The SelfWork Podcast

I wouldn’t wish borderline personality disorder on anyone – it’s a truly difficult and chaotic way to live life. Yet it’s just as difficult to be in relationship with someone who lives their life on an emotional roller coaster. Today we’re going to focus on how you can set boundaries with folks who have borderline traits (I’ll also go over the traits themselves). We’ll focus specifically on having a parent with borderline PD – but these suggestions could also help if your friend or cousin or sibling suffers from the disorder. I’m pulling from some extremely well-written articles as well as my own experience with patients – and those links you’ll be able to find in the show notes..

The listener voicemail is tough to listen to and involves murder – so please realize this may be a trigger for you. It’s from a woman who’s deeply grieving her daughter’s actions as well as the deaths of grandchildren - and blames herself – or feels guilt – for not knowing how to help. I’ll do my best to answer...

Vital Links:

Click Here for the fabulous offer from Athletic Greens - now AG1 - with bonus pr oduct with your subscription!

Have you been putting off getting help in 2023? BetterHelp, the #1 online therapy provider, has a special offer for you now!

Mayo Clinic’s list of signs and symptoms

Psychology Today article, Matthew Hutson

Article by Megan Glosson from The Mighty

Books on Borderline Personality Disorder: Understanding the Borderline Mother , Stop Walking on Eggshells, and I Hate You Don't Leave Me.

You can hear more about this and many other topics by listening to my podcast, SelfWork with Dr. Margaret Rutherford. Subscribe to my website and receive my weekly newsletter including a blog post and podcast! If you’d like to join my FaceBook closed group, then click here and answer the membership questions! Welcome!

My book entitled Perfectly Hidden Depression is available here! Its message is specifically for those with a struggle with strong perfectionism which acts to mask underlying emotional pain. But the many self-help techniques described can be used by everyone who chooses to begin to address emotions long hidden away that are clouding and sabotaging your current life. And it's available in paperback, eBook or as an audiobook!

And there's another way to send me a message! You can record by clicking below and ask your question or make a comment. You’ll have 90 seconds to do so and that time goes quickly. By recording, you’re giving SelfWork (and me) permission to use your voice on the podcast. I’ll look forward to hearing from you!

Episode Transcript

This is SelfWork. And I'm Dr. Margaret Rutherford. At SelfWork. We'll discuss psychological and emotional issues common in today's world and what to do about them. I'm Dr. Margaret and SelfWork is a podcast dedicated to you taking just a few minutes today for your own selfwork.

Hello and welcome or welcome back to SelfWork. I'm Dr. Margaret Rutherford. I'm a clinical psychologist and I started SelfWork almost seven years ago in order to extend the walls of ...

Imagine my surprise when I heard of a great book I wanted to feature on SelfWork - and then discovered its author lived in my own hometown of Fayetteville, Arkansas! That book is You Are What You Click and its author is Dr. Brian Primack. He holds a master’s in education from Harvard (with a focus on adolescent development, psychology, and education), an M.D. from Emory, and finally a Ph.D. in Behavioral Science from the University of Pittsburgh. Those credentials might seem to be enough, but he's also an internationally acclaimed expert on the relationship between media, technology, and health.

It turns out for example that Dr. Primack's most recent research has found that there is a direct link between the amount of time you spend on social media and your level of depression. And we're lucky enough to have him right here at the University of Arkansas, as he's now Dean of the College of Education and Health Professions. So I present him and his work to you today. On top of all that, he's light-hearted and engaging to listen to, as you can hear the passion for what his research is uncovering and how we all can govern how social media is affecting us - not the other way around.

So, in this episode of SelfWork, sponsored by Athletic Greens or AG1, you can learn what social media's influence is on you and your mental health.

Important Links!

Here's the link once again to my new interactive podcast on Fireside Chat! Click here!

Click Here for the fabulous offer from Athletic Greens - now AG1 - with bonus pr oduct with your subscription!

You can hear more of many other topics by listening to my podcast, SelfWork with Dr. Margaret Rutherford. Subscribe to my website and receive one weekly newsletter including my weekly blog post and podcast! If you’d like to join my FaceBook closed group, then clickhere and answer the membership questions! Welcome!

My book entitled Perfectly Hidden Depression is available and you can order here! Its message is specifically for those with a struggle with strong perfectionism which acts to mask underlying emotional pain. But the many self-help techniques described can be used by everyone who chooses to begin to address emotions long hidden away that are clouding and sabotaging your current life.

And here's another way to send me a message! You can record by clicking below and ask your question or make a comment. You’ll have 90 seconds to do so and that time goes quickly. By recording, you’re giving SelfWork (and me) permission to use your voice on the podcast. I’ll look forward to hearing from you!

In today’s episode, sponsored by Athletic Greens, I want to talk about borderline personality disorder, but in a different way than I have before on SelfWork. I’ve mostly written about what it’s like to try to love someone with a serious personality disorder, like narcissism or borderline personality disorders. But today, I want to talk about what it’s like to have borderline traits – and the fears and struggles that come with it. I"ll use two women's stories from my own practice and the work of Rosie Cappuccino, author of Talking About BPD. We'll touch on the differences between borderline and bipolar disorders, and also discuss how the diagnosis of borderline can bring with it judgment from not only the general public, but from the mental health profession.

The listener voicemail for today comes from a woman who describes that she has a wonderful life – and that she’s troubled or haunted or saddened or feels guilty (that’s a little unclear) for not loving her mother. And frankly, not even liking her. We’ll talk about her question – and I’ll try to answer as best I can.

Important Links:

Rosie Cappucino's book on having borderline issues.

Rosie Cappucino's blog excerpt/ Talking About BPD

List of BPD traits from the Mayo Clinic

Episode 086 of SelfWork on loving someone with BPD

SelfWork Episode on nine ways to effectively communicate with someone with BPD

Difference between bipolar disorder and borderline personality disorder

HuffPost article by Dr. Jay Watts

I want to eagerly and deeply thank HealthLine for naming The SelfWork Podcast the "Best Overall Podcast for Depression!" Wow!! Thank you to my team and to you, the listeners! Talk about not being able to "do it without you"? We truly can't! So my gratitude to each and every listener...

Today I'm going to catch you up on what I'm continuing to learn about perfectionism. And I’ll share my new understanding of what makes PHD-perfectionism different from others. It's trauma-based or trauma-induced. I"ll also explain how the mind actually disposes (or seems to dispose) of the memory of an experience and the feelings it initially created – the processes of suppression and repression are fascinating to learn about!

I wrote a post about my reaction to this week's voicemail in Psychology Today - you might want to read it yourself and its in the links section below. I know that therapists are people too... but I want you – my SelfWork listeners – to be prepared for how to handle things if your therapist disappoints or hurts or even angers you!

So in this episode, sponsored by BetterHelp, who's again here with a great offer for you, we'll talk about compartmentalization and trauma-based perfectionism.

Important Links:

BetterHelp, the #1 online therapy provider, has a special offer for you now!

Psychology Today article by Dr. Margaret on when you have conflict with your therapist...

You can hear more about this and many other topics by listening to my podcast, SelfWork with Dr. Margaret Rutherford. Subscribe to my website and receive my weekly newsletter including a blog post and podcast! If you’d like to join my FaceBook closed group, then click here and answer the membership questions! Welcome!

My book entitled Perfectly Hidden Depression has been published and you can order here! Its message is specifically for those with a struggle with strong perfectionism which acts to mask underlying emotional pain. But the many self-help techniques described can be used by everyone who chooses to begin to address emotions long hidden away that are clouding and sabotaging your current life. And it’s available in paperback, eBook or as an audiobook!

And there’s another way to send me a message! You can record by clicking below and ask your question or make a comment. You’ll have 90 seconds to do so and that time goes quickly. By recording, you’re giving SelfWork (and me) permission to use your voice on the podcast. I’ll look forward to hearing from you!

Today we’re going to focus on high-functioning depression. What is it? What’s it not? Is it dangerous or is it not? And what does that mean anyway, ‘’high-functioning” depression"? It’s still depression, isn’t it? It’s the newer term for what’s “properly” called Persistent Depressive Disorder, which used to be called before that, Dysthymia. Maybe it’s a little sexier to call it ‘high-functioning depression” or “smiling depression.” But here’s my thought: if more people react to one label better than they do others, more power to that label. I don’t particularly care what we call it – and if more people can say, “Oh yeah, that’s me,” and recognize its validity or presence, then I’m all for it.

Let’s make sure we all understand that I can’t think of any mental illness or disorder that’s not on a spectrum.

You have depression. How you cope with it is based on myriad of factors. And there are millions of people who are coping every day around the world. I hope you'll benefit from listening and sharing this episode about moderate depression, or high-functioning depression.

Advertisers Links:

Click HERE for the NEW fabulous offer from AG1 - with bonus pr oduct with your subscription!

Have you been putting off getting help? BetterHelp, the #1 online therapy provider, has a special offer for you now!

Vital Links:

What Cleveland Clinic says about PDD or Persistent Depressive Disorder

My TEDx talk that today has earned 60,000 views!

You can hear more about this and many other topics by listening to my podcast, The Selfwork Podcast. Subscribe to my website and receive my weekly newsletter including a blog post and podcast! If you’d like to join my FaceBook closed group, then click here and answer the membership questions! Welcome!

My book entitled Perfectly Hidden Depression is available here! Its message is specifically for those with a struggle with strong perfectionism which acts to mask underlying emotional pain. But the many self-help techniques described can be used by everyone who chooses to begin to address emotions long hidden away that are clouding and sabotaging your current life. And it's available in paperback, eBook or as an audiobook!

And there's another way to send me a message! You can record by clicking below and ask your question or make a comment. You’ll have 90 seconds to do so and that time goes quickly. By recording, you’re giving SelfWork (and me) permission to use your voice on the podcast. I’ll look forward to hearing from you!

Episode Transcript:

(00:10):

This is SelfWork and I'm Dr. Margaret Rutherford. At SelfWork,we'll discuss psychological and emotional issues common in today's world and what to do about them. I'm Dr. Margaret and SelfWork is a podcast dedicated to you taking just a few minutes today for your own selfwork.

(00:29):

Welcome or welcome back to SelfWork. I'm Dr. Margaret Rutherford. I'm a clinical psychologist, and I started SelfWork almost seven years ago in order to extend the walls of my practice to those of you who might already be interested in psychotherapy or you're in therapy, to some of you who may have just been diagnosed with something or you're having a problem you can't figure out and are looking for answers. But also to a third group of you who are very skeptical about mental health treatment, mental illness in general, or you just think psychologists and therapists are a little wacky . Well, anyway, so here we are today. I wanna give a trigger alert to this episode because we are gonna be mentioning suicide. So just to trigger alert, to keep you safe. Today, we're going to be focusing on high functioning depression. Now what is that and what is it not?

(

1 Listener