Ep. 26 Jim Yu | Shining Light on Shadows: Borderline Personality Disorder Support for Families
- Neil Parekh
- Mar 24
- 3 min read
Updated: Apr 8
Trigger Warning: This content contains discussion of suicide and suicidal thoughts. Please scroll to the bottom for available resources.
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On good days, parenting is hard. We want nothing but the best for our children, but what happens when your child has Borderline Personality Disorder and attempts suicide not once, but twice? What if they recognize they have Social Anxiety Disorder in Middle School, that the world was not set up for kids like him? Jim Yu will be our guest on Ep. 26 of “Shining Light on Shadows: A Candid Conversation About Mental Health.” I had the pleasure of working with him for five years at United Way Worldwide.
Jim will talk about his daughter’s struggles and the support he found for family members from the National Education Alliance for Borderline Personality Disorder (NEABPD). Dawn will share her experience with her son’s social anxiety disorder and the adjustments she’s had to make over the years.
Please join us Thursday March 13 at 7 p.m. ET / 6 p.m. CT / 4 p.m. PT. If you can’t watch the live show feel free to watch the recording on the same links.
Programming Note: The show airs the second and fourth Thursdays of the month. April is Sexual Assault Awareness Month. Both Dawn and I are survivors of rape and sexual abuse. We often talk about it on the show. On April 10, we will focus on The Blue Flower Curtain, the book Dawn wrote about being raped thirty-one years ago, the criminal trials and her road to recovery.
Jim Yu
Jim’s blog post doesn’t pull any punches. He writes about feeling lost and alone after his daughter’s second suicide attempt, and how she suffered from years of misdiagnosis and mistreatment by well-meaning clinicians.
He also writes about how a class sponsored by the NEABPD that gave his family “practical skills to navigate our relationship with our daughter and a supportive community.” He describes the class as not only “transforming” his family, but saving his family. He went on to teach the same class, serve on several committees, and now chairs their Board of Directors.
Dawn Helmrich Neuburg
In her blog post for Episode 7 (May 9, 2024), Dawn shared details of her son’s challenges with social anxiety disorder. In the blog post for this episode, "Parenting a Child with Social Anxiety Disorder," she writes about how she pushed him to be more social before he declared in no uncertain terms that the world wasn’t built for people like him, people with social anxiety disorder.
That being said, she recounts a recent dinner at a crowded restaurant. When she asked how he was doing, he said, “I had to prepare myself for this situation. I knew it was going to be like this and I had to just tune out everything and focus on the purpose of us being here. I have learned to adapt to my environment.”
Background
Dawn and I launched this twice a month show (the 2nd and 4th Thursdays of the month) in order to help reduce the stigma associated with mental health. Thank you for being part of our community.
We are proud to be in Year 2 of the show. If you are interested in being a guest on the show or know someone who might be interested, please let us know. We’re looking for people who would be willing to share their story, advocates and people who work in the field of mental health.
We hope you can watch the show and share your own thoughts in the comments.
“Shining Light on Shadows: A Candid Conversation About Mental Health” is produced by Digimentors on a pro bono basis. If you or someone you know have had thoughts of hurting themselves, please reach out to the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline by calling 988 for 24/7 free and confidential support. You can also visit 988lifeline.org.
Resources / Relevant Links
National Education Alliance for Borderline Personality Disorder
borderlinepersonalitydisorder.org
National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) Helpline
800-950-6264 Or text "HelpLine" to 6264; nami.org
Mental Health America Call or text 988 or chat 988lifeline.org; mhanational.org Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network (RAINN) National Sexual Assault Hotline 800-656-HOPE (4673); rainn.org
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