is where the therapist explains what types of treatment the client will receive. In this stage the client must agree to stop all self harm behavior and work toward developing other coping skills. In stage two the goal is to assist the client into controlling her emotions. Stage three and four involve assisting the client to gain the ability to develop self respect (Waltz, 2003).
Life without emotions would lack meaning, texture, richness, joy and the connection with others (Leahy, R.L., et al, 2012). Emotion can be defined as various states of feelings, thoughts and verbal interactions that individuals can experience (White el al., 2012). It is from this that individuals are able to create relationships with others, in this case infants are able to create attachments to their parents. For the purpose of this essay, emotions can be categorised into two parts; over-regulation and under-regulation. Over-regulation is one's ability to suppress evidence of emotional distress in various situ...
If a parent has a negative emotion and negative reactions to children’s expression of emotion, it will cause children to also have negative emotions and low social competence. It states, “children reared in families in which emotions, particularly negative emotions are not discussed freely may be deprived of information about emotions and their regulation and may conclude that emotions should not be expressed” (Eisenberg 255). Children will grow with a disadvantage in terms of their emotional and social competence. These kids will lack emotion because it was not discussed when they were younger and they will not know how to express how they truly feel since they were deprived. In the article “The Lifelong Impact of Childhood Experiences: A Population Health Perspective” it discusses that early childhood experiences have a powerful effect on one’s life. It also focuses on different statuses of the family as a child and that can also have an effect on how a parent is raising their child. It states “Across North America approximately 50 percent of single parent families live in poverty, more than twice as many as Western Europe”(Hertzman
The history of BPD can be traced back to 1938 when Adolph Stern first described the symptoms of the disorder as neither being psychotic nor psychoneurotic; hence, the term ‘borderline’ was introduced (National Collaborating Centre for Mental Health, 2009, p. 15). Then in 1960, Otto Kernberg coined the term ‘borderline personality organization’ to describe persistent patterns of behavior and functioning consisting of instability, and distressed psychological self-organization (National Collaborating Centre for Mental Health, 2009, p. 15).
Emotional self-regulation refers to the strategies used to adjust emotions to a contented level so goals can be accomplished. This requires voluntary, effortless management of emotions (Berk, 2007). Promoting young children’s social-emotional development is essential for three interconnected reasons: Positive social-emotional development provides a base for life-long learning; Social skills and emotional self-regulation are integrally related to later academic success in school, and prevention of future social and behavioral difficulties is more effective than later remediation (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services). Research on early childhood has highlighted the strength of the first five years of a child’s life in their social-emotional development. Negative early experiences can damage children’s mental health and affect cognitive, behavioral, and social-emotional development (Cooper, Masi, & Vick, 2009)....