A patient with borderline personality disorder has been making ...

[Wadzanai]

A patient with borderline personality disorder has been making steady progress but one day gets a phone call from her boyfriend, who breaks off their relationship.
 
  Although she has not self-injured in over 2 months, she makes repeated lacerations on her forearm. Which statement about this and most maladaptive behaviors seen in personality disorders is most accurate? a. People with personality disorders rarely achieve lasting improvement.
  b. However dysfunctional, most behavior is the person's best effort to cope.
  c. People with personality disorders are at the mercy of others' actions.
  d. What appears to be improvement can be manipulation instead.

Question 2

David has just returned from a long airplane trip, but he is unable to recall any events during the past 2 weeks of travel. David is experiencing
 
  1. fugue.
  2. amnesia.
  3. depersonalization.
  4. an identity disorder.

[bdobbins]

Answer to Question 1

B
Even when a behavior is maladaptive or ineffective, it usually represents our best effort to cope, given the coping skills and resources available to us at that time. For people with personality disorders, coping overall is usually less effective and more rigid than for other persons, but it too represents each person's best efforts to cope with the circumstances at that moment. Recovery from many medical and psychiatric disorders, including personality disorders, can be slow and involve periods of relapse or regression. However, that does not mean that personality disorders do not improve or that these patients are at the mercy of others' actions. Like everyone else, they can learn to cope and be resilient under stress. What looks like improvement is not necessarily manipulation instead.

Answer to Question 2

1
Fugue is an inability to remember important personal events or travels.