Borderline Personality Disorder & Bipolar Disorder

I have been diagnosed with borderline personality disorder and bipolar disorder for a year.

I began accepting these conditions as a part of me and have lived with them, but with time I am increasingly worried and feeling that I am letting these conditions get the best of me. I live in Texas. Does anyone have any advice or info on support groups, group therapy, and free or cheap counseling or therapy?

Any advice would help.

Thank you in advance.

I have the same Dx as you.

Borderline Personality Disorder is notoriously hard to treat. Anti-depressants and mood disorder drugs have unpredictable results in someone with BPD. And one-to-one therapy often exacerbates symptoms of depression and OCD b/c of the social dysfunction (attachment disorder) that's inherant with BPD. That's been very true for me. I need to avoid "talk" therapy b/c it's brought me to severe suicidality in the past. Not that it would for you, just that it's a common problem for BPD patients.

The most effective help proven for BPD has been Dialectical Behavior Therapy. This focus' on the "here and now" of the disorder- on the nuts and bolts of why it makes a person act the way they do. So it teaches you to recognize your symptoms, integrate the rational and emotional minds, so that you can manage your reactions and behaviors with a "wise mind." I've found it to be VERY useful. People with BPD must use a special thought process to get through various situations in life successfully. The skills we've learned in life don't work for us. So we need to re-learn new coping skills- to learn how to break things down to small, manageable chunks.

I attend a once weekly DBT group class and once weekly individual DBT. You might want to do a web search on the topic of DBT. Classes are pretty much everywhere. I live in a very remote rural area and still found a class within half an hour of me. I highly recommend it. I have to pay for DBT class and therapy out of pocket, but like Serarena mentioned, I'm on a sliding scale b/c of my low income. So I pay $42 per class and $25 per individual session. Still, it's vetry expensive for me- but it's important. And I realize I require the support and skills. How much is my mental health worth? Certainly at least $70 bucks a week. Even if I have to give up other things to afford it.

Good luck to you.