Surviving a Borderline Parent is the first step-by-step guide for adult children of parents with borderline personality disorder.
Between 6 and 10 million people in the US suffer from borderline personality disorder. This book teaches adult children how to overcome the devastating effects of growing up with a parent who suffers from BPD.
Although relatively common, borderline personality disorder (BPD) is often overlooked or misdiagnosed by therapists and clinicians and denied by those who suffer from it.
Symptoms of this problem include unpredictability, violence and uncontrollable anger, deep depression and self-abuse. Parents with BPD are often unable to provide for the basic physical and emotional needs of their children. In an ironic and painful role reversal, BPD parents can actually raise children to be their caretakers. They may burden even very young children with adult responsibilities.
If you were raised by a BPD parent, your childhood was a volatile and painful time. This book, the first written specifically for children of borderline parents, offers step-by-step guidance to understanding and overcoming the lasting effects of being raised by a person suffering from this disorder. Discover specific coping strategies for dealing with issues common to children of borderline parents: low self-esteem, lack of trust, guilt, and hypersensitivity. Make the major decision whether to confront your parent about his or her condition.
This book has given me tremendous insight as to how growing up with such a parent has affected me in my behavior today. For some time now I've been watching the two of us as a third party onlooker. By doing so I have been able to start to catch glimmers of how her behavior impacts my mood, my thought patterns, and how I interact with others. My sister and I have been reading it in unison and talking about what comes to mind --and sometimes it's a huge jolt! There's nothing we can do for our parent who won't see the issue, but we sure can do a lot for ourselves by recognizing how her patterns have impacted and do impact us.
Chapter six was one of the most helpful to me, since I'm the one she moved close by to. It works. Decide where your boundaries are. Don't react--don't get on that roller coaster with your parent. Its hard at first, but gets less so the more you do it.. In my case, I didn't give in any step of the way, and now she isn't pushing my buttons. Because she doesn't get a reaction. Understanding the problem is one thing; this book helped me to internalize what I needed to do for me. READ THE BOOK!