[I'm going to try this again. I refreshed the page after multiple attempts to post my original post, then the whole thing disappeard. Oh well =) ]
I'm pretty interested in discovering new psychology videos on youtube so they pop up on my feed quite frequently. One of these videos today was on "Splitting." I thought this was another word for split personality, but it's actually its own thing. Splitting, as described by the licenced psychologist in the video, is when someone starts to see people/things as either all bad or all good. She used the example of a child who thinks "Mommy fed me, mommy good" in one moment and "Mommy took away my favorite toy, mommy bad" in the next moment. When someone is splitting, it is almost as if they see you as two different people. This video was mostly about recognizing this in people with borderline personality disorder but as the conversation went on, they also mentioned anyone is capable of doing this, it is in our nature. But, usually, as our brain develops and grows so does our psychological behavior and we start to see that good or bad, mommy is mommy. Imagine the yin and yang symbol in motion, spinning until the black and white create grey. This is life. It's mostly grey. When someone is experiencing splitting, it's like they've gotten rid of all that was good or all that was bad in an instant and all of the sudden life is all black or all white, depending on the situation at hand.
When my therapist signed me up for Dialectal Behavioral Therapy, I went home and dove right into finding out more about it. What I found is that it is usually given to those struggling with Borderline Personality Disorder. She never gave me that diagnosis though. Maybe she wanted to see how I responded to DBT before saying anything which I really appreciate. Maybe she saw I was in a situation which might've been creating this extreme emotions and behavior. Still my curiosity lead me to watch another video which was about the 9 traits of BPD. I found myself relating to each of the traits mentioned. I think the difference is, whether or not these traits exist in me within extreme measures or not, might be what determines whether or not I receive the diagnosis. Either way I will be discussing this concern with my future therapist in this new location. I just feel extremely grateful to have had the previous therapist show introduce me to DBT regardless. You don't need to have a diagnosis to work on yourself and to practice mindfulness.
I'll include the two videos mentioned, just in case this post made you curious enough to learn a little bit more about these topics. Maybe you don't struggle with these things but a loved one does. And if that is the case, Something that the therapist highlights is, this[splitting] is not an excuse to use you as their punching bag or vice versa. Always remember you deserve a basic respect from those around you. Namaste
