Because effective and affordable treatment continues to be elusive for many people in the United States and other parts of the world, The Borderline Personality Disorder Workbook is an important and encouraging new book for anyone who is interested in a self-help approach to understanding borderline personality disorder (BPD) and recovery from the symptoms associated with the diagnosis.
Dr. Fox’s book is organized into five sections that spans over 250 pages. The first section is dedicated to educating the reader about BPD in a way that is both nonjudgmental and supportive. Dr. Fox uses a short narrative for understanding all nine DSM criteria in a nonclinical and understandable way. The reader can also conduct a short self-assessment to see where they fall in the spectrum of symptoms related to the diagnosis.
While many self-help books for individuals with BPD emphasize ideas from dialectical behavior therapy (DBT), this book also focuses on attachment theory, attachment styles, and defense mechanisms as a way of explaining many of the characteristics and behaviors related to BPD. For people who have been working with mental health professionals with a cognitive-behavioral approach, some of the ideas in this book may be new to many readers.
The Borderline Personality Disorder Workbook helps to focus the reader on actions that they can take to improve their lives. Some of the questions will be challenging for many readers. For instance, on page 53, Dr. Fox asks the reader, “Do you see benefits for staying where you are with the problems and issues you have related to BPD? What are the benefits?” Because the book includes a lot of questions and writing prompts that can’t be easily answered in space provided in the workbook, I’d encourage readers to keep a separate notebook or journal to record their observations and insights. Additional worksheets for some of the exercises, however, can be downloaded through the publisher’s web site for free.
It’s important to note that completing this book requires a lot of motivation. It might be most helpful for individuals with a diagnosis of BPD to use this workbook with the help of a compassionate and knowledgable therapist or a certified peer support specialist who can support the reader as they work toward their recovery goals.
In addition to the workbook, I also recommend that readers subscribe to Dr. Fox’s YouTube channel for more helpful resources and information about recovery from borderline personality disorder.
You can purchase Dr. Fox’s book on Amazon (US) by clicking or tapping this link. If you are in Canada, click or tap here to buy The Borderline Personality Disorder Workbook.