Sometimes I Act Crazy: Living with Borderline Personality Disorder Paperback – April 14, 2006

I am so serious this book is saving my life. I have never read a self help book that understood me the way this book is. I have been struggling with my mental health for as long as I can remember. I have struggled all threw my teen and 20’s and now that I’m 30 and I looked back on those years and they made me sad because no matter how far I went in life or accomplishments I achieved I wasn’t happy. I never thought I was good enough or was doing enough. I over did everything because I was empty. I struggled to keep friends, I made terrible dating choices i married a man I didn’t even know. I was constantly making these goals for myself and then getting what I wanted or close to it and throwing it away. I was in and out of therapy for so long and they kept telling the same thing but nothing stuck nothing they were saying gave me the light bulb I needed. I tried two different antidepressants, they tried giving me hormones but nothing was working. I spent months at a time in complete isolation I only went to work because it just got to hard to work so hard to regulate my emotions. I couldn’t date because I couldn’t relax and I couldn’t deal with the rejection and the disappointments. I was very clingy I couldn’t understand why I felt like I was going crazy when I liked somebody. I was lonely and I was ready to give up because I didn’t feel like anybody would ever understand me. I was so ashamed I was sad because I have a good life. And then I was on Amazon a few weeks ago looking for another self help book to add to my collection and this book popped up. I didn’t really know anything about bpd i didn’t know anybody who talked about this. No therapist I went to ever mentioned it. But just the preview made me feel something. This book did understand me it spoke to me at least 2 twice every chapter I would have to take breaks because I would be so emotional because I saw myself in every chapter every example. I cried because this book understood me I thought this was just who I was. I thought I had a very good childhood but I was forced to have to really think about how I was raised might have hurt me a little. I had to see that I did make some bad choices and I did bring some of my pain on myself but I can change. I don’t have to hate myself because I’m not bad I’m not wrong for being who I am. This book does really help with a new way of thinking it gives you tips and example. It’s not judgey it doesn’t make you feel bad or crazy. This book knows your hurting but you can get better. I found a therapist who does really believe in this disorder he listened to me and he believes me. I know that I still have a way to go but this book gave me hope when I didn’t have any left. This book has really brightened my life hope is so powerful. I wish I could tell everybody who felt like me you can have hope too.

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.