-adapt a healthy rhythm and diet-it positively affects your mood and emotion regulation, sleep and eat at set times, reduces the severity of an emotional response
-pay attention to how you feel-people with BPD usually have trouble recognizing their own emotions and figuring out where these emotions are coming from, a good way to practice is to close your eyes and ask yourself “how have i been feeling these past two hours?” if you notice tension in your body, ask yourself where it came from, where are these feelings coming from, and try not to judge yourself for feeling the way you do
-recognize which emotions came first-people with BPD usually get overwhelmed by their emotions, being overwhelmed by emotions makes it more difficult to calm down, try and analyze your emotions-why did you get upset in the first place? which emotions? which thoughts? by analyzing situations it’s easier to identify which emotion belongs to which thought or feeling, this will calm you down more easily
-increase tolerance of uncertainty levels-people who have difficulty dealing with worry and panic more and sooner about topics that may not be worth it, people with low tolerance of uncertainty levels will try to find explanations, unfortunately intolerance of uncertainty, in combination with the fear of (potential) abandonment is a deadly combination for panic, worry, and getting emotionally overwhelmed, often this combination makes people with BPD think of how their partner is leaving or cheating on them. what can you do about it? write down possible explanations, rate them according to likelihood, another tip-figure out your worst fear and testing if that fear is true, coping with BPD means you need to test certain hypotheses that cause you to panic, worry excessively, or makes you feel depressed, this way you’ll see that most of your fears are unrealistic and not true
-use self-talk in a positive way-have somebody who loves you list ten things they appreciate or love about you, which characteristics make you unique in a positive way, self-talk makes people in general feel more positive about themselves
-don’t respond to others immediately-responding immediately to someone’s comment, email, or question significantly increases the likelihood that you’ll respond out of emotion rather than common sense, an emotional response is often driven by personal needs, desires, or fears, it’s these needs, desires, and fears that can lead to a lot of false assumptions and miscommunication issues, build in a delay-sometimes it works well to repeat the question before they answer it, to ask the person if they understood you correctly before you answer, to ask themselves if the answer you want to give them is emotionally charged, try to come up with an alternative response, one that is not emotionally charged, always wait a week before you make life-changing decisions, and talk about it with people you trust, and take their opinions seriously, and last but not least analyze your own feelings
-analyze your own feelings-it’s difficult for people with BPD to identify their own feelings, coping with BPD becomes easier when you can identify your own feelings, try to figure out where these emotions are coming from, by taking away certain triggers you make it easier on yourself.
-find some self-soothing activities/behaviors-coping with BPD requires effort, time, and patience, need to kill time when you are nervous or anxious, self-soothing activities or behaviors can literally be anything that dosen’t harm you or others around you
-expose yourself to difficult experiences-thinking of difficult experiences brings up negative feelings and emotions, usually people try to avoid these, however, by exposing yourself to these difficult experiences, these negative feelings and emotions become less intense, you don’t act upon these feelings, try to accept these feelings as they are, you’ll see that they will fade away after 15 minutes or so
-coping with BPD isn’t something that can be done now and then, it’s a full-time job that requires persistence, patience, and a lot of practice
The BPD Group 