Posted by gardenergirl on February 3, 2004, at 7:24:33
In reply to Re: How to tell someone about diagnosis » gardenergirl, posted by Elle2021 on February 3, 2004, at 6:31:44
Okay, I think I get the message about how painful hearing this diagnosis is. And I actually tend to agree that giving a dx is not always necessary for treatment, especially at my current placement. We do not have to worry about insurance needs, thank God.
If I am understanding you all correctly, I need to be quite gentle and empathic regardless of whether I give the "label" or not. And focus on the symptoms and use DBT (at least as much of it as I can do in my setting) to target the symptoms. If I do end up having to diagnose her, then utilize Linehan's explanations and perhaps wait until she asks or until more sessions have gone by.
I hope I am hearing (reading) y'all correctly. I'm sure that I would react just as strongly as others if I were given the dx. It DOES have such an awful stigma, which infuriates me. I am currently working with three who meet the DSM criteria who are as different as night and day (and night again, I guess ;) I think of BPD as a continuum from mild to severe. Not everyone with the traits or even the dx is the "typical" BPD. Arrggg! I feel myself getting on a soapbox which seems to already have enough advocates, so I'll defer to those who know best right now.
But thank you all for your input. It really helps in understanding what this must be like to hear and to experience. I'm so lucky to have such a great resource in y'all!
(((everyone))) Is that a group hug?Thanks again,
gg
poster:gardenergirl
thread:308679
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/psycho/20040131/msgs/308792.html