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Analyzing Borderline Personality Disorder |
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I have worked in the counseling field for many years. I
have had a number of different case loads and duties. For me the most
difficult people to work with are those that are diagnosed with
borderline personality disorder. These are clients that will have
everyone running around in circles and doing all the work. When ever I
find myself disagreeing with another professional about what a
particular client needs, I know I am dealing with someone with a
borderline personality disorder.
This diagnosis
is so very frustrating because the person is often times quite
intelligent. They are masters at reading people and they know exactly
who they will be able to manipulate. At one point in my career I worked
for a social service agency dealing with children’s mental health cases.
I was assigned sixteen cases to manage. One case had a mother and
daughter that were both diagnosed with borderline personality disorder.
Each month when I was filling out my case contact information I noticed
that thirty percent of my time went towards this one case.
People
diagnosed with borderline personality disorder are very good at engaging
others that they feel can help them get what they want. They usually
have the ability to make friends with their excellent social skills.
They can talk people out of money and also convince others that they are
being picked on or persecuted by the system. They love to surround
themselves in drama. They will set up situations to create drama in
their lives and then they sit back and watch as others around them run
around and try to fix the problems.
Treatment for borderline
personality disorder is very complex and long term. The person has to be
taught how they should feel in various situations and how they should
engage others for mutual relationships, rather than use people. These
are things that come naturally for most people. Borderline personality
disorder is a learned way of behaving. It is not a chemical imbalance of
the brain, so there are not medications that can be used to treat the
person. Behavior modification techniques and consistent feed back are
the most effective ways of getting the individual to live within the
parameters of society. This is a long term process and is most
effectively accomplished in a group home setting. We are learning that
it is best to separate people with various personality disorders from
those with classic mental health conditions during the treatment
process. The individual with borderline personality disorder, which is
most often female, are too skilled at targeting the more vulnerable
clients that have an illness verses a disorder.
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