Child Abuse Survivors Community Group
This group's primary focus is physical and/or emotional child abuse: our memories, how it's affected us as adults, how we've survived, etc.
Diagnostic Features:
Emotionally Unstable (Borderline) Personality Disorder is a condition characterized by impulsive actions, rapidly shifting moods, and chaotic relationships. The individual usually goes from one emotional crisis to another. Often there is dependency, separation anxiety, unstable self-image, chronic feelings of emptiness, and threats of self-harm (suicide or self-mutilation). This disorder is only diagnosed when these behaviors become persistent and very disabling/distressing.
Complications:
Completed suicide occurs in 8%-10% of individuals with this disorder, and self-mutilative acts (e.g., cutting or burning) and suicide threats and attempts are very common. Recurrent job losses, interrupted education, and broken marriages are common.
Comorbidity:
Very stressful or chaotic childhoods are commonly reported (e.g., physical and sexual abuse, neglect, hostile conflict, and early parental loss or separation). Mood disorders, Substance-Related Disorders, Eating Disorders (usually Bulimia), Posttraumatic Stress Disorder, Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder, and other Personality Disorders frequently co-occur with this disorder.
Associated Laboratory Findings:
No laboratory test has been found to be diagnostic of this disorder.
Prevalence:
The prevalence of Emotionally Unstable (Borderline) Personality Disorder is about 2% of the general population. It is seen in 10% of psychiatric outpatients, and 20% of psychiatric inpatients. This disorder is more frequent in females (about 75%) than males. Emotional instability and impulsivity are very common in adolescents, but most adolescents grow out of this behavior. Unfortunately, for some, this emotional instability and impulsivity persists and intensifies into adulthood; thus they become diagnosed with this disorder.
Course:
The course of this disorder is quite variable. The most common pattern is one of chronic instability in early adulthood. This disorder is usually worse in the young-adult years and it gradually decreases with age. During their 30s and 40s, the majority of individuals with this disorder attain greater stability in their relationships and vocational functioning. After about 10 years, about half of individuals with this disorder no longer meet the full criteria for Borderline Personality Disorder.
Familial Pattern:
This disorder is about 5 times more common among first-degree biological relatives of those with the disorder than in the general population. There is also an increased familial risk for Substance-Related Disorders, Antisocial Personality Disorder, and Mood Disorders.
Emotionally Unstable (Borderline) Personality Disorder is a condition characterized by impulsive actions, rapidly shifting moods, and chaotic relationships. The individual usually goes from one emotional crisis to another. Often there is dependency, separation anxiety, unstable self-image, chronic feelings of emptiness, and threats of self-harm (suicide or self-mutilation). This disorder is only diagnosed when these behaviors become persistent and very disabling/distressing.
Complications:
Completed suicide occurs in 8%-10% of individuals with this disorder, and self-mutilative acts (e.g., cutting or burning) and suicide threats and attempts are very common. Recurrent job losses, interrupted education, and broken marriages are common.
Comorbidity:
Very stressful or chaotic childhoods are commonly reported (e.g., physical and sexual abuse, neglect, hostile conflict, and early parental loss or separation). Mood disorders, Substance-Related Disorders, Eating Disorders (usually Bulimia), Posttraumatic Stress Disorder, Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder, and other Personality Disorders frequently co-occur with this disorder.
Associated Laboratory Findings:
No laboratory test has been found to be diagnostic of this disorder.
Prevalence:
The prevalence of Emotionally Unstable (Borderline) Personality Disorder is about 2% of the general population. It is seen in 10% of psychiatric outpatients, and 20% of psychiatric inpatients. This disorder is more frequent in females (about 75%) than males. Emotional instability and impulsivity are very common in adolescents, but most adolescents grow out of this behavior. Unfortunately, for some, this emotional instability and impulsivity persists and intensifies into adulthood; thus they become diagnosed with this disorder.
Course:
The course of this disorder is quite variable. The most common pattern is one of chronic instability in early adulthood. This disorder is usually worse in the young-adult years and it gradually decreases with age. During their 30s and 40s, the majority of individuals with this disorder attain greater stability in their relationships and vocational functioning. After about 10 years, about half of individuals with this disorder no longer meet the full criteria for Borderline Personality Disorder.
Familial Pattern:
This disorder is about 5 times more common among first-degree biological relatives of those with the disorder than in the general population. There is also an increased familial risk for Substance-Related Disorders, Antisocial Personality Disorder, and Mood Disorders.
Unfortunately, my childhood abuse was pretty bad as I would think the abuse prob was for all folks who joined this site and I can identify some of the symptoms above in myself. They do seem to relate back to being a kid who had verbal, physical, emotional and other kinds of abuse.
**I am ashamed to admit that I am in my thirties (late 30's) and these symptoms have not seemed to get better. I cannot say that life has gotten much better despite counseling, antidepressants, etc.
I do have hope, though, that if I keep taking each day and doing positive things, keep on keeping on, I will have some kind of life.
I AM at a point where I don't have incredible anger at my parents most of the time but nevertheless I have terrible nightmares, unstable relationships, extreme fear of abandonment and such anxiety that I can tend to isolate a lot.
My sense of trust in the world and generally in people is so poor.
I am starting with a new counselor and know that will not make everything better but hope she has something to add that may help my day to day life be less painful.
hope39, i'm in my early 40s and my childhood was so full of torture that i think my brain chemicals are permanently out of whack from being on adrenaline surges for so long. i'm seeing my fourth p-doc in the past 15 years of trying to undo the damage. it's a slow process, and like my dr said last session, thirty years of damage isn't going to be fixed in 40 minutes. Or a whole bunch of 40 minute sessions. It's a lifelong thing. Keep at it. When i see myself making those changes in each new relationship i start, it's progress.
take care, mo
http://www.emdr.com/briefdes.htm