What kind of technological advancements have helped FUDs?
I mentioned emotional self-regulation teaching in the previous post, which is actually a huge one. In the past twenty years we (and when I say 'we' I mean the maladaptive psychology field regarding Western sufferers) has seen a huge increase in medical and psychological tools to help people who struggle with a host of personality disorders. I'm gonna focus on personality disorders and schizophrenia, since those comprise the majority of my experience. I no longer work in the corrections systems of my country, so I can't speak in regards to criminal psychiatry. Apologies for that omission.
As recently as 2003 or so, a diagnosis of borderline personality disorder (which is itself p. fucking questionable, it's kinda the round bin of the psychiatry world for women) meant a dismal future indeed. But techniques for teaching individuals to self-parent and re-establish healthy identities frankly didn't exist. More than that, people didn't know what they needed. There was a general lull in the field of counselling because the prevailing wisdom dictated that talk-therapy was the only reliable way (they weren't wrong) and client just wanted RELIEF (which is pretty fucking vague and unhelpful), until some fantastic minds in North America pioneered very clever research.
CBT/DBT (Cognitive Behavioural Therapy/Dialectical Behavioural Therapy) are two fields of therapy which aren't wholly talk-based and instead focus on reprogramming the nervous system. They don't work for everyone, but they work for many people, often enough to be statistically significant.
I can't recommend CBT/DBT enough for people with personality disorders or even "failure to thrive". A good CBT course refreshes all the positive lessons a normal child learns, while refining the skills already established. For someone who lacks self sufficiency, the lessons of these courses are often world-shattering in their revelatory power. I've seen FUDs go into a CBT course, repeat it a few times, and then it clicks and they get a job and end up functional. I'm not talking about making superstars out of the dredges, I'm talking about turning someone on disability into someone who supports themselves, has an apartment, a cat and a girlfriend. That is huge. H U G E. We used to institutionalize such people. Massive advancements.
Chemically, there have been remarkable advancements made in how to treat BPDs and the demi-psychotic. A small dose of shotgun antipsychs plus some SSRNI's tends to help a lot of anxiety and low-grade psychosis. The chemical advancements really depend on the patient. Each one is different. A snowflake, if you will.
