Borderline Personality Disorder

[moimeme]

There is always a predisposition which is aggravated by use and abuse

 

Six of one, Otter. There is enough illness present in the population that there are likely quite a lot of people with latent predisposition. So IMHO if the drugs trigger the predisposition, they are still causing the problem. It's facile to argue what the 'actual' cause is if someone becomes ill due to drug use. They're stil sick and stil in hospital, now aren't they?

[laRubiaBonita]

Originally posted by moimeme

Oh great. Still more stigmatization of people who are already suffering. You tell me one person you actually know who has ever used a genuine disorder as an 'excuse'. It's a myth. A stupid one at that. People who have these disorders feel ashamed of themselves and of being 'sick' and 'wrong'. Mostly, they'd prefer nobody knew about the diagnoses.

 

It's not an 'excuse', it's an EXPLANATION. It's what you need to begin to heal. If you don't know what ailment you have, how ever do you get help? You need a diagnosis and a name and then you're able to find treatments, therapies, help.

 

A myth. Again, stigmatizing people who don't deserve it. Another type of prejudice. Another way to exclude and ostracize some of your fellow humans. Which doesn't help them one bit.

 

after being in and out of hospitals/ psych. wards, for two good years...i have seen a few, hell i have done it, and still can if i want to.

 

it is kinda like people abusing the welfare system. you learn how to work it after a while to get what you want...which, in this Mental Health cases is usually is just to not having to be responsible for anything anymore. It is a way out of Real Life.

It is a way out of having to deal with crappy everyday things, but you also give up the good things too......but hey, not a huge loss to someone who feels alienated from the world anyways.

[blind_otter]

Originally posted by moimeme

Six of one, Otter. There is enough illness present in the population that there are likely quite a lot of people with latent predisposition. So IMHO if the drugs trigger the predisposition, they are still causing the problem. It's facile to argue what the 'actual' cause is if someone becomes ill due to drug use. They're stil sick and stil in hospital, now aren't they?

 

Well this is where personal responsibility and accountability come into play. There is one camp that looks at drug addiction and abuse and dependency as a disease, and uses a disease model to treat it - which doesn't take that much personal responsibility into account. The person CHOSE to take drugs, whereas someone with a true mental illness often starts to decompensate before the illness occurs.

 

Most if not all the patients in the hospital I worked at had already reported perceptual and behavioral disturbances long before they began actively using and abusing drugs. There was not one case I can remember of someone who was highly functional prior to their drug use and abuse.

 

I only stress this because it was my primary function in the pod I worked on. It was something many of the residents lamented. If only I hadn't done this or that or the other. When in all honestly most of them were ticking time bombs.

[moimeme]

Most if not all the patients in the hospital I worked at had already reported perceptual and behavioral disturbances long before they began actively using and abusing drugs. There was not one case I can remember of someone who was highly functional prior to their drug use and abuse

 

I don't see how this conflicts in any way with what I said. In fact, you're contradicting yourself or at least getting yourself tangled in a Gordian knot. I said people end up in hospitals due to drugs. First you say that drugs don't cause mental illness and now you say that pretty much all drug users have pre-existing problems. Therefore nobody contemplating using drugs should do so since, according to you, they are all likely to end up in hospital when the drugs kick off their conditions. And that means that what I said about people ending up in hospitals due to drug use is correct.

[d'Arthez]

Yes, but how can you know beforehand that you run risk, in the personal responsibility model? Should I take a DNA test to let me know which behaviors are dangerous? If for instance I run a reasonable risk of turning psychotic, should I choose to not engage in any behavior that could lead possibly to psychosis? With two or three disorders, there will not be much of life left. Am I allowed to drink a cup of coffee? Be living in a highly urbanized area (assuming there is a link between psychosis and urbanization)?

 

Drugs are not the real problem, in the sense that they fully cause the disorders. They only allow the disorder to be expressing itself. In this sense, it is understandable, that a lot of people are sceptic about drugs and its effects.

 

How common is drug use in the US, Canada, wherever we live? How many have not used drugs, and let's include pot for that matter.

Why do people use drugs? If you are happy few people if at all, will use drugs in any form. If the last statement is true, why aren't we doing things to make people more happy with life? If there is a connection between urbanization and mentall illnesses, why aren't we spending time and energy on that?

 

Personal responsibility for health problems, allows us to be evil towards smokers, and yet we still breathe the poluted air of the industries and the cars produce. If I die of lung cancer it is not because of my fault. I don't smoke, yet I can still die, because people cannot behave in a responsible fashion. There is no realistic alternative to the car for most people. And locking myself in, is not taking personal responsibility, but is lunacy - it might trigger a personality disorder, if I were to do so.

In short, personal responsibility is an excuse used by society to blame people for their problems.

[laRubiaBonita]

self-medication is why many, not all, mental health patients are addicts and users.....which then bites them in the butt because it only exagerates their pre-existing problems.

[blind_otter]

Originally posted by moimeme

First you say that drugs don't cause mental illness and now you say that pretty much all drug users have pre-existing problems. Therefore nobody contemplating using drugs should do so since, according to you, they are all likely to end up in hospital when the drugs kick off their conditions. And that means that what I said about people ending up in hospitals due to drug use is correct.

 

No, not all the guys in the hospital WERE drug users, Moi. I worked in a MENTAL hospital, not a psychiatric unit for drug addicts. I didn't say that. You are putting words in my mouth. I'm surprised, usually you are pretty even keel. Some of the guys decompensated after traumatic events (another common occurance for schizo-type disorders) -- car accidents, the death of a loved one, or the whole bad childhood issue.

 

There are plenty of people who use drugs and don't develop lasting mental issues, or even addiction or dependency. Since most stop without the aid of any programs or treatment, the statistics are not very specific, but it's common knowledge. Forgive me for my lack of specificity in my use of the language and my assumption of logical reasoning.

[moimeme]

No, not all the guys in the hospital WERE drug users, Moi

 

I didn't say you said that, otter. Girl, we're going in circles. And saying more or less the same thing.

[meanon]

 

i think "borderline" is a very general and crappy way to "diagnose" someone.

 

they may as well call it "kinda looney.....but normal- personality disorder" You either have a disorder or you do not. Just another way for doctors to push pills, treatments, and bills on us.

 

there should be no grey areas when it comes to diagnostics, IMO.

 

The "borderline" isn't with normality. It's between personality disorders and psychosis. It's arguably one of the most severe types of persoanilty disorter in term of both it's effects on the sufferer/others and it's resistance to treatment. That's the British definition, the American may be different.