Become a member of Allies in Recovery and we’ll teach you how to intervene, communicate and guide your loved one toward treatment.Become a member of Allies in Recovery today.

Borderline Personality Disorder: A Family Takes Its Caring to the Next Level

rredick August 22, 2023
Photo credit: scientificanimation

Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) affects nearly 6% of Americans at some point in their lives, but research, treatment, and support for the condition lags far behind other serious mental illnesses. Paula Tusiani-Eng and her parents know first-hand what it’s like to live with, and eventually lose, a loved one suffering from BPD. Their story is remarkable not just because of those challenges, but because of what they decided to do next.

Paula Tusiani-Eng lost her sister Pamela in 2001—but not, as you might expect from the subject of this post, to BPD. Pamela did suffer from Borderline Personality Disorder, but her death was caused by medical malpractice: she was administered a mistaken drug, which caused a rare and fatal kind of stroke.

While such malpractice is an extreme event, the lack of appropriate care for BDP remains alarmingly common. This is in part because the condition itself is poorly studied and often misdiagnosed. Pamela experienced multiple hospitalizations and reached the point of self-harm before receiving her diagnosis; her family had to struggle greatly even to learn what the condition was.

[Let’s pause here and address that. To quote the National Education Alliance for Borderline Personality Disorder: “BPD is a serious mental illness that centers on the inability to manage emotions effectively. The disorder occurs in the context of relationships: sometimes all relationships are affected, sometimes only one. It usually begins during adolescence or early adulthood.”]

BPD was only officially codified as a medical condition in 1980. Treatments began to emerge in the 1990s, but were not widely available until quite recently. Many insurance plans still deny coverage for the disorder.

While this interview is striking for its account of what Pamela and her family experienced, it’s even more so for the account of the advocacy and organizing they’ve taken on since. That effort culminated in two great projects: a memoir, Remnants of a Life on Paper, partly composed of Pamela’s journals and her parents’ exhaustive notes and records; and Emotions Matter, a nonprofit organization dedicated to supporting, educating, and advocating for people living with BPD. It’s a long but deeply inspiring conversation with a family that did not let grief and loss stop them. “Trust yourself, don’t give up on yourself, and look for a purpose,” Paula asks of PBD sufferers. She and her parents have taken this advice to heart.

Tagged: , , , , , ,
Loading
rredick

Related Posts from "What's News"

Fentanyl Deaths In Communities of Color: A Crisis “Decades In the Making”

A new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reveals the unequal effects of the opioid crisis on Black, Native American, Hispanic, and white populations in the United States. Fentanyl deaths in particular have skyrocketed for all groups—but far more so in Black communities. Understanding the lasting effects of discrimination is essential, both for grasping the problem and seeking solutions.

rredick September 5, 2023

Debunked in 3 ½ Minutes: Harmful Myths About Family and Recovery

It can’t be said too often: substance use disorder is a disease. Yet unlike nearly all other diseases, it’s still often treated as a moral failure, or even a lifestyle choice. This short video illustrates this double standard in the starkest terms. It reminds us that showing care, commitment, and understanding to a Loved One with SUD is not just natural, but also the foundation for helping them at all.

Allies in Recovery April 12, 2023
0 Comments

Mental Health: Just How Much Have We Got Wrong?

Everyone knows that great ideas can spread. But bad ones can also “hang around so long that you can forget you have the option of questioning them.” In this arresting Ted Talk, the entrepreneur and mental health leader Khaliya takes on some ideas that certainly merit questioning, and make a passionate case for trying to “remove our mental health blinders.”

rredick February 1, 2023
0 Comments

Material Rewards Can Make Recovery Fun — and Lead To Dramatically Better Outcomes

The research is clear: tangible rewards can greatly improve recovery efforts. Such programs are at last being given a chance. It’s called contingency management: the use of modest but far from trivial rewards for progress toward recovery. And for many suffering from SUD, it works. Now, after decades of resistance in the U.S., the approach is being adopted in states and cities across the country.

rredick October 26, 2022
0 Comments

The Meaning of Recovery: Five People Share Their Stories

As Allies members know quite well, substance use disorder often throws not just the user, but the entire family unit into turmoil. The documentary “Our American Family” takes an intimate look at one such family in Philadelphia, diving deep into intergenerational addiction and recovery. This review from Psychology Today reflects on the film and the troubled but resilient family it follows. 

rredick October 3, 2022
0 Comments