Treating Borderline Personality Disorder
Health

Treating Borderline Personality Disorder

Dialectical behavioural therapy is an evidence-based treatment that’s been shown to be highly effective at treating borderline personality disorder (BPD), and other mental health issues as well. To better understand how DBT works, it’s helpful to understand what exactly BPD is and what causes it. Borderline personality disorder, or BPD, is a serious mental illness in which individuals have trouble regulating their emotions, behaviour, and thought patterns.

Dialectical Behaviour Therapy

Dialectical behaviour therapy (DBT) is a form of cognitive behavioural therapy that was specifically designed to treat people with borderline personality disorder. DBT teaches individuals how to cope with their emotions more effectively and how to change self-destructive thought patterns. In addition, DBT also teaches individuals skills in emotion regulation, mindfulness, distress tolerance, and interpersonal effectiveness. Studies suggest that people who participate in dialectical behaviour therapy show improvement in symptoms related to both borderline personality disorder and other conditions like depression and anxiety disorders. Dialectical behaviour therapy is most effective when combined with medication as it can help address some of the underlying causes of these illnesses like chemical imbalances or trauma triggers while also helping people develop new coping strategies for themselves.

What is DBT?

Dialectical behaviour therapy (DBT) is a type of psychotherapy that can help patients with borderline personality disorder (BPD) control their emotions, manage relationships, and reduce self-destructive behaviours. This form of psychotherapy focuses on helping clients better manage intense feelings by teaching them to accept their thoughts and feelings without judgment, rather than suppressing or ignoring them. DBT also helps patients learn mindfulness skills to cope with stress and regulate their emotions.

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How to use DBT

Dialectical behavioural therapy, commonly referred to as DBT, is a treatment program that was developed for people who experience extreme emotional and behavioural dysregulation. DBT has been studied extensively in two-year randomized clinical trials with more than 400 patients diagnosed with borderline personality disorder (BPD). These studies have shown that DBT produces significant and long-lasting reductions in suicidality, self-injury, anger, fear of abandonment and other symptoms. Learn more about how to use dialectical behavioural therapy for people living with BPD by reading Dialectical Behaviour Therapy Skills Workbook by Matthew McKay et al. This workbook is available at Amazon or Barnes & Noble online.

Who can use DBT?

Anyone can benefit from DBT. It is designed for people with a wide range of behaviours and emotional problems, including depression, eating disorders, substance abuse, self-harm and suicidal behaviour. The treatment has been found to be effective in treating all of these issues. As DBT is a very specific form of therapy that uses certain methodologies, it is best for people who are open to trying something new. Many people also take part in DBT as an addition to other forms of treatment they already use, such as medication or talk therapy. You can work with a therapist one-on-one or attend group sessions; both work well for most patients.