Surviving a Borderline Parent

How to Heal Your Childhood Wounds and Build Trust, Boundaries, and Self-Esteem

By: Kimberlee Roth, Freda B. Friedman

Narrated by: Pam Ward

Between 6 and 10 million people in the US suffer from borderline personality disorder. This book teaches adult children how to overcome the devastating effects of growing up with a parent who suffers from BPD.

Although relatively common, borderline personality disorder (BPD) is often overlooked or misdiagnosed by therapists and clinicians and denied by those who suffer from it. If you were raised by a BPD parent, your childhood was a volatile and painful time. This book, the first written specifically for children of borderline parents, offers step-by-step guidance to understanding and overcoming the lasting effects of being raised by a person suffering from this disorder.

Discover specific coping strategies for dealing with issues common to children of borderline parents - low self-esteem, lack of trust, guilt, and hypersensitivity - and make the major decision whether to confront your parent about his or her condition.

©2003 Kimberlee Roth and Freda B. Friedman (P)2016 Tantor

Loved

This has brought a lot to light. I'm glad I can go back and listen again.

wow. amazing book and perfect narration this book

this book was so insightful. It helped me see that some of the methods I have currently been using we're actually beneficial and healthy. as well as introduced New concepts and made connections I had not previously made before. I definitely recommend this book for any one his parents had a mental disorder

What a great tool!

This has been one of the most helpful books in moving me out of the cycles of someone else’s madness and into a safe space where I can heal and create healthy boundaries with challenging people.

complete validation of what I only suspected !

To give a fair review I must listen again and give the information within it time to settle in. Otherwise, I run the risk of sounding like an infatuated school girl.

A worthy listen for a particular audience

This book was useful in helping me to call out things I already suspected. It can't resolve existing issues or heal wounds, but it can help you get started down a path to it. I know I have been much firmer about setting boundaries and feel like I carry a little less guilt these days about interactions with my own suspected borderline parent.

Eye Opening and Spot On Details

I’ve reviewed other books on this topic but this book hits home with me the most. The information in the book is so valuable and informative. I’ve been soul-searching for this kind of knowledge. I’ve always felt like my experience was unique to everyone else until I found this book. Now I’m able to put my experiences in perspective and heal from my past.

Check out the books this one references instead

Almost everything in this book that seems worthwhile came from another book. Everything else seems like scattered anecdotes and advice that reads identical to the guilt tripping of a borderline parent delivered in a naggy grating voice that might as well belong to your borderline mother.

Repetitive and unorganized

This book was hard to follow as there didn’t seem to be any order to it and thus became repetitive. It seemed to be a culmination of other books on the topic with very little new insights or strategies. Examples that were given in therapy sessions sounded like scripted storytelling. Tried so many times to finish it but just didn’t see the point when it’s the same thing over and over.

Too much cbt

Not very many trauma informed modalities. Tells you how to change your thinking but not how to heal your trauma.

Started well, ended badly

At the beginning I found it very validating and enlightening as I myself have a borderline mother and I'm still working on fixing the damage left by her. I was however very disappointed when the book started talking about forgiveness as being good for you and about anger as being bad for you. If you are familiar with the work of doctor Gabor Mate, you will know that unexpressed justified anger is a very likely cause of cancer. If, also you are familiar with the work of doctor Susan Forward, you will also know that forgiveness can impede real healing as it blocks the necessary griefwork. People in mental health professions really need to lay off the forgiveness talk and stop demonizing justified anger. Or, if that is what some may want to do to themselves, at least not present it to others as having healing properties.