Lived experiences of family members who have a sibling with borderline personality disorder

Abstract

Abstract: Mental illness does not only affect the individual with the illness but their whole family. Amongst mental illnesses, borderline personality disorder (BPD) has been found to be the most difficult and challenging to manage. People with BPD have unstable and very intense interpersonal relationships which are characterised by excessive idealisation and devaluing of a loved one as well as fear of real or imagined abandonment. Family members, like siblings, are the most affected because of these challenges. The purpose of this study was to understand the lived experiences of family members who have a sibling with BPD, and to formulate specific recommendations to facilitate family members’ mental health. The siblings with BPD can be very challenging to those close to them and have frequent emotional outbursts which can range from verbal abuse to physical attacks. At times, they act out in self-destructive activities as an act of revenge towards their loved ones. A qualitative, exploratory, descriptive and contextual research design was utilised in this study. There were two phases to this research. In Phase One, the lived experiences of family members who have a sibling with BPD were explored and described. A purposive sampling of family members who have a sibling with BPD was utilised in this study as it provides information-rich cases. Data were collected using in-depth, semi-structured, phenomenological interviews until data saturation was achieved. Lincoln and Guba’s approach to ensure trustworthiness was adopted. Tesch’s method of data analysis was employed to analyse the data. The researcher made use of the services of an independent coder who is an experienced psychiatric nurse practitioner, and a consensus discussion was held between the researcher and independent coder. The findings of the research were discussed in light of the literature relevant to this study as well as other similar studies to verify the findings...M.A. (Nursing