Borderline personality disorder, marked by symptoms of impulsive behaviors, mood swings, and difficulty in social settings, can be a difficult and challenging diagnosis to navigate. Your therapist may have some book recommendations for you, but if you’re looking for more books on borderline personality disorder, this list can help.
Books for Those Diagnosed With BPD
A BPD diagnosis can be scary, but it doesn’t have to be. These books are here to help you through the most challenging parts of BPD, including how to move beyond common setbacks, establish healthy routines, and more.
1. The Way She Feels: My Life on the Borderline in Pictures & Pieces
If you’re looking to know that you’re not alone with your BPD, you’ll appreciate Courtney Cook’s illustrated memoir on her life. She was diagnosed with BPD and how it’s changed her life: the therapy, the hospitalizations, treatments, and more. But it’s also about the joy she found in the little things, like her favorite color or how much she loves mini corn dogs. BPD can be intimidating, but maybe Cook’s book will help it feel a little more human.
2. I Hate You–Don’t Leave Me
This is considered a must-read in BPD, and for good reason. Now in its third edition, it remains a comprehensive look at what borderline personality is, the way trauma impacts it, and current treatments.
3. Sometimes I Act Crazy: Living with Borderline Personality Disorder
BPD can be an intimidating diagnosis: you have frighteningly intense mood swings or struggle with your loved ones. This compassionate and thorough guide, written by psychiatrist Jerold J. Kreisman, offers a piece of hope and guidance for those with BPD. In this book, you’ll learn how to manage mood swings, develop healthy relationships, and better understand yourself.
4. The Borderline Personality Disorder Workbook: An Integrative Program to Understand and Manage Your BPD
This therapist-recommended workbook may have already been recommended to you: it is a staple in BPD self-help. If your BPD diagnosis terrifies you (and everything you’ve read online only makes it worse), this workbook offers real, concrete advice on navigating your BPD. Using evidence-based dialectical behavior therapy, acceptance and commitment therapy, and more, this workbook meets you where you are and works with you to create a stable, healthy life.
5. Mindfulness for Borderline Personality Disorder: Relieve Your Suffering Using the Core Skill of Dialectical Behavior Therapy
Mindfulness has been proven to be beneficial for many different mental health conditions, and borderline personality disorder is no exception. This workbook outlines several ways mindfulness can help you work through your BPD, leaning on DBT techniques to soothe overwhelmed emotions, address relationship problems, and more.
6. Coping with BPD: DBT and CBT Skills to Soothe the Symptoms of Boderline Personality Disorder
Those who are tired of struggling with their intense emotions thanks to their BPD diagnosis will appreciate this compassionate guidebook. It outlines how to soothe common issues those with BPD face and establish healthy routines when emotions go haywire. It also addresses substance abuse, negative self-talk, and other common side effects of living with BPD.
Books for Loved Ones of Those With BPD
Whether it’s a mother, family member, or significant other that has BPD, here are a few books to help you work through some of the common issues you may face. Recommending these books can be a great way to help someone with BPD.
7. Loving Someone with Borderline Personality Disorder: How to Keep Out-of-Control Emotions from Destroying Your Relationship
Those with BPD get a bad reputation: they’re portrayed as violent, manipulative, and in some cases, uncaring. Author Dr. Shari Y. Manning knows that’s not the cause. Those suffering from BPD can be immensely kind and considerate, but can struggle in personal relationships and push away those they love with destructive behaviors. Understanding your partner and how their BDP makes them act the way they do takes information and patience. Loving Someone With Borderline Personality Disorder offers a framework to help you work alongside your partner with BPD to create a caring, healthy relationship that meets both of your needs.
8. Stop Walking on Eggshells: Taking Your Life Back When Someone You Care About Has Borderline Personality Disorder
If you struggle with someone you love manipulating you or feeling overly controlled by a loved one, they may have BPD. If so, there are ways to find peace again in your home. This self-help book outlines how to set boundaries, establish your needs, defuse arguments, and more.
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9. Say What You Mean: A Mindful Approach to Nonviolent Communication
While not explicitly written for those with BPD, author Oren Jay Sofer is a mindfulness expert, and Say What You Mean offers a few solutions to common communication issues. He put together this book to help anyone who struggles with communicating in anger, whether in a BPD relationship or in general life.
This is a good read for anyone who wishes to communicate more compassionately and effectively, but it is especially useful for those dealing with BPD. Sofer outlines how to remain confident in conversations, understand the true intent of conversations, and navigate anxiety during difficult topics.
10. The High-Conflict Couple: A Dialectical Behavior Therapy Guide to Finding Peace, Intimacy, and Validation
Highly-reactive couples – those quick to anger or argue – usually need more than the standard relationship advice available. For couples where one partner struggles with BPD, this can be all too common.
Still, you don’t have to write off the relationship as doomed. This workbook outlines the importance of understanding, and better controlling, your emotions so that the heart of the argument can be resolved in an effective and understanding manner. While good for any couple who struggles in fights, this book is especially impactful for those who deal with BPD.
For Further Reading
- Mindfulness for Borderline Personality Disorder
- Quotes About BPD
- How to Help Someone With BPD
- Mental Health America
- NAMI Support Groups
- Connect with a counselor through an online therapy company
