Gail Glass-Malley
26.7K posts
I'm reading some anger over the term "borderline personality disorder" (BPD) being used, due to the fact that it calls someone's personality "disordered." I'm attaching an article which actually agrees, and challenges the notion that It's a reactive traumatic response disorder. Just out of curiosity, how may we better refer to the actual symptoms someone with BPD exhibits (i.e. the rage, fear of abandonment, self harm etc.)? We can't call a disorder "Other people caused this pain disorder," because we need a way to actually capture the symptoms the individual person exhibits, not simply the cause of the symptoms (childhood trauma). By the way, if that's the way we decide to go (calling BPD "childhood trauma disorder") then that could also describe the childhoods of many people with NPD, and the internet loves to mock, fear, deride and spit on people who are "the narcissist," so if you're fine abandoning the narcissist witch-hunt, you can have the "childhood trauma disorder" label as a replacement to BPD and NPD. "Panic disorder" and "generalized anxiety disorder" are not called "My chest is pounding and I think I'm having a heart attack" disorder or "my environment makes me overthink." I can't find my clients' abusers and personally fight them; I can' only serve my clients by helping them desensitize their triggers through EMDR and teaching them how to seek and establish safe and respectful relationships. I am not a bouncer or assassin for abusers. That is not what therapy is. PS: We could easily call BPD "emotional dysregulation disorder" or "traumatically acquired affect dysregulation disorder" but BPD Is not always caused by trauma. See research here: scirp.org/journal/paperi…
