ArticleBMC psychiatry2023
Life experienced as worth living and beyond: a qualitative study of the pathways to recovery and flourishing amongst individuals treated for borderline personality disorder.
Article in BMC psychiatry, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 8 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Who cites it
8 citing papers in PubMed, 10 citations in OpenAlex.
- Recovery from borderline personality disorder in relation to the concept of "a life worth living": a therapist perspective.Borderline personality disorder and emotion dysregulation · 2026Article
- Understanding individual and structural factors behind extensive care needs in personality disorders: an interpretative phenomenological analysis.Annals of general psychiatry · 2026Article
- Person-centred suicide prevention: key elements from the perspective of people living with suicidality.International journal of qualitative studies on health and well-being · 2025Article
- Meaning in Life as an Outcome of Inpatient or Day-Hospital Psychotherapy for Personality Disorder.Personality and mental health · 2025Article
- Article
- Symptom domains and psychosocial functioning in borderline personality disorder.Borderline personality disorder and emotion dysregulation · 2024Article
- Article
- Borderline Personality Disorder and Loneliness: Broadening the Scope of Treatment for Social Rehabilitation.Harvard review of psychiatryReview
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
4 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundDialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT) is recognized as a leading evidence-based treatment, effective in reducing symptoms of borderline personality disorder (BPD), as well as co-occurring clinical syndromes. However, symptom remission may not be the same as a life experienced as worth living. The purpose of the study was to understand, from the perspective of individuals with lived experience, the concepts of recovery, life experienced as worth living and flourishing after treatment for BPD, and to describe the pathways to wellness after symptom remission.
methodsSemi-structured interviews were conducted with nine adult women previously diagnosed with BPD, co-occurring clinical syndromes and severe self-harm behaviour who self-identified as recovered for a minimum of two years, recruited from a network for individuals with lived experience. The average duration of recovery was 5.7 years with a range from 2 to 10 + years. Data were analysed using thematic analysis.
resultsFour main themes and 14 subthemes were generated from our analyses. Main themes indicated that loved ones helped recovery and to create a life worth living, that participants identified as recovered and as healthy and beyond, and that becoming well is a long process associated in part with reclaiming a healthy identity. Participants defined recovery as separate but related to a life worth living, which in turn was separate but related to being healthy and having lives they described as being beyond health and well-being. The wellness process was described as lengthy and non-linear, including setbacks that with time no longer derailed daily life. A proposed theoretical model depicting the wellness process over time from symptom remission to the experience of a life beyond health and wellness is presented.
conclusionsThis qualitative study contributes knowledge of what a life experienced as worth living means, as well as how wellness progressed into flourishing for some participants within a sample of individuals with lived experience. Our findings may inform treatment development that targets more than symptom reduction, which in turn may shorten trajectories from symptom remission to health, wellness, and flourishing.
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