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Drugs and Devices Sleep Disorder

5 January, 2009 at 8:20 pm

Medicine and devices to treat sleep disorders.
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Categories: sleeping disorder Comments (0)

How can I tell the difference between chronic depression and borderline personality disorder?

5 January, 2009 at 2:37 pm

I used to talk a lot to my school councelor about my eating, anxiety, and depression problems. She refered me to a group therepy, because my parents refused to do anything about it, even when my own family doctor had told them I may have been suffering from depression. The weirdest thing about it was that my mother actually attends therepy and has lots of mental problems of her own. I would think that she would be more sympathetic towards me. Anyway, I ended up quitting group therepy because it didn't help me at all, and here I am a year later, gradually getting worse because I'm receiving no treatment at all.

Recently, I was looking up the symptoms of borderline personality disorder out of curiosity because a character in a book that I was reading had it, and I was shocked to find out that I had almost every single one of these symptoms, and I was always under the impression that I was chronically depressed.

Here are all of the symptoms that apply to me:
constant unstable relationships and friendships, identity disturbance, impulsivity, recurrent suicidal thoughts, mood instibility, paranoia, constant depressive state, self harm including punching an cutting, anorexia, and excessive sleeping.

I'm only 14, so I don't exactly know what I'm supposed to do in this kind of situation. I guess I'm asking how to tell the difference between depression and borderline personality disorder. Are they one in the same? And how can I get help? Will I continue to get worse if I don't do anything about it?

Depression can cause all of the symptoms you describe. What's more, it takes a professional to diagnose a personality disorder like BPD so I wouldn't jump to conclusions if I were you - it'll only make you more depressed anyway.

I wanted to comment on your mom. I suspect your mom loves you very much. Sometimes though, when a person is dealing with a lot of emotional issues it can be difficult for them to focus on anything but themselves. For instance, if you've ever had a toothache you know how hard it is to think of anything but that constant throbbing pain. It's just always there no matter what you do and difficult if not impossible to concentrate on anything else. I'm not trying to make excuses for your mom, just suggesting a reason why she might have trouble understanding your feelings if it weren't for the fact that she's so preoccupied with her own.

That said, it seems to me that you are going to need to work a little harder at convincing your parents that you need help. Tell them how your depression is affecting you and be as specific as possible and tell them how long this has been going on. Despite your mom having her own difficulties, your parents need to take action on your behalf.

In the meantime there are a few things you can do to help alleviate feelings of sadness/depression you are experiencing. Firstly, try to find activities that take your mind off of yourself. Depressed people have a tendancy to turn inward overmuch and be overly focused on themselves and their problems. Doing so inevitably makes things worse. When you start feeling your mind going in a dead-end direction that will inevitably lead to a depressed mood, pick up a book, call a friend, go out for a walk, engage in a hobbie if you have one (and if you don't, find one). The bottom line - do not worry and think of negative things so much. You've heard of the saying 'There's nothing to fear but fear itself'? Well, it's the same thing with depression since depression is kind of habit of worrying; therefore, one could say 'There's nothing to worry about but worrying itself.' You're much too young to be worrying needlessly about things like borderline personality disorder and the like.

And last but not least, pray. God is willing to take your burdens - all you have to do is hand them to him and trust that he will take care of you. Prayer and meditation are very powerful weapons against despair since you're tapping into the ultimate source of love and healing.

All the best to you.

Categories: sleeping disorder Comments (6)

Child night terror support groups?

5 January, 2009 at 2:36 pm

My daughter suffers from night terrors. (Note these are not the same as nightmares) She has had them since she was about 8 months old and she just turned 2. We just did another sleep clinic and I was wondering if anyone knows of any online support groups for parents of children with sleep disorders. I looked but cant seem to find any…
A nightmare is something you can wake up from and even remeber it happens with active immages in REM sleep. When a someone has a night terror they can not be woken up or comforted, they scream and kick and sleep walk, it can go on from a few minutes to a few hours. The person will then stop, be in a deep sleep and then will wake up and have no idea it even happened. If anyone knows how to go about starting a group that might help me out too!

My four kids all had night terrors at some point or another, some more persistently than others. I don't know of a support group, but I'd recommend asking at the sleep clinic, or possibly at your pediatrician's office, if you don't get a good answer here.

You've probably tried this already, especially since you mentioned the sleep clinic, but most doctors recommend for persistent night terrors waking the child up slightly before they would ordinarily have the night terror because sometimes if you do that for a few nights in a row that breaks the cycle.

Categories: sleeping disorder Comments (3)