Product Description

Although relatively common, Borderline Personality Disorder, or BPD, is often overlooked or misdiagnosed by therapists and clinicians and denied by those who suffer from it.

Symptoms of this tragic problem include unpredictability, violence and uncontrollable anger, deep depression and self-abuse. Parents with BPD are often unable to provide for the basic physical and emotional needs of their children. In an ironic and painful role reversal, BPD parents can actually raise children to be their caretakers. They may burden even very young children with adult responsibilities. They tend to demand unreasonable levels of emotional and material support from those least able to provide it. Plagued by irrational fears and anxieties, BPD parents often transfer feelings of self-hatred onto their children. salting the wounds inflicted by their insatiable need with constant denigration and abuse.

If you were raised by a BPD parent, your childhood was a volatile and painful time. This book, the first written specifically for children of borderline parents, offers step-by-step guidance to understanding and overcoming the lasting effects of being raised by a person suffering from this disorder. Learn what psychological criteria are necessary for a BPD diagnosis and identify the specific characteristics your parent presents. Discover specific coping strategies for dealing with issues common to children of borderline parents: low self-esteem, lack of trust, guilt, and hypersensitivity. Make the major decision whether to confront your parent about his or her condition.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #5598 in Books
• Published on: 2003-11
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 200 pages

From the Publisher
This is the first step by step guide for adult children of parents with Borderline Personality Disorder. It teaches them how to overcome the devastating effects of growing up with a parent who suffers from BPD. Foreword is by Randi Kreger, coauthor of "Stop Walking on Eggshells" and "The Stop Walking on Eggshells Workbook."

About the Author
Kimberlee Roth is a health writer and journalist. She has written about Borderline Personality Disorder and topics related to physical and emotional well being for numerous newspapers and magazines, including the Chicago Tribune.

Freda Friedman, Ph.D., LCSW, is in private practice and a member of the Phoenix Institute in Chicago, Illinois. For the past twenty years, her primary clinical focus has been with Borderline Personality Disorder, providing treatment, education, support and consultation to people suffering from the disorder, their families and health care professionals working with them. She is on the board of several professional health care organizations and has developed BPD programs in New York and Chicago.

Customer Reviews

Excellent source for personal insight and counseling therapists
At last, a voice and a reasoning to make sense of the chaos, drama, physical, emotional violence of my parents and my own inner dialogue as an adult from this toxic environment. If you are willing to do the work and wish not to repeat the family dynamics, this is the book to guide you.
One of the best resources written on this subject; gets to the heart of the issues from all aspects and provides a mental and emotional reprieve from the pain.

The title of the book is very descriptive of the text
For those who have suffered for years and not found help because not much was known and the illness had no name until the last 25-30 years, this is a very practical handbook.

Very Helpful
I actually HAVE Borderline Personality Disorder and ran across this book in searching for others to help me learn more about the disorder. I have 2 young boys and am determined not to let my problems become a part of who they are and damage them but I couldn't find a book that dealt with how to be a good mother in spite of BPD so I read this book to see what children who were raised with a borderline parent had to go through so that I could avoid those pitfalls. Thankfully I was able to correct some behaviors I didn't even know I was doing, before I harmed my babies emotionally. Maybe the authors of this book would consider writing a book for those of us trying to do better while being a parent, maybe "How to Parent, when you have BPD" or something like that? Anyway also I wanted to add that my mother who has a mother with Bipolar also found this book VERY helpful.