Therapists don't like treating borderlines?

A friend of my fathers who is a therapist confided in him that therapists generally don't like to treat borderlines. Mosty due the belief that borderlines are manipulative, unstable and difficult to treat. Yeah I've had rocky times with therapists and I've tried to quit therapy a million times but my current T is great.

Has anyone experienced this? been refused treatment. I scoffed at my dad when he told me this.

I've never had this issue, ever. However, I have heard a lot of people have, unfortunately. I don't think it's just BPDers who get refused treatment, but people with personality disorders/axis II disorders in general. It's not guaranteed that anything they are doing to help the person will stick. Treating BPD can be very experimental and has never been a fixed, simple disorder with simple solutions, like giving the person anti-depressants and coupling that with CBT. It's complicated and I think a lot of therapists just can't or don't want to deal with it.

I told my friend who is currently going to grad school for psych that he should consider BPD patients. He'd have a lot of them, I think, considering that they're usually the "patients nobody wants." Honestly, if I were a therapist, I'd find it a lot more interesting to work with someone who had BPD than someone who had a very common disorder. It's a challenge and I'd think that, if one was successful with a borderline, it'd be a rewarding experience for both the therapist and the patient.

Hopefully more awareness develops and the stigma dies down so more BPDers can receive treatment.

Sadly, this is true. Many people in the mental health field would not prefer to work with people with bpd for the reasons you stated. I will say however, that there are some really good mental health professionals who really enjoy working with people who have bpd, and would prefer to work with people who have that diagnosis over other diagnoses. So there are people out there, they may not be high in numbers, but they're out there.

Also to point out, just because a therapist "likes" to work with a person with bpd, doesn't mean that they will be a good therapist and vice versa. A good therapist should be able to work with someone therapeutically even if they don't personally like that person.

The therapists I've had used to talk their way out whenever I pointed out my BPD. "Oh, but you're under 18, so we don't know that for sure!! It might be anxiety, or you could just meditate your way out!" The psychiatrists stating that I'm definitely BPD doesn't seem to matter, neither do my behaviour, thoughts, emotions or anything else. They don't like me and I don't like them.

Unfortunately, yes, alot just hate treating us. It's hard to do for them. Though its alot harder to actually be the bpd person. Though if you have a good therapist, they'll keep what they like to treat aside, and actually do a good job to help you anyway.

I agree that borderlines would make for complex and challenging patients, plus you can't just throw drugs at us. I take meds for bipolar disorder but they do nothing for my borderline symptoms. Hopefully as people more and more get the correct dx of borderline (which can take years) the mental health community will be more accepting.

Yeah, that's all my risperdol treats is the bipolar. It calms me a little which helps with my anger but that's about it, a little bit of an edge off the Borderline symptoms. It's frustrating, because then I'm expected to function like how I come acrossed to most, a normal human being.

I agree though, if more people had the right diagnosis and it wasn't avoided, alot of people could probably actually know why treatment isn't working and be able to work their way around the symptoms and provide a better life for themselves.

Exactly! If more people could recognize that many borderlines do the hard work of controlling their emotional responses because there really aren't any meds for us then maybe we'd stop being viewed as difficult people who aren't worth the effort. Well said

doesntfeelbeautiful wrote:Exactly! If more people could recognize that many borderlines do the hard work of controlling their emotional responses because there really aren't any meds for us then maybe we'd stop being viewed as difficult people who aren't worth the effort. Well said

Thank you!

Besides, we're for more difficult for ourselves than we are for them. They still go home at night to peace and quiet. We go home and still have to live with BPD. I don't think there's ever been a night where I went to bed with a quiet mind not thinking of everything that has ever bothered me. I try to not think so much of the negative, but it comes up, its still there.

DBT helps alot though. Alot more than any med has for it.

Caffeine can seem to help, but drinking that excessively only makes me worse with my bipolar, and it doesn't help really with BPD. It's just a stimulant. It makes me energetic.

My therapist gave up on me. I wasn't maniplulative, always showed up. But I made no progress. Treatment-resistant and all. So, she moved on. She treated me for free, I don't blame her of anything. You invest so much time and energy in a person and it amounts to nothing.

So, yeah, I guess we're not everybody's cup of tea, to say the least.

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Plus, I've been refused treatment before. Yay.