When you are struggling with mental health issues like borderline personality disorder, every day can be like a new nightmare. With emotional swings that can occur several times a day, splitting, and other symptoms, your mind can be like a minefield. There are numerous treatment options that can help you manage your borderline personality disorder symptoms. One of the most popular options available is group therapy. This type of therapy has many benefits when you are struggling to deal with borderline personality disorder. Get to know some of these benefits. Then, you can decide if group therapy services feels right for you. 

It Can Help You Better Understand Your Disorder

Borderline personality disorder is complicated and often difficult to fully understand, especially when you are in the thick of it struggling with symptoms. In a group setting you can begin to gain a greater understanding of your disorder. In fact, in most group therapy settings that focus specifically on borderline personality disorder, you will spend the first session or several on better understanding the disorder. 

Throughout therapy, group members will be encouraged to indicate whether they identify with symptoms or situations discussed in the therapy materials as well as share their own unique experiences. This can help to further flesh out an understanding on the disorder in a real-life setting. 

It Helps You Feel Less Alone

As group members begin to open up more and discuss their personal experiences, you will not only learn more about the disorder and how it might be affecting you, but you will also start to feel like you can better relate to the other people in your group.

Feeling less along in your feelings and your experiences can be a cathartic experience and help you to better heal from your borderline personality disorder. You will learn that the symptoms you experience are shared by others and that you can learn to manage them because other people with the disorder have done so as well. 

It Helps to Give You Ideas

As you go through your therapy sessions, you will be taught a variety of coping mechanisms that can help you manage your borderline episodes and symptoms. These can include distancing techniques like relaxation breathing, as well as communication skills, challenging negative thoughts and emotions, and more. Each of these steps will generally take one or more session on their own with homework in between to practice. 

The good thing about a group setting with these new skills is that you can learn from what others do and experience in trying to implement these strategies. Each person will bring different distancing activities to the table, for example, that help distract them when emotions begin to run high. You may get ideas that you can try from listening to what others like to do in those situation. 

Now that you know some of the benefits of group therapy for borderline personality disorder, you can better determine if this is an option you would like to try in your treatment program.