hey there everybody and welcome to this presentation on managing borderline personality
disorder in the classroom this is a quick start guide and i'm your host dr dawn elise snipes
there are a lot of reasons that problems may be triggered in the classroom for people with
borderline personality disorder the first one surrounds fears of abandonment or rejection
and there's a lot of reasons for that kids can be mean let's just face it when people are younger
if you think back to high school they hadn't developed necessarily tact in the way they say
things there could have been you know unkind words said so peers can be a direct cause of anxiety
and stress in the classroom that can trigger emotional dysregulation in people with bpd
academics can also trigger fears of abandonment or rejection if someone is not doing well in a class
they may feel like they are a failure instead of they're failing at algebra but either way they may
emotionally disregulate because they are afraid of being held back they're afraid of flunking out
they're afraid of rejection or ridicule so from a teacher's standpoint it's really important
to make sure that if you have a student that is struggling academically that they are provided
with support and encouragement and if they are known to ha emotionally dysregulate when
they get a bad grade it's really important to handle that carefully when you're handing back
exams for example if they failed the exam you don't want to just hand it to them and say do
better next time that is probably going to trigger a lot of anxiety so maybe giving them their
paper or their exam back in private so you can discuss it with them and help them
process what's going on and finally projection good old projection can cause
an upsurgence of emotional dysregulation and bpd type symptoms in the classroom
if there is someone in the classroom that reminds them and it could even be you the teacher that
reminds them of somebody in their past who has rejected them then that may trigger some tension
uh in the person and with the person with borderline personality now it doesn't mean that
these are insurmountable what's important is to help the child be aware of their triggers
and vulnerabilities so they can address them interventions acceptance working with the child to
develop mindfulness and acceptance and that is really hard that's not just you know just accept
it is what it is that is way easier said than done but we also need to accept children for
who they are and how they are in the moment if they are
dysregulating not judging them but accepting that they are feeling out of control in the
moment and that is really important instead of rejecting or criticizing or minimizing them
accepting and validating how they feel so they feel like they've got a support
create safe spaces this is somewhere where a person with borderline personality or who's
dysregulating can go where they don't have any more input where they don't have eyes peering at
them because they are you know crying hysterically or they're really angry where can they go to
get back into their wise mind to re-regulate to urge surf until they can get into their wise mind
and mindfulness and grounding are also very important helping youth focus on where they are
in context that they're safe uh in the moment identifying what's going on
around them that may be triggering and what they can do to best improve the moment and
a lot of these things that i'm saying hearken back to a lot of what lenahan talks about in dbt
emotional dysregulation is another issue in the classroom and when people with bpd
or bpd type symptoms feel a fear of rejection or start to feel anxious or angry or threatened
or unsafe they may disregulate and there are a lot of vulnerabilities if the youth is not
sleeping well if they're in pain if they're sick if you know the list goes on that can make them
more vulnerable to dysregulation i mean think about it for yourself on days when you don't feel
well or you're over tired sometimes you react to things more strongly than you would on days
when you're well rested affective vulnerabilities well being teenagers there's generally a lot of
affective angst going on their hormones are going all over the place developmentally they're going
through so many different things so there can be a lot of periods of anxiety anger depression
and sometimes they may feel all of them all at once and it can feel very overwhelming
which can put them in a position where any other input could trigger dysregulation kind
of like a pressure cooker you know they are at max pressure and any more heat could blow the top off
cognitive vulnerabilities you know are they having negative thoughts are they engaging in
catastrophic thinking well that can set them up for dysregulation if they are thinking in global
all or nothing terms environmental vulnerabilities sometimes lights smells sounds distractions or
even particular people in the room could trigger emotional dysregulation it could add stress
to their existence which means they are more vulnerable to dysregulating when additional
stress happens and relational vulnerabilities you know adolescence is a time where there are
a lot of relationship challenges forming friendships and intimate relationships so
if something like that is happening obviously it's not something that's related directly to
what's going on in the classroom but your student who just broke up with their boyfriend or got
into a fight with their best friend may be more emotionally vulnerable when they're in class so
something like failing a test or getting called on and feeling like they are you know the center
of everybody's attention feeling like they're on the spot could be enough to disregulate them
interventions here mindfulness again helping them develop a sense of where they are
being mindful of what's going on in the moment grounding and i'm going to share with you some
posters some suggestions for things to post on the wall to remind students of some of these skills
distress tolerance skills it doesn't mean getting rid of the distress distress tolerance skills
helps help people be able to sit with the stress to urge surf to know that this discomfort will go
away after a little while and breathing that slow breathing that helps trigger the rest and digest
another issue that can become an issue in the classroom for people with bpd
is all or nothing thinking remember when that hpa axis that threat response system is triggered
a lot of times the person gets tunnel vision and they have a hard time seeing all of the options
they're just focused on getting away from the threat helping students at this point figure out
what they need to do to get into their wise mind and embrace the dialectics okay you failed the
test and you have three more opportunities to you know three more tests that will raise that grade
so all is not lost basically embracing the good with you know the unpleasant cognitive distortions
paying attention to the way the person is thinking that all or none thinking and challenging it with
exceptions you know you're saying this happens all the time can you tell me give me an example of
one time when it didn't happen this way like every time i take a math test i fail
well let's think about that is that actually true which goes to facts we want to look at the facts
it may feel like every time you take a math test you fail but let's look at the facts and are there
alternate explanations for things sometimes we assume things or we use generalized terms
when in in actuality there are other alternate explanations maybe the test uh questions
were unusually hard it wasn't that the person you know did worse than usual it was that the
test was harder than usual and finally impulsivity is another problematic behavior of people with
borderline personality issues in the classroom and a lot of times people react impulsively as a way
to try to stop that pain they are feeling out of control and the one thing that they can control
is sometimes their um their pain levels you know they can engage in in cutting or other impulsive
behaviors but sometimes that impulsive behavior is just a reaction to the threat you know the get
out get me away keep me safe so ultimately impulsivity is designed to keep the person
safe and the best way to handle this ideally is through prevention so what does all that mean
well first recognize that these behaviors help the child survive trauma they develop for a reason
the whys are less important in the classroom as understanding the triggers and possible
interventions why jiminy developed this behavior is less concerning to the teacher as what are her
triggers and what possible interventions can i use school counselors can work with the child to
develop a list of triggers their vulnerabilities and effective interventions what triggers that
child what makes that child more vulnerable to dysregulating and what are some effective
interventions for that child and empowering the child to participate in this process is crucial
teachers can help prompt mindfulness and the use of identified interventions in class if you
notice that the student is starting to look stressed is starting to spiral so to speak
then teachers may have a cue that they use like coming over and tapping the person on the shoulder
or you know something that is not really noticeable to the rest of the class
that can remind the person to engage in mindfulness type activities and finally
post mindfulness vulnerability awareness and distress tolerance posters in the classroom
this is an example of a mindfulness poster reminding people that they can
focus on noticing five things they see four things they hear three things they smell
two things that help them feel safe right now and one way they can improve the moment
tolerance skills this is one of the mnemonic devices developed by linehan and this is accepts
actions comparisons contributions emotions pushing away unpleasant thoughts having positive thoughts
and strong sensations and this particular poster gives examples of each one of those
and finally vulnerabilities remembering that vulnerabilities come in many different shapes
and sizes encouraging people to check in with themselves and notice physically are they hungry
in pain tired sick something else physical causing stress that can make them more vulnerable to react
more strongly to situations emotionally what current emotions are causing them
stress you know what do they already have going on that is putting pressure in that pressure
cooker that may mean that additional stress could result in dysregulation
environmentally what sounds smells sights or even just energy in the room might be triggering stress
you know right before a exam there might be a lot of stress in the room and that the energy in the
room is palpable of everybody being stressed about the test and that can be triggering for people
and interpersonally what people or relationships are causing stress for the person at that point
in time and it may not be like somebody that's sitting right there it may be as i said earlier
that they had a fight with their best friend you know at lunch and it's still causing them
a lot of distress recognizing that is important recognizing that that is adding pressure to
their pressure cooker and making them more vulnerable to dysregulation is really important
encourage students if you can take two minutes before the start of each class and encourage
students to reflect on how are you feeling what vulnerabilities do you currently have and what
is one thing you can do to help you have the best class possible you notice i chose my words very
carefully on that last one because you don't want to say what what are the best thing what is one
thing you can do to help you feel better because one of the things they may say is well go home
well that's not an option so what is one thing you can do to help you have the best class possible
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