Borderline? Does No Cure Equal No Hope?
Published: Wed, 03/24/10
Hi ,
How's it going?
I hope you're doing well today.
I was talking to someone the other day who
had very misguided views on borderline
personality disorder.
I was telling him about what I do for a
living, and explaining the different
disorders to him.
When I got to borderline personality
disorder, he shook his head sadly.
He had obviously heard of it, but had also
heard the wrong views about it.
He looked me square in the eye and said
that there is no hope for people like that.
How sad is that?
And it is so untrue!
There is always hope, and there is even
a good amount of hope for people with
borderline personality disorder.
So why do people fall under the
misconception that there isn't?
I think it probably is because there is no
cure.
But not having a cure should never equal
not having hope!
Imagine if there was "no hope" for cancer.
That would mean that no one would ever
recover from cancer, and that everyone
would just give up on them.
Good thing that's not the case, right?
But there's no cure for cancer...
So shouldn't that mean that there's no
hope?
Of course not!
Just like there is still hope for borderline
personality disorder, even though there is
no cure.
So what kind of hope do we really have?
There is hope for recovery.
There is hope for a fulfilling life.
There is hope for independence.
Recovery may not mean "full" recovery,
but it is more important to know what it
can mean.
It can mean a chance for a person to take
back their lives.
It can mean a chance for a person to move
on to their goals, and to meet and exceed
them.
It can mean a chance for a person to learn
to prevent future relapses.
It can mean a chance for a person to be
happy.
These are the things we can hope for, even
though there is no cure.
These are the things we can look forward
to, even though some people will never
believe it.
So what can we do about those people who
think that there is no hope?
What can we do to show them that we
know there is?
Unfortunately, there isn't always a way to
change their minds.
After all, we all have free wills and people
will think what they think.
But there are things we can do to help
those that are willing to learn to see what
we see.
We can tell them about improvements that
have already been made.
We can tell them about statistics of people
who have recovered.
We can tell them about the recovery plan
that we have in place, and why it will
work.
We can show them the good days, and let
them know how much they outweigh the
bad days.
We can show them by our actions and our
attitudes.
We can show them by the way we interact
with our loved ones.
And we can show them by our own hope.
There is nothing more powerful than
teaching by example.
That's how most children learn, and most
of the time it is even how adults learn.
It may take a very strong example to both
unlearn what they thought and to learn the
truth.
We have to be that example.
And we can be.
All we have to do is hope, and live out that
hope.
Does that sound like something you'd like
to do?
Your Friend,
Dave
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