Borderline Personality Disorder | POSITIVE Traits

foreign the nature of a conversation around mental health tends to lean towards the negatives that people experience when living with a disorder but are there positives that we could look at and even positive traits of a mental health disorder that we could leverage to our advantage here to answer those questions and more is board certified forensic and neuropsychologist Dr Judy hello Dr Judy what do you think about this taking a positive spin towards a mental health disorder I love it Kyle because I think it's so important for us to not only focus on all of the difficulties but also to focus on some of the things that could be positives you know we talk about strength-based work or positive psychology and I think that this is one of the best applications of it especially because I know that individuals who suffer mental illnesses they have self-stigma they have other stigma they have people judging them for whatever condition that they've been diagnosed with and they probably judge themselves and that is a negative cycle that it tends to create because you're trying to get better but you have all this hopelessness around the fact that you have this condition in the first place and all the negative connotations around it so let's get into some of the positives let's talk about how we can make some of these traits work for people first of all why why do we why does BPD such a get get such a Negative rap BPD gets such a bad rep I remember when I was in training in my doctoral program and people were swearing up and down that they were not going to ever treat somebody who has borderline personality disorder and I think if there's any clinicians watching you're thinking yeah well good luck with that because it is one of the more common personality disorders and it's inherent in so many other conditions that you might see somebody for like depression anxiety conditions and PTSD and I think we oftentimes focus on the negatives because people are thinking of how to treat the problem so we're identifying the problems but also I think BPD individuals get a bad rep because they're known or they're thought to be very dramatic or they have these wild swings in their mood and people just hear that and I think that makes them have a negative connotation towards individuals who have this condition but I also want to point out that personality traits are on a spectrum I have many patients who have some traits of BPD but they don't meet the full criteria and we talk about those traits insofar as if it's impacting their functioning or their relationships negatively and sometimes it doesn't because they're not necessarily under a ton of stress at a different time in life and then some of those traits don't end up rearing the more negative aspects of themselves I want to focus today on talking about out the positive associations with some of these traits that when the person is under stress can certainly have negative consequences but what about when the person is feeling pretty good or when they're not necessarily under a ton of stress or maybe they're in treatment so they're really cautious and aware of how these traits can go down a negative path and they're really cognizant to not let it do that then I think some of these traits actually have their upside so I'm excited that we're doing this episode yeah well let's start with one of the traits that we would be considered more positive well one would be increased empathy individuals with BPD tend to be more hypersensitive to their surroundings and to what other people are thinking about them in a darker time that might lead them to act out in ways that are very disturbing to the relationship and the longevity of the relationship itself but it also gives them the sense of understanding what someone might be going through maybe even before the person knows it themselves so I've certainly had individuals who were diagnosed with borderline personality disorder that just seemed to be a little bit more attuned with what other people might be feeling sometimes their guesses may not be right but they're more likely sometimes to ask another person about how they're feeling or be more aware that the person might be upset whether or not they actually are and that can actually be a very helpful trait and for a person who is a loved one of that individual you can see how they might feel very special because this person is constantly attending to how you're feeling and making sure that you're okay it's it's peculiar you know to talk about positive traits in mental health disorders because no question we really focus on the symptomology that makes them a disorder and they are largely negative things that most people you know struggle with incorporating into their lives the only other uh condition that I think we've done this with is with ADHD where you can be hyper focused on something that's very productive and some people would look at that as a positive benefit of that I was just thinking I have depression before this discussion I probably wouldn't have thought about the good parts of my depression but even very quickly when I think when I asked myself that question I think well because I'm depressed it has in a way forced me to be very in tune with my emotions starting at the age of nine to really get clear on how depression comes up um and conversely when I'm feeling good and not depressed being aware of those emotions and so it's given me it's forced me in a way to be very mindful of how I am feeling which is a very great gift and so I like that we're having these discussions that are positive around these mental health disorders because it gives people a more holistic look I think at how they can manifest um do you have any thoughts on that before we go to our next trade well yeah I'm so glad that you're thinking about how it applies to yourself and your experience and that there are these positives despite all the darker times and the more difficult times that there's the positives that should be acknowledged um and people should feel good about and so yeah I think sometimes we over pathologize sometimes in a way that is trying to be helpful because we're trying to treat the problem but it's also nice to recognize the other side of it so again I'm glad that you like this discussion you see its applicability to yourself yeah it does feel different though being in this seat and going all right now what's another great trade about BPD yeah but let's move on to another trait that could be more positive in certain light rather than a versa okay well another one that's really important and might make you a best friend to a lot of people is flexibility so individuals with borderline personality disorders sometimes experience a lot of identity shifts they don't necessarily know all the time who they are or what they might like individually or what they want to do and sometimes you'll see that they jump from job to job or hobby to hobby because I'm not quite sure what's going to fit so obviously that can be very frustrating if that's taken to the extreme but if it's only a mild presentation of that you can see how that person is just more flexible you know no matter what somebody else says or saying yeah sure I'm game to try that even though I haven't done that activity before I'm okay to try it that that sounds okay to me or if somebody says hey you know what about for this weekend um we do this instead of the usual thing they're not as rigid as certain other people for example individuals who have obsessive-compulsive personality traits they tend to be a little bit more rigid they probably want their schedule the way they they want it and they're not as flexible we can also talk about the positives associated with ocpd and I think we should because obviously ocpd individuals tend to be more perfectionist so they tend to produce work of high quality that's another conversation but one of the things that I think BPD individuals have that most people with ocpd might struggle with is this level of flexibility in terms of you know what I I don't really mind because I'm not exactly sure what I want anyway and it's okay for me to go along with the crowd and I don't actually feel like I'm suffering or giving something up that's really important to me so it might not be very distressing for them either to go along with whatever other people are doing that day and just be willing to try new things yeah well explained Dr Judy are there any other traits you can think of that would be more positive yeah so another really positive trait of individuals with BPD is that they tend to be bolder in terms of their decision making now obviously that impulsive dimension of BPD can be disastrous at times we sometimes associate for example with alcohol and drug abuse right but we're talking about the positive side of that boldness that positive side of that impulsivity is that they sometimes risk take in good situations that actually lead to Great outcomes I've had individuals who have borderline personality disorder tell me that in their best of times they've made really excellent business decisions where speed was important and they didn't have a ton of time to just mold things over and so they just decided to take a risk and that risk paid off and it helped their business so you can see that that can be a positive aspect of that impulsive dimension of BPD yeah you're really opening my eyes to this and I can I can imagine the per person who might be going to therapy and learning about their impulsivity or that they're you know they're extremely empathic and hear all these things and go man that all sucks and I wish I didn't have those things but with this simple reframe there are positives behind that behavior um that it could be really appealing for somebody to re-understand so thank you Dr Judy for this I hope we can do more videos that point this out because like you mentioned pathologizing things just to pathologize them that's not the point here we want to be very clear everything is on a spectrum the these tree or these diagnosis are designed to inform treatment and so let's do it in the most accurate way possible and not in a stigmatizing way I'm so glad that you said that because I oftentimes think about the fact that we frame personality disorders as sort of lifelong struggles it's really about managing those trades rather than those traits completely go away and so I just want to give some hope to individuals who have BPD out there and say hey you know what some of these traits have positive Dimensions to them so why don't we try to really focus on that and that can be part of your treatment is to try to bring out the positives associated with some of these traits that are thought to be lifelong and are thought to be difficult especially in stressful times let's talk about ways in which we can make it a better thing well said we have uh some fabulous series on the topic of borderline personality disorder and also the typically number one referred treatment which is dialectical behavior therapy you can access those at medcircle.com using the links below this video Dr Judy thank you as always thank you thank you for watching hit the Thumbs Up Button if you don't mind it'll help spread this credential mental health information to others who need it I'm Kyle Kittleson remember whatever you're going through if you got this [Music]

Channel: MedCircle

Views: 89,021

Keywords: borderline, borderline personality disorder, borderline personality disorder symptoms, borderline personality disorder treatment, bpd, bpd treatment, depression, disorder, disorders, dr judy ho, dr ramani, dr. judy ho, dr. ramani, dr. ramani borderline, kyle kittleson, medcircle, medcircle bpd, mental health, mental illness, personality, personality disorder, personality disorders, positive, psychologist, psychology, ramani durvasula, signs, symptoms, traits, video, youtube

Id: wCh-g1_hUKQ

Length: 11min 10sec (670 seconds)

Published: Thu Jan 26 2023