BPD is treatable and resolvable Amanda Robins

I’ve seen progress in someone I know well, and I’ve heard accounts from others who have witnessed resolution in their loved ones.

I’m convinced that you are correct that BPD-behaviors are a maladaptive response to chronic trauma in vulnerable childhood periods. They are the same behaviors that kept the child alive during the traumatic period, which is why they are so deeply engrained. In adulthood, the old childhood solutions can become new adult problems.

The book Get Me Out of Here by Rachel Reiland is an autobiographical account of resolving BPD.

Two other books may be helpful to your readers: 1) Bessel van der Kolk’s The Body Keeps the Score, and 2) Peter Levine’s Unspoken Voice.

What they have in common is an embodied approach to therapy and recovery. The point out that one of the limitations of cognitive therapies is the lack of attention to embodied vessels of trauma, and they provide access to alternative modalities that may decouple the negative emotions from the memory of the trauma.

Lastly, Pete Walker’s Complex PTSD makes an important distinction between acute (e.g., car crash) and chronic trauma. The latter may result in “complex" PTSD, and may have a stronger association with BPD behaviors.