Have you ever attended a DBT program? Once our new insurance kicks in I’m going to try to find one.

Barb, you have my utmost respect… - ECT: I can’t even -imagine- either what it’s like to go through it or what it’s like to face the possibility that it may be one of your
only choices.

In no particular order (order meh!!), the ‘labels’, diagnoses, whatever(!), that I have accepted as being personally accurate are BPD (and PTSD), TRD, schizotypal, the anxiety (ohGODtheanxiety!!), OCD (GRR! this NEVER helps ANYTHING!! :P), anxious (avoidant).

I had a frighteningly long response going to your comment, particularly about the ’shit-storm’ of a) having comorbiditIES (let alone ‘only’ one of any number of ‘obstacles (to the obstacles to the…)’of attaining mental ’sanity’— aaaand then I was a complete moron and accidentally closed the window (firefox tab, actually). Oh man did the rage COME… (I’m still trying to tell IT to ‘eff off’ :P)

My points basically are (do you have trouble ‘getting to the point’ sometimes too?? I am such a ‘bad’ one for that…!) thank you so much for sharing your thoughts and sruggles with me - I am always very humbled by how amazingly helpful it is to connect and reach out to others who have similar struggles. And depending on whatever (’messed-up’ or not!) mood you could be experiencing, it can be touch to do just that - reach out and ‘fuck the fear’, is what I call it ~cringe~ I hope I am not offending with my usage of language (particularly the ‘cussing’ bit) - it (unfortunately?) helps sometimes in trying to get (what I think is) my point across.

Regarding DBT - thank you for asking!(!) If you have access to it in your Windy City(?) (and insurance that will cover it, even better!!), then it’s something I would emphatically say “GO FOR IT!” to. For years I have been pouring over many of the ‘better’ books about it, and then I went so far as to get Linehan’s DVDs on it, which I have found more helpful than the reading (in my case) because of the visual/ALMOSTBUTNOTQUITE-one-on-one with the strategies and ‘coping skills’ learning.

I have no coverage for anything like DBT, and even if I did, the closest place to ‘get’ it would be another bigger city in Ontario which I won’t name because I’m not terribly fond of it (oooh! :P) OR within the prison system here in Canada, but I’d have to ‘let myself go’ fairly far (it seems/I really hop, anyway!) before ‘being able to’ warrant the programs within the prison system.

Anyway, at the moment, Marsha Linehan’s DVDs are what I’m trying now (well, WAS trying, and then this current ‘breakdown’ + my decision to leave a career of 6 years
and counting came along (oh yes, VERY related those two :P), and now I’m crawling/kicking my way back from that )) - ahhhh, bracket hell!! My apologies.

If you you’re interested and/or don’t already have them of course(!), the books and DVDs I’m talking about are available quite a few places. Here they are available / described here, direct [from the ‘original’ production/publishing/reseller company] in this pdf link:

http://behavioraltech.org/products/orderForm_international.pdf

The DVDs I have are the “From Chaos to Freedom™ Set” mentioned there (marked as US$234 - yikes, I forgot that I had spent around CDN$380 (AFTER shipping, from amazon.ca ) - these ones:

DVD02 Crisis Survival Skills, Part 1: Distracting and Self-Soothing

DVD03 Crisis Survival Skills, Part 2: Improving the Moment and Pros & Cons

DVD04 From Suffering to Freedom: Practicing Reality Acceptance

DVD05 This One Moment: Skills for Everyday Mindfulness

… and among the books, I have these:

GP03 Cognitive-Behavioral Treatment of Borderline Personality Disorder

GP04 Skills Training Manual for Treating Borderline Personality Disorder (workbook)

(hmm, it looks like they have other stuff that I might find useful.. I’ll have to check http://behavioraltech.org some more myself when I have the time…)

With the DVDs, the ‘Skills Training Manual…’ book/workbook was handy, but it’s not necessary to have it for the DVD ‘program’.

Any/all of these you may be able to find cheaper at amazon.com /.ca or somewhere local, though.

I wish you all the best, and thank you again, Barb. You have inspired many, many helpful thoughts/feelings for me to ‘play around’ with

Please hang in there!!

-Ank

Your loving CO™

Thank you for tracking down that “obscure bone”…!