No one likes a disruption of his or her daily routine. But is it worth getting upset about? Becky Oberg, author of the More Than Borderline blog, discusses how to survive and thrive despite chaos.

In AA today, we were talking about the insanity behind substance abuse, a common symptom of borderline personality disorder (BPD). We agreed that self-knowledge is not enough to solve the various addictions we face in life, whether it be alcohol, self-injury or any other self-destructive behavior.

Yesterday, The Indianapolis Star posted an article, complete with picture, about a man who attempted to commit suicide by having the police shoot him. One man, Robert Schiele, commented on the Star’s Facebook page: “It's nice that at least he apparently didn't want to take anyone with him. I'll give him props for that. But if he just wanted to die, he could've killed himself easily enough without wasting taxpayer dollars by getting police involved. Maybe he's really not suicidal at all? Could just be hoping for a ‘reality show’ deal?”

The owner of Seattle’s From The Heart Pottery, Shari Druckman-Roberts, recently shared her solution of what to do about the homeless with mental illness or substance abuse problems. “These people should not be on the street,” she said. “They should not be allowed to sleep in the street. They should not be allowed to be out in public with mental disorders, if they have them, or if they’re drug addicts, they need to go away.”

Recently, I took the bus home. Normally, that's not "interesting" but this trip was because the driver got lost. Seriously. She even asked passengers for directions on her route. So what does this have to do with therapy? Plenty. If you get an unqualified or inexperience therapist, you may end up wandering just like this bus driver did.

I live in an apartment complex for adults with severe mental illness--too healthy for a group home, too sick for independent living. This makes dealing with my neighbors difficult. Today, I had to deal with a neighbor I suspect has both BPD and Narcissistic Personality Disorder (NPD).

Sometimes we may feel like therapy is impossible. But is the problem in our perception of the task at hand? More Than Borderline's Becky Oberg talks about how working in therapy can be like pushing a boulder.

Today, at AA, we were reading a story from the Big Book. The part that jumped out to me was this: "It was here that I realized for the first time that as a practicing alcoholic, I had no rights. Society can do anything it chooses to do with me when I am drunk, and I can't lift a finger to stop it, for I forfeit my rights through the simple expedient of becoming a menace to myself and to the people around me." It made me think about AA sayings that apply to people with borderline personality disorder (BPD).

When Delay is Deadly When I was kicked out of the Army due to my mental illness, they gave me a 30-day supply of medication, a list of mental health services in Indianapolis and a "good luck, ex-soldier Oberg". Unfortunately, it was going to take three months to get in to see a psychiatrist. I've since found that other people have the same problem--it's so common that CrisisChat.org has an article about what to do while waiting for mental health services in their mental health library.

If it had been just me, I probably could have ignored it. But it wasn't just me. During one of my many psychiatric hospitalizations, I observed what I believed was a systematic pattern of abuse of restraints. Patients were often restrained without the least restrictive means being tried and without a doctor's order or evaluation. They were often restrained for up to an hour, even if they were out of danger. I knew this was illegal. But how was I supposed to fight back?