Pills and Anti-depression
Here is a commonly disputed fact; Anti-depressants saved my life. That combined with anti-psychotics. The treatment for the borderline personality disorder (BPD) is vast and varied. This blog-post will explore more.
There is an anti-pill revolution emerging. Doctors are looking to more homeopathic solutions to ailing problems. This is more so with mental illness. As I am afflicted with BPD, so I feel best equipped to deal with my condition in this blog-post.
It is largely agreed that psychotherapy is the best way to deal with the borderline prognosis.
Whilst psychotherapy is recognised as the primary treatment of BPD, most treatment recommendations include the necessity for drug therapy. This is a controversial approach however. The effects of drug medication are vast and varied. Some welcome the treatment with open arms; others fear of turning into drugged up zombies.
The truth is there is no treatment specifically for the borderline condition. Often medications and anti-depressants are thus prescribed as ‘off-label’, to treat symptomatic treatments of depression and anxiety that go with the borderline condition. However, new discoveries in genetics and neurobiology of BPD helps us to understand how and why these medications can be effective.
Off-label Drugs
As there is no official treatment for the borderline condition, many of the drugs prescribed for the borderline condition are considered to be ‘off-label’. Many of these drugs include the traditional SSRIs and therapeutic anti-depressants.
SSRIs have been demonstrated to treat inappropriate anger in borderlines, temper outbursts, aggressive behaviour, destructive self-impulsivity and self-harm related self-mutilating activities (this is even in the absence of depressive symptoms). Several studies have indicated that higher dosages of prescribed drugs were necessary in garnering effective treatment.
Generic Drugs
This coincides with off-label medications. In its most simplest terms, a generic drug contains the same active or primary ingredients as the original formulation. However, this does not always mean that a generic drug is reflective of its branded formula. This is more in terms of American medical sociology.
Mood Stabilisers
These groups of medications include Lithium, a naturally occurring element. Medical studies have demonstrated that these drugs are most effective when accompanied with SSRI treatments. This medication, in typical doses, has been demonstrated in treating anxiety, depression and controlling mood instability related to anger, impulsivity and irritability.
Other Treatments
Drugs to one side, there can be other treatments to the borderline condition. Unfortunately, for the case of the borderline, homeopathy and herbal treatments have been largely unsuccessful at treating the borderline condition. This is with the exception of Omega-3 acid preparation. One small study found that this substance slightly reduced depression and aggressive behaviour in the females studied.
Psychotherapy
As aforementioned, psychotherapy has long been regarded as the best treatment for the borderline condition, drugs to one side.
Treatments for the borderline vary due to the socio-cultural dynamics of the condition, particularly from a gendered angle. There are sociological implications to consider within this dynamic. When a client is a woman, and the therapist is a man, a gendered power imbalance occurs. The gendered bias reflected here is even more recurrent in our informal language processes. Terms such as ‘manipulative’ or ‘seductive’ have been pervasively used to treat the female borderline condition. Gendered angles stifle progressions in therapy. These implications create the syndrome that these patients are impossible and harder to tolerate.
Conclusion
As this has been a blog-post this has been a nowhere near comprehensive account of the borderline condition, yet I have offered to show an insight. Drugs can work but their effects are vast and varied. The general solution is to provide drug-assisted psychotherapy treatment.