Jenn talks to Courtney Cook about her illustrated memoir, “The Way She Feels: My Life on the Borderline in Pictures and Pieces.” Courtney shares highs and lows of navigating her BPD diagnosis, talks about how to embrace the ups and downs of the condition, and explains how writing has been an outlet...
People living with borderline personality disorder (BPD) often struggle with self-image, emotional stability, and relationships with others. Transference-focused psychotherapy (TFP) treats BPD by concentrating on the relationship between the therapist and patient. Transference refers to feelings a...
The following story features Meghan, a 27-year-old nanny in Massachusetts and participant in our Deconstructing Stigma: A Change in Thought Can Change a Life mental health public awareness campaign. Learn more at DeconstructingStigma.org . A trip to the local market could send Meg into a severe...
Sue Callori needs only to glance at her arms to remember the tools she uses when the going gets tough. On her right arm her tattoos read: “Challenge your thoughts,” “Radical acceptance,” and “Distraction,” and on her left: “This too shall pass.” The writings remind her of what she learned during her...
Courtney Cook showed every classic symptom of borderline personality disorder as a child—but wasn’t diagnosed until years later because many believed she’d “grow out of it.” She’s not alone in this experience—many other people in the United States with BPD feel as if their experience with the...
What is borderline personality disorder? How do you recognize the signs and symptoms of BPD? McLean’s Dr. Lois Choi-Kain answers common questions to help us better understand this disorder. What Is BPD? Borderline personality disorder is a problem of pervasive instability in many areas of...
When he was still a graduate student in the 1970s, Michael Hollander’s first patient was an adolescent who was in a great deal of emotional pain. “She was suicidal, self-injurious, and probably would have been diagnosed with borderline personality disorder had we been able to do that in those days...
Borderline personality disorder (BPD) can make everything about a person feel unstable. Whether it’s variations in mood, behavior, relationships, or thoughts, it can cause people with this condition to be quickly triggered by things others may not notice or react to. But it can also be treated...
Jenn talks to Dr. Lois W. Choi-Kain. Lois offers tactics to overcome challenges with emotional regulation, provides tips to improve interpersonal hypersensitivity, and shares information about the connection between emotions and borderline personality disorder. Lois W. Choi-Kain, MEd, MD , is the...
In this episode, Lois W. Choi-Kain, MEd, MD , provides tips on managing emotions that she has learned from treating patients with borderline personality disorder (BPD)—including ways to manage crises through emotional regulation. Dr. Lois Choi-Kain is the director of the Gunderson Personality...
Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is fundamentally a disorder of instability, whether in relationships, emotions, behavior, or self-regulation. These instabilities can impact not just our day-to-day, but our relationship with our loved ones. So how can we acknowledge our vulnerabilities, control...
McLean Award winner and former NFL wide receiver Brandon Marshall discusses his BPD diagnosis and the importance of removing the stigma of mental illness.
It was 1979, and Michael Hollander, PhD, was a post-doctoral fellow at McLean’s adolescent day service when he overheard two girls talking about how they regularly burned their arms with lighters and red-hot coins. He was curious and joined the conversation. “What surprised me was that they didn’t...
In a recent paper, Dr. Agustin G. Yip and colleagues argue that acute course ECT can benefit patients with depression with or without co-occurring borderline personality disorder.
Brandon Marshall, former NFL wide receiver, talks about his mental health advocacy work and how treatment at McLean Hospital helped him deal with isolation and depression.