Friday, March 9, 2007

BPD

Myth 2: BPD is a "wastebasket definition." Clinicians give patients this diagnosis when they can't figure out what's wrong with them.

Reality: BPD should be diagnosed only when patients meet the specific clinical criteria.

Janice Cauwels (1992) wrote: BPD is still a wastebasket diagnosis, a label slapped on patients by therapists trying to pretend that their illness is understood. It is also used to rationalize treatment mistakes or failures, to avoid prescribing drugs or other medical treatments, to defend against sexual issues that may have arisen in therapy, to express hatred of patients, and to justify behavior resulting from such emotional reactions.

In other words, some clinicians use the word "borderline" like some schoolyard bullies use the word "cooties." But the fact that BPD is used as a wastebasket definition doesn't make it a wastebasket definition, any more than calling grapefruit a fat burner makes it a fat burner. A patient should be diagnosed as borderline only if they meet the clinical criteria and only after a clinician has worked with the patient over time to verify that the BPD symptoms are persistent, extreme, and long standing.

Myth 3: Women have BPD; men have Antisocial Personality Disorder

LiveScience.com - Why Humans (and Baboons) Stress So Much

LiveScience.com - Why Humans (and Baboons) Stress So Much: "SAN FRANCISCO—Being highly intelligent and social, humans suffer from more stress-related diseases than any other animal, worrying about family, health, jobs and even the future. The average beast, on the other hand, does not spend much time worrying about these things. "