Why traumatized borderline patients relapse.

To be freed of longstanding painful symptoms or to become capable of functioning effectively has unconscious and sometimes conscious negative connotations for patients severely traumatized by childhood sexual abuse. These include rising expectations felt as coming both from within and without; disappointment that life can never make up for what has happened; loss of a justification for receiving care; fear that getting well invalidates the original trauma. Giving up illness may mean renouncing revenge and denying the seriousness of the childhood misery. To the extent that the torment of flashbacks and nightmares represents a continuation of the only family relationships the patient has known, losing these symptoms can feel as if being left entirely alone. The destructive impact of embittered and paranoid reactions unleashed by the experience of change for the better can be mitigated by the therapist's recognition of, and the focus upon, the negative meanings of progress toward health.