Life at the Border: Understanding and Recovering from the BPD - L Heller, MD

[Mr Mom...]

Life at the Border - Understanding and Recovering from the Borderline Personality Disorder Author: by Leland M. Heller, MD Publisher: Self Published (December 1, 1991) Paperback: 244 pages ISBN-10: 1928947018 ISBN-13: 978-1928947011

My therapist and I have been trying to think of a way to get my girlfriend to 'talk to someone' about her mood swings, her anger/rage issues, her dismissive tendencies and her control issues. I've been broaching the subject with her (my girlfriend) on a couple of occasions and her usual reaction is one of anger and denial (no surprises there... .) but sometimes, when she's in the 'right' mood, she's reacted OK (and by that, I mean she's 'brushed it off' on the outside, but I can tell she's in deep thought about it, and knows it's the right thing to do).

My therapist had given me a booklet last week (to give to my girlfriend) called "(Love) What is", which is basically and excerpt from the main book about accepting life's challenges and situations and asking yourself 4 key questions about any particular situations that you believe to be true within your mind. The idea of this booklet was to introduce the notion that we can control the way we react to situations and change the outcome of our physical reaction to the potentially difficult or hurtful thoughts that we may have. I gave the booklet to her (at an opportune 'right' time!) and she was very cool with it. She accepted it, read a few pages and kept it, put it on her bedside table for later reading.

So, this week, my therapist lent me a couple of books on the subject of BPD and suggested that I find some passages from it that I can print out and pass on to my girlfriend for her to read and (hopefully) become more 'self-aware' that (a) She would benefit from 'talking to someone' and (b) she would become (eventually) more comfortable with expressing herself and her inner feelings with me.

I looked through both books that my therapist lent me, also looked through several others (Lost in the mirror and other similar books) I looked at lots of websites and found a brochure on BPD that was fairly mild in its content, but still too much for a first introduction to my girlfriend. Then I saw a book called "Life at the border" by Leland M Heller, MD. Apparently this book is designed as an introduction to pwBPD for them to recognize the symptoms (traits) on the front cover, and pick the book up and start reading it! Sounds like the right thing to me!

The Amazon reviews seem to say it's a fairly good book and I even see that some pwBPD have reviewed it and say it's pretty good. I'm looking for a book that's very mild and 'easy' on the mind and I think, with this book, I could leave it lying around my house (in a place where I'm sure she'll see it when she's on her own - the bathroom!) and she can pick it up and read a few pages of it in private.

I'm not particularly worried if my girlfriend rages at me when she sees the book, although I'd obviously prefer that not to happen, but if she does, she does... .not my fault.

Has anyone else had any experience with this book? I'm interested to know what this book is like and in any event, I think I'm going to order it.

[LoveNotWar]

Dr. Heller is not a psychiatrist or even a psychological counselor. He is a general practitioner who also performs cosmetic surgery. It is worth noting that he seems to have been unable to find a more reputable publisher than himself. He seems like a good man who is trying to help, but many of his ideas are at best dangerously naive.

[briefcase]

The book is easy to read and follow, and I found it pretty interesting.

HOWEVER, the book is really not up-to-date with the recent medical and psychological research. It is claimed that the book has been updated in 1999. I dno't believe it. Nothing to say about DBT, newer SSRIs and atypical antipsychotics.

[Rhymes w/Orange]

I read it. Did not give to dBPDh.

I like the fact that the author basically takes the approach that BPD is a physical illness, not anyone's "fault". So, that would make the pwBPD feel better. He stated that (he feels) it was basically caused by small localized seizures in the temporal lobe of the brain, and that's why he suggests that pwBPD use Prozac and Tegretol. (BTW, this explaination, I later learned, is sued to explain Bipolar... .and considered somewhat accurate at least in msny Bipolar cases.) Which is why meds can really help Bipolar. But, although probably there are lots of pwBPD that are misdiagnosed as Bipolar, we know that most of the time meds do not help much or at all with BPD. I got my dBPDH on Heller's protocol after reading this book- it did nothing. His discussion of BPD symptoms focuses mostly on rages, from what I remember, leaving out many, many other issues. Aside from the emphasis on meds as the answer, this is a good general book that the PwBPD might not be too offended by.

RWO

[Skip]

This is a 14 year old book written by a solo practice family practitioner in a rural practice in Florida. There have been many developments in the treatment of BPD that are not covered here.

Heller's theories are uniquely his own. He believes that BPD is primarily a neurological disorder, caused by a dysfunctional or damaged limbic system (he proposes changing its name to ":)yslimbia". He has been accused of invalidating his own theory by stating that this same "damage" to the limbic system can be caused both by physical injury and emotional trauma. If emotional trauma can cause the same kind of damage as physical trauma, it seems conflicting to say this is strictly neurological disorder and that treating it from a behavioral perspective (DBT) is wrong.

Heller is a strong proponent for the use or Prozac for most of the disorder's symptoms, claiming it "eliminates mood swings within three days for most patients." SSRIs like Prozac are widely considered to be more or less useless for BPD. In studies, they have been shown to be no better than placebo for all but the most severe cases of major depression.

One great practical sense element of this book is Heller's suggestion to test patients for other mood affecting conditions (like thyroid disorders) and resolve those matters first.

I'm not a position to question his science or even to suggest that the current clinical state of the art is correct - there is a lot science doesn't know about this disorder and a lot of theories that are being researched. I can say that this is one clinicians approach to BPD.