Eddie

Personality Disorder

Eddie is a young man who nearly died when he tried to kill himself on remand. He had felt completely hopeless, after another failed rehabilitation. As a child, he was beaten by his parents and was taken into care when he couldn't bring himself to trust anybody. Instead he would wipe out his pain with drugs and inflict it on others with bullying and violent behaviour, or inflict pain on himself with severe self-harm.

At Kneesworth House, one of our specialist personality disorder treatment environments, Eddie attended daily community meetings on the ward where he was able to explore the reasons for his difficulties with peers struggling with the same issues. Discussions with staff in various psychotherapy sessions also aided this. In the cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) programme he learned how to control his temper and impulses to self-harm, and learned new ways to communicate and problem solve without needing to resort to harming himself or others.

After 20 months in treatment, Eddie can predict what triggers his violence or self-harm, and now uses a set of strategies to manage himself. He has more of a stable sense of identity, engaging more healthily in relationships with peers and authority figures. He has learned to ask for help and work through problems, vastly reducing the frequency of adverse incidents. Whilst there are still difficulties, the foundation has been laid down for him to be able to manage himself and he is living semi-independently while awaiting a community hostel placement. For the first time, he, his family and his professional team anticipate that discharge to the community will be sustained.

Case studies are based on real events, but names have been changed to protect the identity of the individuals involved.