#mentalillnessmouse

For general mental health questions, I recommend asking @mentalillnessmouse; they have lots of resources and answer questions like this all the time. This does sound like gaslighting to me, but if you give mentalillnessmouse some more details, they’ll probably be able to help you more.

From today (08/25/17) to October 1st, 25% of all my commission from my RedBubble shoppe will be going to Kids Help Phone: a confidential crisis phone/online chat for Canadian children and youth 21 & under. Screenshots will be posted as proof of donation.

Borderline Personality Disorder

Hi anon,

As we’re not professionals, we can’t really say what is or isn’t a symptom of your illness. However in terms of bpd, compulsive lying isn’t specifically mentioned in the formal diagnostic criteria, as far as I’m aware. 

However some of the symptoms of bpd may present themselves in the form of compulsive lying. For example, ‘frantic efforts to avoid real or imagined abandonment’, is one symptom of bpd and even though two people can have the same disorder and even the same symptoms, the way two people’s symptoms present themselves can be very different. Someone may lie compulsive as a way of trying to avoid being abandoned for example. Other’s may not exhibit this behaviour. I’m not saying that all people with borderline personality disorder compulsively lie by any means. We are are all individuals so people’s experience of the same thing can still be very different and it is very possible that someone with bpd could struggle with compulsive lying if their symptoms presented themselves that way. 

I don’t know if you have a therapist or are receiving treatment for bpd, but if you aren’t, it could be helpful to seek professional mental health support. You could talk through this with a therapist and they could help you with the things you are struggling with and they may be more equipped to tell you if compulsive lying is the result of your bpd. Whether it is or isn’t, you deserve help with your struggles. As for feeling guilty over lying, try not to be so hard on yourself. I know this is easier said than done, but having problems with compulsive lying does not make you a bad person. It’s something you’re struggling with and deserve help in handling this problem for your own sake. 

Below I will post resources on therapy and borderline personality disorder.

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Borderline Personality Disorder and Borderline Personality Tendencies

This is a toolbox with tips and hints for people with personality disorders.

NEABPD Recovery resources

PsychCentral – BPD symptoms and general information

BPD Central

NAMI – BPD overview and resources

BPD Demystified

Healing From BPD (contains chatroom)

Amazing Powerpoint PDF of all the DBT skill

A PDF of the entire DBT Skills Workbook

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Getting & talking to a therapist

This post on picking a therapist has some great tips.

This is a step by step on getting a therapist & A beginner’s guide to starting therapy

Psychiatrist, psychologist, therapist or counsellor?

Need to find a therapist by location? Psychologytoday lets you search by city or zip code

Can’t afford therapy? No insurance? Need low cost options? Here is a great list of ways to get help when money or insurance is an issue.

What You Need to Know Before Choosing Online Therapy

Talkspace Online Therapy

Typical Costs & Pricing of Online Therapy

What should happen in a session

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All the best,

Trauma

Hi anon,

It’s okay, it not a dumb question at all. You don’t necessarily have to have triggers in regards to your trauma for a trauma to exist. Trauma in it’s self is described as deeply disturbing or distressing experience. Not everyone will react to trauma in the same way, but that doesn’t mean that someone didn’t go through a traumatic experience. You might be thinking of Post traumatic stress disorder in terms of being triggered or having symptoms like flashbacks, among many other possible symptoms, in relation to the trauma, but not everyone who experience’s a traumatic experience develops PTSD. 

So, you don’t have to feel a certain way for an experience you had to be considered traumatic. What you went through was valid and so is how you feel about it. You deserve help with this and it might help to seek therapy so you can work through what you experienced. I will post some resources for you below on seeking therapy which I hope are helpful to you.

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Getting & talking to a therapist

This post on picking a therapist has some great tips.

This is a step by step on getting a therapist & A beginner’s guide to starting therapy

Psychiatrist, psychologist, therapist or counsellor?

Need to find a therapist by location? Psychologytoday lets you search by city or zip code

Can’t afford therapy? No insurance? Need low cost options? Here is a great list of ways to get help when money or insurance is an issue.

What You Need to Know Before Choosing Online Therapy

Talkspace Online Therapy

Typical Costs & Pricing of Online Therapy

What should happen in a session

Here is a video Demonstrating what a first therapy session may look likemade by a mental health professional

7 things to do during your first therapy appointment

5 Tips on how to talk about yourself in therapy

21 Tips for getting the most out of each therapy session

6 Ways to open up to your therapist

50 Signs of Good Therapy

Having issues with therapy?  Here are 50 Warning Signs of Questionable Therapy

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All the best,

Hi anon,

I’m sorry to hear that your therapist resigned. It can be difficult when your therapist leaves for whatever reason, especially if you connected with them and found them helpful. I can understand that you’re apprehensive about continuing therapy with someone different, but if you do still want to continue with therapy, it could be useful to try and do so with a new therapist. 

In terms of whether or not it will be hard to talk to someone new, it might be. It sounds like you to really connected with your past therapist so seeing someone new, may be hard at first, but it will be worth it if you continue to work through more things and get further benefits from therapy. I think that if you’re willing to give therapy with another therapist a try, you should definitely go for it. It could be really great and you could find another therapist that you connect with too. I will post some resources on therapy below so that, if things are difficult, you could refer to them for some reassurance. 

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Getting & talking to a therapist

7 things to do during your first therapy appointment

5 Tips on how to talk about yourself in therapy

21 Tips for getting the most out of each therapy session

6 Ways to open up to your therapist

50 Signs of Good Therapy

Having issues with therapy?  Here are 50 Warning Signs of Questionable Therapy

___________________________________________  

All the best,

Intrusive thoughts

Hi anon,

It can be really hard to deal with intrusive thoughts in lessons. I think that your school knowing whats going on will help. When I was at college, my teachers knew that I struggled with this too and I was given permission to leave class if I really needed to, due to my anxiety. I’d just get up and go to calm myself down and return after. I’m not sure if this is something that they do at your school, but having something in place that would allow you to leave the room if it got really bad and too overwhelming may be helpful. It might be good to look into asking your teachers if there are any options that might be in place to help student with mental health problems.

As for dealing with the intrusive thoughts when you’re in lessons, my CBT/ERP therapist gave me two methods to use. One of them was to dismiss the thought and the other was to agree with the thought. 

For example, you said you have thoughts about hitting your head against things; agreeing with the thought would be saying something like ‘yes, I’m absolutely going to hit my head against that thing’, inside your head. It sounds strange, but we spend so long trying to deny intrusive thoughts that agreeing with them can actually lessen the anxiety it causes. However this method can cause a bit of an increase of anxiety initially before it eases it, so it might not always be appropriate for certain situations. 

The other options was dismissing it and to any intrusive thought just thinking ‘it’s just a thought’ repeatedly, rather than interacting with the thought. It’s easier said than done, but it can be helpful. It might not work the first time and you might have to repeat the ‘it’s just a thought’ mantra quite a few times in your mind, but it can quiet the thoughts a little so you can get on with the class.

They might not work for you, but I found them really helpful and on days when I felt stronger, I’d agree with the thought, my anxiety would increase a bit, but then the intrusive thoughts would lose their power over me. Then on days when my anxiety was worse, I’d try to dismiss the thoughts instead.

Lastly, I was wondering if you’re currently seeing a therapist? If you’re not and you’re in a situation where it’s possible, seeking a therapist might be useful to you. Cognitive behavioural therapy and exposure response prevention therapy is known to be useful in treating intrusive thoughts. For me, this kind of therapy helped me to deal with intrusive thoughts a lot to the point of recovery. I’ll post some resources of intrusive thoughts for you below.

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Intrusive thoughts

Anxiety and Intrusive Thoughts: An Introduction

Ending Scary Thoughts

Sexual Obsessions in OCD (Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder)

How To Overcome Intrusive Thoughts

Coping with Intrusive Thoughts

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All the best,