Rich's Blog » mental health

BPD and Martial Art Therapy

rich — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 12:55:54 +0000

If there’s not a word for this in English, there should be. It’s definition would read:

“n: A short period of time during which a number of small, unusual, random events occur; all inexplicably linked together by a common theme.“

When this happens, the only conclusion you can usually draw is that someone, somewhere REALLY wants you to pay attention to this thing, whatever it is, right now.

This week the common theme was Borderline Personality Disorder.

I’ve blogged about it before. There was a long piece about it in the local newspaper magazine this weekend. Pretty standard fare about the disorder, some nice personal histories.

The thing that got me, though, was the last few paragraphs: Treatment.

Apparently the standard fare of medication is, more often than not, ineffectual. Promising results though, have apparently been found with Dialectic Behavioural Therapy, and to a lesser extend Cognitive Behavioural Therapy.

Short-cutting the discussion linking BPD to trauma and/or some type of hereditary predisposition to “emotional rawness” here, I’ll jump right to the “well, duh!” moment.

Medication? Usually innefective.

Meditation, mindfulness, learning to reframe experiences as positive? Much more effective.

Kind of what we do with our Martial Art Therapy program. And pretty much common sense to me.

But more to the point, why on earth isn’t this emotional regulation, mindfulness and much, much more “reslilience” taught as a core subject in our schools?

You are not your diagnosis

rich — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 04:47:54 +0000

Today we’re going to meet Johnny (a pseudonym). Johnny has recently been diagnosed with Acute Viral Rhinopharyngitis.

This is an unfortunate situation for poor Johnny, to be sure. While not life-threatening, Johnny’s condition certainly makes it challenging for him to go about his regular daily routine.

There is good news for Johnny, though. Recent medical advances mean that with the right medication (and a little time) his condition will improve. Once his current bout of AVR has been treated he can once again be safely considered “in remission”.

Unfortunately for Johnny, the statistics say that his odds of relapse are very high.

While Johnny is in remission, though, he’s a completely different person. You’d never be able to tell that he was ever as miserable or as dysfunctional as he when he’s suffering the effects of his condition.

You probably wouldn’t be surprised to learn that there are plenty of people who suffer from acute viral rhinopharyngitis – better known as the common cold.

How many of people do you know, though, who like refer to themselves as “viral pharyngitics”, “AVPs” or “cold sufferers”?

You are not your diagnosis. You are far, far more than any diagnosis of mood disorder or schizophrenia. You’re not defined by your condition (unless you choose to be).

Getting clear on Borderline Personality Disorder

rich — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 06:22:13 +0000

Today we’re going to look at a statistic. Yes I know, I know… When other people talk about statistics it’s not easy to grasp the relevance straight away. Stick with me. It’ll be worth it, I promise.

Please remember that our focus is here is only a very small subset of the community. When we get to discussing the numbers, remember the narrow focus, despite the large volume of people we’ll end up describing. More importantly, remember that these are just those who are affected by only one type of psychiatric disturbance.

The prevalence of Borderline Personality Disorder in the general community is estimated to be between 2 and 5 percent. ^[1]

Does that sound significant?

How about this: Its prevalence is highest amongst people in their mid to late teens.^[1] In other words, school-aged children.

Here’s some more perspective:

In Victoria in 2007 there were a total of 379,187 kids enrolled in secondary school education; 66,710 students enrolled in year 9 alone. ^[2] (Year 9 is primarily made up of students aged in their “mid” teens.)

In the same year there were 565 schools in Victoria offering secondary education ^[2], putting the average number of year 9 students per school at a little over 118 kids. The average number of secondary students per school comes in at 671.

What does that mean? It means that, statistically:

In year 9 alone there were over thirteen hundred kids suffering from Borderline Personality Disorder in Victoria. That’s an entire 6-carriage Connex train jam-packed to capacity (not just seated) with schoolkids.Think about that next time you see an overcrowded train pull into the station in the peak hour rush. (Remember, this number is just kids in one year level, in Victoria.)
Not only that, there are at least two kids in every year 9 level in every school in the state with the disorder.
Each secondary school in the state of Victoria has 13 kids with the disorder.
There were at least 7,583 kids of secondary school age with the disorder in Victoria alone.

Obviously that’s just a statistical average that bears no concept to reality, so let me give you some reality:

These are your kids. If they’re not your kids, they’re your kids’ friends. People that spend time in the same educational environment as your children on a daily basis. And they’re hurting, mentally and physically. They may even be suicidal.

My point is, people with this disorder may not be visible to you. If they’re self-harming the scars are usually covered with long sleeves or otherwise disguised, but they’re there. Over seven and a half thousand kids in Victoria alone in 2007.

If you’re watching the Australian Open Tennis finals, that’s more than half a capacity crowd at Rod Laver Arena.

How much time did your school spend educating kids on how to deal with their demons?

How well are your kids equipped to cope with their own mental health challenges? Did you even know what Borderline Personality Disorder was before you followed the link to the Wikipedia article?

Mental health awareness is about more than educating the public on statistics.

I’ve worked with a number of kids who were diagnosed with this disorder. I can say with certainty that most kids (hell, most adults) have no concept of how to manage their mental well-being effectively.

There needs to be greater emphasis placed on teaching life skills and coping skills in our education system. It’s no exaggeration to say that you kids’ lives may one day depend on it.

1.	“Borderline Personality Disorder”. SANE.org. Retrieved on 2009-01-21
2.	“Statistics for Victorian Schools, March 2008″(pdf) Victorian Department of Education. Retrieved 2009-01-21.