Revealing Your History to a New Therapist

Stigma remains alive and well when it comes to borderline personality disorder, even within the healthcare community:

“A study assessing mental health staff attitudes towards consumers with BPD found that over 80% of staff viewed this population as difficult to work with, and indeed, more difficult to treat than consumers with other mental illnesses.”

In a recent post I described feeling as though I was experiencing high-functioning depression and feeling overwhelmed. I contacted a new provider and we set up a phone consultation. I described my current situation, and she was empathetic. She asked me if I’d had therapy before, and I believe in being transparent, so I told her about my history of anorexia and BPD, but I assured her they were both under control and those were not the reasons I was seeking treatment now. I emphasized that the reason I was seeking treatment was to avoid my depression becoming worse and to not feel so overwhelmed.

She told me she had no experience with eating disorders or DBT — and I repeated that my eating disorder and BPD were in remission. We got into a discussion about my inability to set clear boundaries with some people in my life. She said she thought what I needed was a refresher of my DBT skills. She wasn’t going to work with me.

After she hung up, it took a couple of minutes to sink in: She wasn’t going to work with me. And then the possibilities of why began…