BPDFamily.com

BPDFamily.com

Founded	July 18, 1998
Founder	Randi Kreger
Location	Austin, TX 75231-4596
Area served	Multi-national (English speaking)
Product	On-line family support group
Members	75,000+
Key people	R. Skip Johnson MBA Executive Director John Cain MD Clinical Advisor
Volunteers	22
Mission	"Help members improve their quality of life"
Website	Official Website

BPDFamily.com is an on-line support group for the family members of individuals suffering from Borderline personality disorder. Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is a chronic, multi-symptomatic, and debilitating psychiatric condition.^[1] 5.9% of the population will have Borderline personality disorder at some point in their lifetime (lifetime prevalence).^[2]

Mission

The organization’s stated mission is to:

1. Preserve families by helping members repair marriages, reconnect mother and child relationships, and provide more constructive and accepting homes for children with Borderline personality disorder.

2. Promote the healing of failed relationships to include grieving, detaching, and developing the perspective necessary to reduce the trauma of custody battles, develop less resentful co-parenting relationships, and contain the costs of divorce.

3. Provide clinically reliable tools and educational material to help families with limited access to mental healthcare and to serve as an adjunct to Psychodynamic psychotherapy, Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), Dialectical behavioral therapy (DBT), and Schema therapy.^[3]

The National Health Service (England)^[4] currently refers their clientele and readers to BPDFamily.com as does the NAMI: National Alliance on Mental Illness,^[5] NEA-BPD: National Education Alliance for Borderline Personality Disorder,^[6] PDAN: Personality Disorders Awareness Network,^[7] About.com,^[8] Salon,^[9] BPDCentral,^[10] and Kaiser Permanente Health Information Resources.

History

The group originated on the BPDCentral.com website as an online, single-title book discussion group which was created shortly after the 1998 release^[11] of Stop Walking on Eggshells: Taking Your Life Back When Someone You Care About Has Borderline Personality Disorder (Paul Mason MS and Randi Kreger). Stop Walking on Eggshells has a half a million copies in circulation.^[12]

In 2007, R. Skip Johnson MBA acquired the 3,200 member database from the book authors and merged it with a content website named "Facing the Facts". Johnson then organized a clinical advisory panel to oversee the conversion of this new site to an independent, multi-national support group for families with limited access to mental health care. The site was certified as an "ethical and reliable health-care resource" by the Health On the Net Foundation (certificate # 764876) in July 2007.^[13] The name "BPDFamily.com" was adopted in August 2007^[14] and listed in the DMOZ directory in January 2008.^[15]

In its first year of operation (2007 - 2008) the new website received the endorsement of Jerold J. Kreisman MD (Mercy Hospital, St Louis), Kristalyn Salters-Pedneault PhD (Boston University School of Medicine), John Grohol PhysD (CEO of Psych Central), Randi Kreger (author of Stop Walking on Eggshells), and Kimberlee Roth (co-author of Surviving A Borderline Parent).^[16]

Membership grew from 3,200 in 2007 to 45,000 in 2010 and 70,000 by 2014 with members participating from 35 countries. BPDFamily.com is listed as one of the largest Internet forums in the world.

In July 2014, the website was reformatted for mobile phone and tablet computers.^[17]

Project funding comes from benefactors and member donations.^[3]

Services and programs

BPDFamily.com services and programs are used by therapists in their treatment plans and are recommended in Abnormal and Clinical Psychology: An Introductory Textbook,^[18] Resources to Improve Emotional Health and Strengthen Relationships,^[19] I Hate You--Don't Leave Me: Understanding the Borderline Personality,^[20] The Essential Family Guide to Borderline Personality Disorder,^[21] and Stop Walking on Eggshells.^[22]

Editorial

The site's editorial format includes clinical reviews, book reviews, perspective and point of view articles, and relationship tools in text, audio, and video formats. The clinical reviews, book reviews, perspective and point of view articles are written by staff writers and professional members. The relationship tools are derived from publications written by Shari Manning PhD, Alan Fruzzetti PhD, and the NEA-BPD Family Connections Program.^[3]

Support communities - on-line, interactive

BPDFamily.com has five primary support sub-communities:

Family Member	Description and scope of support
Teen or adult child	Members learn to coach a teen or adult child through intensive outpatient (IOP) or residential treatment (RTC) as well as learn relationship, family management, self care skills.
Mother or father	Members learn to detach from conflict, heal from abuse, correct personality defects acquired in childhood, reconnect with extended family, and find inner peace.
Spouse, girlfriend, or boyfriend	Members learn the psychology of borderline personality, relationship building tools and communication skills, gain self-awareness, and explore strategies for personal growth.
Brother or sister	Members learn tools for avoiding conflict, workshops for letting go of resentment and emotional pain, and are coached to radically accept the family as it is, and re-balance themselves.
Romantic relationship breakup	Members learn to detach and grieve, conduct relationship postmortems, process abandonment anxiety and betrayal trauma, divorce recovery, and conduct a personal inventory.

Cognitive behavior therapy program - on-line, interactive

The site has an interactive web program that teaches the basic principles of Cognitive behavior therapy^[23] which is commonly used to treat depression.^[24] Depression is common among family members. In a survey of 448 family members, using a self-administered questionnaire developed by David Burns MD (Stanford University), 56% self-identified as having mild to moderate depression and 21% self-identified as having severe to extreme depression.^[25]

The interactive Cognitive behavior therapy program, "MoodGym", was developed by the Centre for Mental Health Research at the Australian National University. It consists of five modules: an interactive game, anxiety and depression assessments, down-loadable relaxation audio file, a workbook and feedback assessment. The program takes one to two weeks to complete.^[23] Clinical studies have demonstrated that computerized-CBT can be an effective alternative treatment for mild and moderate depression.^[26][27]

Clinical research collaborations and support

The organization supports and has participated in clinical research studies conducted by the Columbia University, University of Toronto (Canada), University of Nevada, Wright Institute (California), Colorado School of Professional Psychology, Long Island University, Alliant International University (California), University of Wollongong (Australia), Macquarie University (Australia), and Simon Fraser University (Canada).^[28]

The site advocates for caregiver research. Few studies and little data are available that assess the impact on the caregiver who cares for a person with a personality disorder.^[29] Supporting a Person With Personality Disorder: A Study of Carer Burden and Well-Being, a published research study from the University of Wollongong, Australia, reports quantitative findings that suggest caregivers who support persons with personality disorders grieve their change in life and experience impairment in well-being. Caregivers of people with Borderline personality disorder are burdened more so than caregivers of persons with other serious mental illnesses. The study highlights the need for interventions to support caregivers.^[29]

Using the Internet to Assess Perceptions of Patients with Borderline Personality Disorder: What Do Patients Want in the DSM-V?, (Columbia University) another published study from university collaborations shows that a significant percentage of study participants felt that something was missing from the DSM -IV criteria. Many participants also felt that BPD should be renamed in the DSM-V; some combination of "emotion(al)" and "(dys)regulation" was most commonly suggested as an alternative name.^[30]

Member studies

BPDFamily.com conducts research surveys of its members.

Survey	Responses	Summary	Year
"How do BPD relationships finally end?"[31]	607	62% of the time, the person with BPD left or forced the partner to leave. 34% of the time, the person the partner left or forced the ending. 4% was mutual.	2005
"Are you co-dependent?"[32][lower-alpha 1]	200	59% exhibited 5 or more signs of co-dependency 50% of respondents exhibited all 6 signs of co-dependency.	2007
"Depression Self Testing"[34][lower-alpha 2]	448	77% exhibited signs of depression. 21% exhibited signs of severe to extreme depression.	2008
"Break-up/make-up cycles"[35]	550	47% of respondents from terminated romances had 6+ break-ups during the relationship. 26% of respondents had 10+ break-ups during the relationship.	2010
"What was the final straw that ended the relationship?"[36]	103	51% of respondents said cheating or flirting. 17% of respondents said a fight. 14% said life change or significant event.	2014
"Was your relationship ever physically abusive?"[37]	83	66% of respondents were hit by their romantic partner. 31% of respondents hit their romantic "BPD" partner. 22% had hitting (either direction) in prior relationships.[lower-alpha 3]	2015

On-line disinhibition effect

John Suler PhD at Rider University warns that disinhibition in an anonymous on-line support group (on-line disinhibition effect) can be both positive and negative.^[39]

Honesty and self-disclosure are important therapeutic ingredients. The disinhibition effect can accelerate these beneficial effects as members share very personal aspects of themselves, their problem, and their lives and reveal underlying emotions, fears, and wishes, as well as show high levels of kindness and generosity. However, disinhibition can also lead to rude language, harsh criticisms, anger, hatred, and even threats. For some people, self-disclosure and intimacy might develop too rapidly resulting in regret, anxiety, and a hasty termination of membership.^[39]

Openness and self-awareness are also important therapeutic ingredients. Disinhibition can accelerate understanding and self exploration necessary to work through problems and find better ways of relating to others. Conversely, disinhibition can lead to blind catharsis - an acting out of unsavory needs and wishes without any personal growth at all.^[39]

See also

References

Further reading