Understanding BPD: Bridging Empathy and Awareness

Understanding BPD: Recovery, Relationships, and Legal Challenges

In this powerful episode, High Conflict Institute co-founders Bill Eddy and Megan Hunter welcome Shehrina Rooney, author and BPD recovery advocate, for an enlightening discussion about Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD). Through personal experience and professional insight, they explore how BPD impacts relationships, parenting, and legal proceedings, while challenging common misconceptions about the disorder.

Shehrina shares her journey from being a successful YouTube personality with over 30,000 subscribers to facing significant personal and legal challenges. Her story illuminates the complex intersection of BPD, trauma, and the legal system, particularly in family court settings. She discusses how BPD diagnosis can be weaponized in legal proceedings and the importance of looking beyond labels to see the whole person.

Bill and Megan delve into the crucial differences between active BPD symptoms and recovery, emphasizing how courts and legal professionals often struggle to understand these distinctions. The conversation explores the frequent overlap between BPD and other personality patterns, particularly in toxic relationships, and how this affects family court outcomes.

The discussion also addresses the stigma surrounding BPD and the need for better understanding among legal and mental health professionals. They examine how reframing BPD as an emotional regulation issue rather than a personality disorder could help reduce stigma and improve treatment approaches.

Questions we answer in this episode:

• How does BPD recovery differ from active BPD symptoms?
• What challenges do people with BPD face in family court?
• How can legal professionals better understand and handle BPD cases?
• What's the connection between BPD and toxic relationships?
• How does trauma interact with BPD diagnosis and treatment?

Key Takeaways:

• BPD recovery is possible and changes behavior significantly
• Courts need to consider both parents' behaviors, not just diagnoses
• Self-awareness and support systems are crucial for BPD recovery
• Trauma often intersects with BPD diagnosis and treatment
• Renaming BPD could help reduce stigma and improve understanding

This episode offers invaluable insights for legal professionals, mental health practitioners, and anyone affected by BPD. Through Shehrina's powerful personal story and the hosts' expert analysis, listeners gain a deeper understanding of BPD while learning practical approaches for handling high conflict situations involving personality disorders in legal and personal contexts.

Links & Other Notes

• GUEST SHEHRINA ROONEY
  • https://www.youtube.com/recoverymum (videos not available currently)
• BOOKS
  • The Big Book on Borderline Personality Disorder
    • Paperback - on Unhooked Books website(25% discount through 5/31/25)
    • Paperback on Amazon US
    • Paperback on Amazon UK
    • Paperback on Amazon Australia
    • e-Book
• COURSES
  • Conflict Influencer 6-Week Class
  • New Ways for Families® Training for counselors and divorce coaches
    • Counselors here
    • Coaches here
  • New Ways for Families® Online Class for Parents
• OUR WEBSITE: https://www.highconflictinstitute.com/
• Submit a Question for Bill and Megan
• All of our books can be found in our online store or anywhere books are sold, including as e-books.
• You can also find these show notes at our site as well.

Note: We are not diagnosing anyone in our discussions, merely discussing general patterns of behavior. Nor are we providing legal or therapeutic advice. Please seek the assistance of your local professionals to seek help.

• (00:00) - Welcome to It's All Your Fault
• (01:30) - Meet Shehrina
• (09:07) - Recovery and Self-Awareness
• (16:03) - Changes in Behavior
• (17:42) - A Lot to Be Learned
• (22:24) - A Lawyer’s Approach
• (25:25) - A Spectrum
• (26:50) - Every Case Is Different
• (28:50) - Slowly Getting Better
• (31:12) - Emotion Disregulation
• (32:38) - Therapists
• (34:27) - What’s Going On and What to Do
• (39:41) - Combinations
• (41:43) - Determining the Strategy of What to Do
• (42:41) - Women vs. Men
• (43:22) - Wrap Up
• (43:59) - Reminders & Coming Next Week: Another Guest!

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