BPD with anti depressants

Hi,

I read somewhere that if I have BPD and take anti depressants, they will not work (the anti depressants)....is this true? I do take anti depressants and my doctor has never said anything this to me.

Thanks,
Adrienne

My experience has been that antidepressants can help with the symptoms of a depressive episode (such as concentration problems, fatigue, persistent low mood, etc) but not stop other BPD symptoms such as impulsiveness, feeling empty, abandonment fears, intense emotional reactions, and stormy relationships. So antidepressants do work on depression symptoms for people with BPD but they don't solve all aspects of the BPD. Therefore you may find you feel a bit better on the antidepressants but still have BPD problems that you need therapy to help with.

Hope that makes sense,

James

Hi James,

Thanks for replying.
You know, I have ADHD as well as being diagnosed with BPD and so many of the sypmtoms of the one resemble the other.

Regards,

Adrienne

Hi Adrienne! I hav only improved my problems with BPD with DBTherapy. But who's to say that the antidepressants don't help i save been on them for soo long!

Hi foo,

I have only recently been diagnosed with BPD after years and years of taking medication. Can you pls tell me what DBTherapy is.

Thanks,

Adrienne

Hi Adrienne,

DBT is Dialectical Behaviour Therapy and is a type of therapy created especially for helping people with borderline personality disorder to cope better with suicidal and self harming thoughts and behaviours. DBT was created by Marsha Lineham and her website is: http://behavioraltech.org/reso...

A good detailed description of DBT is at: http://www.mind.org.uk/mental_...

DBT involves individual therapy sessions along with skills training group work sessions. You can see examples of the kind of skills that get covered at: http://www.dbtselfhelp.com/

Hope that helps,

James

Hi Adrienne, and James,
DBT is exactly what James said. It is the most difficult therapy I have tried, but boy did it help! At first it seems a little "out there", because you have to let go of prior ineffective behaviors that have helped with coping and replace them with effective ones. It is more like a class with homework. The one on one therapy basically goes over this homework. I have taken it 3 times and I feel more in control of impulses as well as how I come off to people. Ithink all can benefit from it-not just borderlines. I hope this gives you some hope. BPD can be manageable! Since antidepressants work on brain, chemicals and BPD is not from a chemical imbalance they will absolutely work if they are an effective med for u-Foo