The Borderline Child - Parent Mind Inc.

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THE BORDERLINE CHILD

Borderline Personality Disorder has been one of the most under-recognized and misdiagnosed conditions in children. Borderline children have been frequently undiagnosed or misdiagnosed with other conditions.

If your child has been diagnosed with Bipolar Disorder, Oppositional Defiant Disorder, or Disruptive Mood Dysregulation Disorder they may have Borderline Personality Disorder.

Borderline Personality Disorder does not begin at age 18. Signs can sometimes be seen as early as toddlerhood.

A comprehensive dimensional approach to the complexities of The Borderline Child provides pathways to diagnosis and targeted treatment by assessing the child in terms of cognition, affect, impulsivity, interpersonal, and mindfulness dimensions. It is through these five dimensions that a viable therapeutic plan can be designed and implemented.

Creative parenting methods can help alter the course of the Borderline Child and ease the burden for parents and families.
Exciting mindfulness treatment strategies can help children with BPD gain control over their symptoms.

A new book for parents and professionals, The Borderline Child is a hopeful breath of fresh air and a superb encyclopedia for treatments that work.

Available on Amazon

Affective Dimension

Affect is the outward expression of emotion. Children with borderline traits have difficulty regulating their response to environmental stimulation, stress or frustration. They are slow to regain composure.

Cognitive Dimension

Cognition involves all aspects of conscious mental activities such as thinking, understanding, learning, and remembering. Deficits in activation, executive functioning, problem solving, and processing information can present tremendous challenges for the Borderline Child.

Mindfulness

Mindfulness is the thread that weaves together the multiple dimensions of the disorder and its treatment. It is conscious awareness, while calmly acknowledging and accepting one’s feelings, thoughts and bodily sensations. This dimension maximizes reflective thought and productive action.

Parenting and yes, loving this child is a challenge that goes above and beyond what we know, or have been taught. This task is heroic, Herculean. It is an exercise in adversity that will call upon all of your strength. This will cause you to question everything about yourself and your role as a
parent. This will take you to the depths, and ultimately perhaps to the height of your personal experience. Take heart: someone thought you were up for this job, because you got it. Hat’s off to you!

The Fifth Dimension

Cultivating mindfulness in your own life is the pathway to finding and harnessing your strength; it will be the wellspring of your survival. It is the art of making peace: peace with yourself, peace with this disorder, and literally “making peace” with your child. It is the path to “finding
your mind”, when you fear you have lost it. It is finding calm at the center of a hurricane. Strangely, this adversity may lead you to find more self-awareness, enlightenment and even peace than you ever imagined. Ultimately mindfulness practice will also be the pivot point that
allows your child to make peace with themselves in the face of this disorder, with you as their guide.

Impulsivity Dimension

Impulsivity is loosely defined as inability to regulate behavior in response to thoughts, emotions or desires. Reactive aggression, verbal outbursts, running away (escaping), and demanding of attention are frequent responses to stress and/or frustration engendered by dysfunction in any of the other four dimensions.

Interpersonal Dimension

This dimension entails the establishment of
personal identity, self-image, and relationships with other people. Dysfunction in any or all of the other dimensions may contribute to miscommunication, misinterpretations or false expectations of others, identity confusion, distorted or negative self-image.