#mentalisation based therapy

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What Therapy Taught Me About Managing Emotions

Following on from my last post about what therapy taught me about relationships, here is what it taught me about managing emotions. (The treatment that I had was Mentalisation Based Therapy which you can read all about through this blog.) To start off I should explain what I mean when I talk about ‘managing’ or ‘regulating’ emotions. For me, it is about being able to identify my emotions, to…

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Therapy Worries

Therapy Worries #psychology #psychotherapy #mentalhealth #timetotalk #UKbloggers

Recently, I wrote a series of blog posts about MBT, the current therapy course which I am in the middle of. Most of those posts were very positive but I wanted to add something about potential difficulties that I faced (and which others might) when starting therapy. All these people have it way worse than me, I shouldn’t be here. This was a common thought shared by various group members in our…

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MBT: The Therapy Sessions

MBT: the therapy sessions #mbt #mentalisation #therapy #bpd #UKbloggers

Following on from the introduction I wrote of MBT, I want to let you know a little more about how my therapy sessions work. For most MBT treatments, there is a combination of both individual and group sessions. I have both of these over a period of 18 months. Each week, I attend a 50 minute session with my individual therapist. We talk a lot about what is going on in my life now and how my…

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[mindcharity]

...I really struggle with identifying what my emotions are and where they come from. I often feel like this horrible, ominous feeling just creeps up on me out of nowhere for no reason at all. I also tend to feel bad around other people, and see everything as a sign that they dislike me or that I’ve done something wrong.

From Jessica's blog on mentalisation based therapy.

[hangrybird]

The Borderline mind, Mentalisation, and remission.

what is mentalising. Imagine what your world would be like if you were aware of physical things but were blind to the existence of mental things. I mean of course blind to things like thoughts, beliefs, knowledge, desires and intentions, which for most of us self-evidently underlie behaviour. Baron-Cohen s (1995) Mindblindness I think it is vitally important that all patents with the diagnosis of Borderline personlaity disorder, not only get information, on what BPD is but on the success of remission after treatment using MBT (Mentalisation based therapy). The psycho-education of the patient is usually incorporated Into group MBT sessions, and although group members often don’t concentrate or get caught up in tangents about other things, hand outs and the opportunity to ask questions are given. There seems to be still within mental health a lack of informed consent with regards to acute admissions, and complex cases, and I do feel that this is wrong. Educating a person to what BPD is will only help them understand their intense feelings, thoughts and actions. I know this to be true, as I am in remission my self and learning about the disorder through being a Hub Day therapy user, and attending the Scottish Personality Disorder Network conference’s has been invaluable to me. Now off the soap box and down to some proper information conveyance. If you’re reading this and are in, or considering MBT as a BPD treatment but feel anxious, and worried about crisis triggers etc.. It’s ok, we ALL Feel that way even the Therapists are sensitive to crisis triggers. They are there to help you understand in a mindful way what they are, how to challenge them and how to get you, mentalising. Mentalising is thinking about thinking, building self awareness, and awareness of what others may be thinking. The lack of mentalising thinking in Borderline patents is what characterises the personality traits that go with it. Taking words at their literal meaning, not getting where someone is coming from, feeling victimised by family, friends, paranoid thoughts about what people think of you, feeling unwanted, rejected, ignored, suicidal thoughts, and a sense of emptiness. All non mentalising mind sets. And all changeable in the therapeutic setting. Some people take a long time to respond to MBT but when they do the response is dramatic, it is important for me to say that this may have some pit falls, for me it’s pseudo mentalising and misuse of mentalising I tend to take words at their literal meaning, when I person may mean it glibly or metaphorically, I also self sabotage and justify it with false logic using mentalising as a guide. I am also not mentalising in those moments, but if I take a step back, and look at it from the outside I see where I’ve gone off track. Now you may be thinking well thats all very well and good for you, you’re in remission, well I have been an acute addmisson, I have attempted suicides and self mutilated, I’ve substance misused and had eating disorder symptoms, I was a complex case. My recovery was my choice, I was ready to change, and that moment comes at different times for different people. I certainly don’t think im better than anyone or worse, just different. Now while we are on the subject of remission. Here are some stats pinched from an Anthony Bateman lecture. RECURRENCE AND REMISSION After six years 75% of patients diagnosed with BPD severe enough to require hospitalisation, achieve remission by standardised diagnostic criteria. About 50% remission rate has occurred by four years but the remission is steady (10-15% per year). Recurrences are rare, perhaps no more than 10% over 6 years. Treatment has no (or only negative) relationship to outcome Anthony W Bateman (Glasgow 2006) From this we see that significant improvement in the symptoms of BPD and in the quality of life of the person, increases over the Years after therapy. YEY THERE’S HOPE PEOPLE! I also feel I should say through my own experience, some follow up may and probably will be required, there is no magic cure for BPD but if your work hard in therapy and stick with it, remissions happen. I am proof of that. Further reading and info. http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/j.2051-5545.2010.tb00255.x/full http://www.scottishpersonalitydisorder.org http://bjp.rcpsych.org/content/188/1/1.full