From my mid-to late twenties I had a few psychiatrists that I saw.  They all diagnosed me with bpd, and they all hammered into me the necessity of medication to treat it; they all said it was a life-long, incurable disorder that required life-long medication to treat.

I spent years on the medication and it did not help much and often made my health worse.  I tried DBT too, as the psychiatrist and then later DBT therapists and group therapists recommended that.

None of the professionals I saw stressed the necessity of treating the childhood trauma I suffered.  My parents were abusive to me since I was very young, and though I mentioned it to psychiatrists and therapists, none of them explained to me the necessity and helpfulness of treating my trauma that was causing the bpd symptoms. 

Two years ago I got fed up and I started reading more about childhood attachment trauma upon the recommendation of a friend. The more I learned the more I related to the material I was reading.  I sought out a therapist that treats childhood trauma and I’ve made more progress in the last year and a half than I have in the previous six years combined.   I don’t take medication anymore and I don’t do DBT anymore.  

I’m pretty pissed that the psychiatrists and DBT therapists did not stress to me the necessity or effectiveness of treating the trauma, nor emphasize how heavily that untreated trauma was causing my symptoms.  Did/do the professionals you’ve worked with emphasize treating your past trauma (if it applies to you)?

I’m mad I wasted so many years doing either unhelpful or even detrimental things when there existed effective treatments that actually resolve my symptoms.  It’s like everyone kept focusing on “symptom management” but in the last 18 months my symptoms have dissipated and never returned to the same severity.  I’m mad the professionals kept harping on the importance of managing my problems when there existed a way to resolve them.

Does anyone else relate – or did/do your professionals explain more about trauma and the importance of treating it to you?
