On February 28th, 2007 at (1:18 am),

You Asked:

Have you ever attended a DBT program?

On February 28th, 2007 (5:49 pm),

I answered, in so (so!) many words :

[. . .]

In no particular order (order meh!!), the ‘labels’, diagnoses, whatever(!), that I have accepted as being personally fairly accurate in terms of pathology and etiology are BPD (+ PTSD), TRD, schizotypal, the anxiety (ohGODtheanxiety!!), OCD (GRR! this rarely helps -anything-!! ), 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…’ 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 tough 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 city (and insurance that will cover it - even better!), then it’s something I would emphatically answer “GO FOR IT!” if questioned. For years I have been poring over many of the better (and crap!) 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 learning/application of the ‘coping skills’.

I have no coverage for anything like DBT, and even if I did, the closest place to get it would be another larger city in Ontario which I won’t name because I’m not terribly fond of it, or the thought of ever having to live there for an extended period of time (oooh! stubbornness may kill me yet! ) OR within the prison system here in Canada, but I’d have to ‘let myself go’ fairly far before warranting 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 ), 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 HERE.

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 - this seems a -bit- less costly, but not much unfortunately. WELL WORTH IT, though, if you can get your hands in it/them) - 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 listed there, I have these in my collection:

GP03
Cognitive-Behavioral Treatment of Borderline Personality Disorder

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

At a quick glance, it looks like they have other stuff that I might find useful / haven’t heard of! I’ll have to check back myself when I have the time…

With the DVDs, the ‘Skills Training Manual…’ book/workbook was handy, but it’s not necessary 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, Reader. You have inspired many, many helpful thoughts, feelings and ideas for me to ‘play around’ with