Hi, I'm trying to write a character who had BPD traits as a kid and went in the foster system at 13. I've tried to read up on it but I couldn't really find any concrete info (or I missed it) but is a psych eval mendatory for those kids and what's the % of chances his BPD traits might be missed ?
Following the BPD ask : my character ends up seeing a different therapist by the time he’s 17, is he old enough to be diagnose w/ BPD ? Are there specific treatments for that ? most of what I could find was Behavioral Therapy which seems to not be considered to have good results in helping people who/ BPD get better (I don’t think it’s possible to “cure” PDs right?). He also sees a nutritionist ‘cause he was homeless for a few years d'you think it’s possible to link treatments and diet?
The Shrink is not familiar with the foster care system, and thus does not know if psych evals are mandatory.
I can’t give you a percentage chance that your character’s BPD would be missed, but it’s actually fairly probable given that your character is male (presuming based on the he/him pronouns). A lot of therapists unfortunately are rather sexist in applying a diagnosis of borderline, and rarely diagnose male-presenting people with it.
Curing personality disorders is indeed not really possible. However, there are treatments and therapy that can help people with personality disorders learn coping skills and such so that they can alleviate the distress they can experience.
There is indeed a specific treatment for BPD called dialectical behavior therapy (aka DBT) that has been found to be pretty effective!
As for the treatments and diet…eating healthily definitely doesn’t hurt, but it’s not sufficient on its own to cure mental illness. We do have a dietitian that we consult with at my internship site, but their involvement in treatment is fairly limited.