Are you also learning the DBT skills and therapeutic language she is learning? It is a very supportive and beneficial thing to do. The skills help us cope and when we can speak the same therapeutic language while modeling the use of the skills in our relationships we are operating at the highest level of support for ourselves and our children.
Re the meds... .it is usually trial and error. Has your d had psych testing to help determine if she is bipolar?
lbj
I did attend a skill building weekend a couple of years ago but have forgotten a lot of what I learned really. I do have the materials - i should refresh myself.
As far as testing goes, way back in first grade she was diagnosed with ADD. She really hasn't had "testing" since. Her addictive behaviors masked so much and were reluctant to fork out the $$. She messed around with drugs all through high school and was in full addiction mode by freshman year of college. She was early 20's when the addiction counselor first mentioned BPD. Upon reading more on my own, she fit the characteristics to a "T". After a few more years of watching her struggle he updated his diagnosis and mentioned that he felt she had sociopathic personality disorder. Reading up on that terrified me. As strange as it sounds, I think he almost told us that to soothe us in a way. To get us to a place of not blaming ourselves as to why we had not been able to help her. I just do not believe it - when she is NOT on drugs - her behavior is classic BPD.
Now that she is 'clean' her true self will show more and more. I can't imagine she will have much in the way of testing while in jail. In the meantime, they are trying drugs out on her. She is agreeable to trying. She is eager to be on something that helps her with her poor impulse control. She keeps getting write ups since she has no verbal control. As a result she was moved into locked down dorm with no contact visits whatsoever. We video-visit - much like skype - every other day for 30 minutes. But this dorm is cell-living, rather than dorm living. She likes that it is easier for her not to get in trouble there since they don't leave their cells much - she just can't imagine doing 18 months like that. And - it is actually the phych dorm so there are a lot of way crazy people there - lots of talking to themselves etc. Her incredible need to be liked is also challenging while behind bars. And the difficulty in being alone... .
