Sometimes I Act Crazy: Living with Borderline Personality Disorder

“Used like new” doesn’t mean yellowing pages and paragraphs highlighted or scribbled with pen, classified ad bookmarks. Book was tossed. I felt as if I needed PPE to touch it. Very disappointed. But I will not ask for a refund, I will just be more careful next time or by new.

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 Egg

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.

I've read more academic books (and think those are important, too. For that, I recommend "Demystifying Borderline Personality Disorder"), but this one was accessible and engaging, and had useful and practical advice for people with the illness and those around them. Because of that, the book gives the reader a sense of hope. In this field, that can be rare. There is some sexual content, and I can understand why some people would find that offensive. I personally didn't. Any misgivings I have about the book are offset by my enthusiasm about its readability and its usefulness to the people for whom it is written: borderlines and their families.

The reader gets to experience the patient's stories just like a psychologist would, with patient stories in bite-sized portions. The explanations are unusually good. The index at the back of the book is more thorough than the first book; I looked to see if Woody Allen's movie "Zelig" was listed in this index, since it was mentioned in both books, and there it was! The book was reader friendly. It was also thoughtfully written, so that a person with a short attention span and unlikely to read the whole text would be able to get the important message that there is a "cure." I was surprized at the sexuality in some of the stories, but I was grateful for these examples because they were necessary to understand the thinking of the BPD patients. The authors presented astonishing evidence of successful treatment methods. The book mentioned many of the illnesses that are similar to BPD and what exactly the defining symptoms were. What BPD was, how to identify it, and how to respond when a person with this disease exhibits its symptoms, is the focus of the book - A new hope for a future without BPD! It may take ten years, but for the ones suffering, it is something - Satisfying to read.

For months, my wife was searching frantically for a book that explains what BPD is and what the treatment options are. She found exactly what she was looking for in Sometimes I Act Crazy. She actually bought a few other books first, but they were just too dry. What sets this one apart is that it contains accounts of real people that let you experience what it's like to have BPD. She was able to identify with these people, and it helped her so much to know that she's not alone. The book also explains the causes and the reasons for the various symptoms, so you can really understand what's behind them. Once she got started, she couldn't put it down, and then made it required reading for me. I also identified with people in the case studies, the husbands and wives, and friends, moms, and dads, of borderlines, who are also suffering. I know now that I'm not alone and this has made it easier for me. Most important, the book gives valuable practical advice on how to cope with this excruciating mental illness and how to go about seeking help step-by-step. We probably saved ten times the cost of the book just by reading the chapter on what to look for in a therapist! We had no idea this kind of help is available.