Editor's Choice
OCTOBER 8, 2018
Allure Magazine
Borderline personality disorder, otherwise known as BPD, is a mental illness that is estimated to affect 1.6 percent of U.S. adults, though that number may be as high at 5.9 percent. While all mental illness carries the weight of stigma, BPD is one of the most misunderstood and least accepted, both by the general public and by mental health professionals. There are many myths that surround this illness that further contribute to suffering — myths that often keep those who identify with this disorder from seeking treatment. I know this because I am one of them.
SEPTEMBER 22, 2018
Psychology Today
But some people make highly critical comments about those with personality disorders because of being in difficult relationships. In this blog series and in my books, my goal is to inform people about five types of personalities that can be difficult and sometimes dangerous to deal with. My hope is that by providing personality awareness, people will learn to communicate more effectively, protect themselves when necessary and use new ways of managing difficult relationships.
SEPTEMBER 12, 2018
Refinery29.com
Whether we're trying to describe the ex from hell, or the friend who ghosted out of nowhere, we tend to throw around the word "sociopath" a lot. But sociopathy is complex, to say the least. "Sociopath is basically defined as someone who lacks empathy and really has an absence of it," says Laura Dabney, MD, a psychiatrist based in Virginia. "They can’t tolerate intimacy or abandonment." Sociopathy is also known as antisocial personality disorder, though it's very different from what we would think of as being antisocial (i.e., not wanting to spend a lot of time with other people).
JULY 25, 2018
Psychology Today
Despite being popular with the general public (if the spate of self-help books available on Amazon is any indication), the personality disorder sections of both the ICD and DSM have long been problematic, both conceptually and scientifically. The major scientific problem is that, although descriptively vivid, clinicians can't reliably distinguish the personality disorder categories from one another in practice.
JUNE 13, 2018
Metro.co.uk
It can be very difficult for people who don’t know about BPD to make sense of a friend's behaviour when their illness manifests itself in the friendship. Coming into contact with someone’s mood swings and extreme emotions, for example, can be off-putting. It might look like they're being difficult or a 'drama queen' when in reality, they're struggling with an integral part of the BPD diagnosis.
JUNE 11, 2018
Science Daily
Researchers think the gap between a psychologists' diagnosis and a patient's self-evaluation might not be as extreme as previously perceived when both are using the same evaluation tools.
MAY 10, 2018
Prevention
Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is a largely misunderstood mental illness that affects mostly women and can show up as early as your teenage years. It impacts the way you perceive yourself and others, and can manifest as an ongoing pattern of wildly unstable moods, bursts of intense anger, impulsive behaviors, and inconsistent self-image. Thinking in absolutes (viewing everything as good or bad, right or wrong, black or white) is common, as is an intense fear of abandonment from those you love.