Interpersonal barriers to recovery from borderline personality disorder: A qualitative analysis of patient perspectives

Abstract

Social-environmental factors have been found to be an integral part in the recovery process for individuals with psychiatric disabilities. There are few studies that have obtained patient perspectives of how their social and treatment environments help facilitate or impede the recovery process. The following study examined the self-reported interpersonal barriers to recovery among a sample of individuals (N = 31) with borderline personality disorder who were receiving dialectical behaviour therapy. The goal of study was to identify self-reported problematic behaviour that interferes with recovery goals and identify types of family, friend and/or provider behaviours that increased the likelihood of patients engaging in these problematic behaviours. A content analysis yielded three themes of problematic behaviour, and how these behaviours were reinforced by others, including (1) avoidance behaviours, (2) encouragement of negative coping and (3) communication of low behavioural expectations. Implications for the impact of these patterns of reinforcement within behavioural health settings are discussed. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.