Borderline Personalitiy Disorder (BPD)

Some people have never even heard of borderline personality disorder (BPD). If they have, it’s from movies like Girl, Interrupted (1999) or Welcome to Me (2014). In movies, people with BPD are portrayed as the ‘manic pixie dream girl’ such as Clementine in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004) or Sam in Garden State (2004). But BPD isn’t cute or quirky—it can feel like chaos, like your brain is on fire.

Living with borderline personality disorder doesn’t have to mean a life doomed to chaos and pain. With medication and therapy and a lot of personal work, it can mean a steady job and relationship and whatever you want your life to be. It can be hard to find providers who are trained and qualified in treating BPD, but they are out there and they can help! 

Treatment

Dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) was developed by Marsha Linehan, a psychologist who struggled with borderline personality disorder herself. Research has shown it to be effective in treating BPD as well as other mental health conditions like bipolar disorder, substance use disorders, and PTSD (Linehan Institute, 2026). The goal of DBT is to build a life worth living. This is done through improving four skill areas: mindfulness, distress tolerance, interpersonal effectiveness, and emotion regulation. A fully ‘adherent’ DBT program will include a weekly skills group and individual therapy. It may be a part of an inpatient program or an intensive outpatient program (Linehan, 1993). 

In an outpatient setting, DBT may be offered as skills group to maintain the DBT skills learned in a previous treatment program. It is similar to an aftercare group in that the purpose is to maintain the skills you have learned and to prevent returning to treatment. DBT can also be incorporated into individual therapy by the therapist reinforcing or teaching skills as they are relevant to what is being addressed. For example, if a client is working on their childhood trauma but is frequently triggered, they may be practicing distress tolerance skills to reduce symptoms like panic attacks or dissociation.

Brittany Perrine specializes in DBT and Borderline Personality Disorder. Feel free to reach out directly if you have questions or would like to work with Brittany! 

Citations

Linehan Institute. https://www.linehaninstitute.org/what-is-dbt-skills

Linehan, M. M. (1993). Cognitive-behavioral treatment of borderline personality disorder. Guilford Press.