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Recovery, as Experienced by Women with Borderline Personality Disorder

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Abstract

Studies examining recovery through the service users’ perspectives have mainly included persons with schizophrenia or bipolar disorder. Giving voice to those with borderline personality disorder (BPD) would enrich our understanding of recovery, as their specific experiences may bring new dimensions, obstacles and facilitators. The objective of this study was to qualitatively capture the experience of recovery in women with BPD. Participants were women between 18 and 65 years old who had a diagnosis of BPD and completed at least 2 years in a program for persons with BPD. During the first meeting, they produced a picture collage, followed by an interview on their experience of recovery. The second meeting was a phone interview to discuss new thoughts. In addition, their medical records were reviewed. A thematic analysis of the interviews was conducted and organized with the Person-Environment-Occupation model. Although recovery was not the best term to name their experience, they all talked about a process towards stability and wellbeing (n = 12). Dimensions of recovery included, for example, letting go of the past (person), being involved in meaningful activities (occupation) and having healthy relationships (environment). Facilitators included social support and participation in a specialized therapy program. The main obstacle was unstable family relationships. The findings from this study showed similar dimensions to previous recovery studies, new perspectives on certain dimensions, as well as new ones. They also reinforced the importance to incorporate intervention outcomes that target the person with BPD, their social environment and meaningful occupations.

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Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank the clinical teams in the two sites for their outstanding collaboration. This study would not have been possible without the generosity of these women with BPD and we are very grateful.

Conflict of interest

The corresponding author received funding for this study from the Canadian Occupational Therapy Foundation: the 2011 Marita Dyrbye Mental Health Award and from the Faculty of medicine and health sciences of l’Université de Sherbrooke (Sherbrooke, Canada). Élise Couture, Catherine Blackburn, Manon Carbonneau, Christophe Lacombe, Shella-Ann Schinck, Pierre David, and Denise St-Cyr-Tribble declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Informed Consent

Informed consent was obtained from all patients for being included in the study.

Statement for Studies with Human Subjects

All procedures followed were in accordance with the ethical standards of the responsible committee on human experimentation (institutional and national) and with the Helsinki Declaration of 1975, as revised in 2000 (5).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Rehabilitation, Université de Sherbrooke, 3001, 12e avenue Nord, Sherbrooke, QC, J1H 5N4, Canada

    Nadine Larivière, Élise Couture, Catherine Blackburn, Manon Carbonneau, Christophe Lacombe & Shella-Ann Schinck

  2. Douglas Mental Health University Institute, Montreal, QC, Canada

    Élise Couture

  3. Institut universitaire en santé mentale de Montréal, Montreal, QC, Canada

    Pierre David

  4. School of Nursing, Université de Sherbrooke, Sherbrooke, QC, Canada

    Denise St-Cyr-Tribble

Authors
  1. Nadine Larivière
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  2. Élise Couture
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  3. Catherine Blackburn
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  4. Manon Carbonneau
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  5. Christophe Lacombe
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  6. Shella-Ann Schinck
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  7. Pierre David
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  8. Denise St-Cyr-Tribble
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Correspondence to Nadine Larivière.

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Larivière, N., Couture, É., Blackburn, C. et al. Recovery, as Experienced by Women with Borderline Personality Disorder. Psychiatr Q 86, 555–568 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11126-015-9350-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11126-015-9350-x

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