Abstracts Womens Studies

Facilitation of mental health of women living with borderline personality disorder

by Nompumelelo Mthethwa

Few studies have been done on life stories of women living with borderline personality disorders in South Africa. It was therefore considered to find out how women diagnosed with borderline personality disorder would tell their life story. For the researcher working in a psychotherapy ward, where women are mostly diagnosed with borderline personality disorder, and the care of these women is of vital importance, as mental health care providers understand them less. The research aimed to explore and describe the life stories of women living with borderline personality disorder and to formulate guidelines for psychiatric nurse practitioners to facilitate the mental health of women living with borderline personality disorder. A qualitative, explorative, descriptive and contextual study design was used. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews focusing on the question “Tell me your life story,” Tesch’s method was used for data analysis and an external coder was utilised. Eight participants were interviewed. In the findings it is evident through the life stories of women living with borderline personality disorder that there are childhood experiences of living within an unsafe space related to unhealthy family dynamics, boundary violations and educational challenges. They experienced chronic feelings of emptiness in the relationship they also presented with a pattern of unstable interpersonal relationships and compromised mental health, which was evident through early onset of mental problems, emotional upheaval, looking for emotional escape and having different trigger factors. Lastly all these women yearned for facilitated mental health.