----- Original Message -----
From: "borderlinechild"

> Hi Lisa Marie! I saw your scrapbook pages. They are wonderful. Very
> creative! I like how you put the pictures together with a theme.
>
> Wow, I have been recovering for 6 months too. Isn't that weird?!
>
> You're right, where would we start to tell our stories? Well, I'll
> start with a little bit...I am also high functioning. Most of the
> time, no one would be able to tell there was something wrong. But
> there was something terribly wrong. My main symptom was my intense
> attachments. I would become severely dependent on my therapists, and
> in turn, they would get rid of me. I went from one to the other,
> heart-broken. Another thing was not knowing who I am. I am just
> starting to uncover this now, but it takes a long time. I still
> don't know a lot of things about me, like my favorites and
> preferences. I've been in the hospital once. That wasn't fun. I've
> been on many meds, I think I am on the right ones now. Well, there's
> so much more, but let's hear from you now!
>
> What is Transactional Analysis? I've never heard of that kind of
> therapy. I've been in DBT, but it didn't help me at all. No kind of
> therapy seemed to help me. Now I am just in talk therapy. Hope to
> hear from you soon!
>
> -Tara Michelle-
>

Hi Tara Michelle! How are you? Happy New Year!!! 2004 =) Wow!
I apologize for taking a while to reply back to your note. I've been having
some e-mailing ups and downs which has resulted in an e-mail address change.
My e-mail address now is lisa@...

Thanks for sharing about some of what being BPD was (is) like for you. Not
surprisingly, I can relate. I was diagnosed in 1996. I am a lot better now
than
I was back then, that's for sure, but I feel I still have a long road ahead
of me too.
I'm currently at a kind-of stopping point in my therapy...

Between the beginning of October and mid-November I was a day treatment
patient at the hospital here. I attended group therapy four days a week
from 8:45 a.m.
until 2:30 p.m. The program was alright but when the six weeks of the
'course' were
over, and I was discharged, there was no real follow-up care in place for me
:-/
(Oh the joys of the health systems...) The uncertainty about my treatement
(if
there would be any) was a bit hard to cope with.

Then the holidays came - ho hum! - got the Christmas spirit thing happening
for a while,
had a good one really. I enjoyed seeing my daughters experience Christmas.
:o)
In between all of it, I had a flu bug and had an allergic reaction to a
pasta dish I had at
a friend's party and those two things kept me feeling under-the-weather for
a little bit.
Now that it's the New Year, I feel a little un-focused again and I wonder
just how I am
going to organize my time in the next weeks -- especially since one of the
tasks within
this time will be job-hunting :-S

I'm a good worker. But I tend to excel in short-term work projects;
something that has
a definitive beginning, middle and end and is completed and tangible to see
after three to
six months. Being a cashier at a grocery store or a clerk in a clothing
shop would never
keep my attention enough. Also, I have a lot of experience working with
children and teens
and in teaching. We'll see what comes...

OK, well aside from that...

I haven't done a whole lot of creative anythings lately! I did make a few
cards for Christmas
which I gave to family and friends. I completed one 12x12 scrapbook page of
my daughters'
first bath together in the "big tub". Julia, who is two and a half, has
been accustomed to the bath
tub for quite a while now. Kathryn, on the other hand, had been bathing
exclusively in the baby
tub until about a month and a half ago. I took some snapshots on the night
when I first put her
in the "big bath" with Julia. We have a seat that suctions to the bottom of
the bathtub that Katie
can sit in. It was fun to see them splashing about together. And what
mother can resist bare-baby-bum
pictures? ;-)

I spoke with a friend named Vicki today who I met while I was in the day
treatment program. In mid-
November I had brought her along to a scrapbooking Christmas "party" and she
bought some items from
the CM consultant. Well she still has not gone to get them so she asked if
I would go with her, and I
suggested Vicki and I attend the Monday morning workshop together this
coming week. I hope it works
out! I enjoy the workshops -- mostly for the time to scrap someplace where
little hands and feet are not
hampering my progress ;-)

Write soon and let me know how your holidays went and how you are doing :)

Love,
Lisa Marie

Halifax NS Canada
Wife to William since 2000
Mom to Julia, born 03/15/01
and Kathryn, born 03/01/03

Email: lisa@...
Web: http://b4c.jvb.ca