Customer Reviews
Great insight for yourself or someone you love 
2007-05-23
I ordered this book to see if I found that the descriptions here suited me better than bipolar disorder. The stories could be my own life read back to me. I was happy to find the insights that this book provides for those of us who struggle with BPD and those of us who are dealing with someone with BPD. Great book. Highly recommended
my thoughts in brief 
2007-03-22
I've done plenty of DPB reading, and this is useful in some ways. It is pretty comprehensive. This book tries to offer information to soothe the borderline and those in contact with him/her. As a borderline, I felt even guiltier than usual reading about the negative effects of my illness on my loved ones, which was unnesessary. Not good. On the other hand, it is one of the few BPD books I've found on the subject that briefly outlines other, often concurrent, illnesses, which was helpful. If you're a dedicated student of the illness and feel the need to read everything available on the topic, read the whole thing. If you've done your research already, you'll find it somewhat redundant. If you're new to it, you can get everything you need without the clinically technical chapters.
Right on the BDP! 2007-03-16
Well written. I had no idea the extent of this personality disorder and how to handle living around them. The author's use of examples provides a more hands on approach and ability for the reader to relate. Easy reading is always best when trying to understand a very difficult, complex and yet simple personality and the author did an excellent job articulating in a lay persons terms.
Thank you and keep on writing.
unprofessional in my opinion 
2007-01-06
the author in my opinion has never clinically interviewed, met, or examined Princess Diana while she was alive. To use her life episodes as though he is qualified to diagnose a person he has never met, is unprofessional and salacious in the extreme. As I understand it, it is not considered ethical in the helping professions to diagnose people one has not examined personally and at depth. I would recommend Walking on Eggshells, The Borderline Mother, and other serious books on borderline personality disorder that do not play fast and loose, but give real case studies that the author has absolute firsthand knowledge about.
BPD is too paintful a fact and too serious a subject to spend time reading a book that misappropriates the life of a dead woman who cannot answer the author's charges about her psychological states. If you live with a person who suffers from BPD or think you might suffer from BPD yourself, read a book that teaches coping skills and gives real cases in all their variations, and see a good shrink in person too.
One of the best introductions to this disorder and how it is treated 2006-08-28
This is one of the best introductions to borderline personality that I know of. It is thorough and does a great job of explaining how the disease works in layman's terms. It also illustrates all the important aspects with excellent short examples.
This book is well written and is an enjoyable read. It is compassionate, but doesn't gloss over the facts. It also develops the topic in a logical manner and is easy to read over multiple sessions without having to do a lot of reviewing.
The sections on therapeutic approaches are very good and there is some excellent advice on finding a good therapist. While it lacks the detail on brain chemistry and research that is present in Borderline Personality Disorder Demystified, it makes up for in its readability and straightforward approach.
This is a good book for therapists, people from this affliction and also people dealing with family members or friends with this disorder. I highly recommend this volume as a first introduction to Borderline Personality Disorder.
Found "Action Steps" Very Helpful 2008-07-25
In reading about mental health issues, so many times one can read a book about the problem and ongoing research and still be left with a sense that nothing concrete can be done now. After reading several books on borderline personality disorder (BPD), what I liked in particular about this book is that it provides a list of "ACTION STEPS" at the end of each chapter. This has greatly helped in giving me some specific ideas that I can apply towards helping my adolescent who has several BPD traits. Many of the book's suggestions have already influenced how I approach the situation on a day-to-day basis as well plan for the future in terms of choosing the best kind of school and other activities for my child. For example, the book recommends steps on managing impulsiveness. While I have been told my child is impulsive, this book gave me specific ideas on how this condition can be better managed by "keeping good company," using healthy distractions to divert onself from destructive activities, and staying engaged in healthy activities. It also mentions spiritual exercises like contemplating forces outside oneself and 12 step groups to help combat the feeling of emptiness.
It also provided me with a number of very helpful insights in terms of how BPD can co-exist with other illnesses such as bipolar disorder. The authors discuss how "...BPD can be veiled by other diagnoses. It can hide behind labels such as depression, bipolar disease, and impulse disorder."
Best of all, this book gave me hope that "borderlines can get better" as three therapists (all seemingly well-educated and informed) have cautioned me on how BPD can be a devastating diagnosis and how terrible it is. It appears that though this condition is still greatly stigmatized in the mental health professionals and by insurance providers. Maybe good books like this can help to raise awareness of this mental illness so that more individuals can get the help they need.
It is my desire, that by successfully applying now what I am learning from this book and other sources, that I can avert a case of full-blown BPD in adulthood and instead pave the way for my child to become a happy productive adult.
If I were to rate a book by how many times I underlined important ideas and passages, this book would be "off the charts" in terms of the number of stars! It has provided me with a great number of "aha," now I understand, moments. And this is saying a lot as it has taken me YEARS and several diagnoses to try figure out why my child was behaving this way. Unfortunately there is no definitive "catscan" or blood test for mental illness and one often has to play Sherlock Holmes to put the pieces together. This book has not only helped me to figure out this puzzle, but given me some suggested coping techniques and best of all...hope for the future.
Other books that have helped me include "Borderline Personality Disorder Demystified" by Robert Freidel and "The Stop Walking on Eggshells Workbook" by Randi Kreger and James Paul Shirley.
All I can say is thank you...again! 2008-07-23
I read "I hate you don't leave me, understanding BPD!" and I was amazed at how all of a sudden my life changed. I had been struggling with what I thought was depression a long time. That book made me realize why SSRI's (type of drug) didn't help me and then this book came along, by the same fantastic writer and once again has confirmed my long time issue with BPD and has helped to start on a new path to a better thought process, I struggle with BPD, but it doesn't mean I have to let it rule me. This is a good book for someone who wants to understand themselves and an excellent book for someone who loves someone with BPD.
Good book 2008-07-12
I bought this book out of curiosity. After reading the book, I feel I have a good although not complete understanding of BPD.
If you are a friend of, or a sibling/parent of someone with BPD, or if you have BPD, then this book is good for the tips contained at the end of the chapters.
this one's better than Hate You 
2008-06-07
I liked this book better than I Hate You--Don't Leave Me because it offers more case studies. The authors don't get on a soapbox about the negative aspects of modern life that may bring about more folks dealing with BPD.
From a Borderline to the world 2008-01-02
I absolutely loved this book. It was something I read about halfway into my transformation. I read reviews and my mom read a bunch of books, but some were too technical and BORING for me to get into and in true borderline style I quit reading with out even getting halfway through them; but this one kept me interested. And now after more then a year of what will be life long treatment I am happy to report I have not been suicidal in over a year, I have not wanted to hurt myself in over a year and I have been in a stable marriage for over a year. (Can you guess my transformation started over a year ago :D )
This book really showed me that there was hope for people like me, and that I needed to keep working hard and that it would get easier and it has gotten easier to cope, easier to live my life. But most importantly it showed me that even if these "people" weren't real people someone out there had enough knowledge of what goes on inside my head to write a book about it, and that is truely helpful.
