Counting Days without Drama

For our child with borderline personality disorder, drama is like an addiction. Even when she knows it is bad for her, even when she recognizes that she is creating drama, she is compelled to indulge in it. Always with results that end in her losing control of the situation, sometimes with results that hurt someone or many people around her.

The way we have chosen to deal with it on a day to day basis is to think of it exactly like an addiction. AA teaches alcoholics to take things one day at a time, and that every day without a drink is a good day, a day that they are in recovery. One drink will start it all over. They are taught that there is no permanent state of recovery, and vigilance every day is the only way to stay in recovery. So we have my daughter count days without drama. We know that every day is a battle for recovery, and any day could be a bad day. But every day without drama is a good day.