S.C.I.D. Danger

Well my DBT pre-commitment sessions are drawing to a close.  One more to go and then I start the programme properly.

In this penultimate session Joy explained that we’d pretty much covered all the pre-commitment work and there was one more baseline assessment to do.  This time not a multi choice questionnaire but a s.c.i.d.  This immediately made me think of dirty pants but Joy went on to explain it was a diagnostic tool for Borderline Personality Disorder.  

S.c.i.d. is an acronym for Structured Clinical Interview  for DSM disorders (DSM being an acronym for a diagnostic manual of some sort).  Confused by acute ‘acronymitus’, I preferred to revert to my own understanding of ‘skid’ – “a dirty stain on clothes or fabric caused by a pooey bottom.”  It turned out this wasn’t such a bad interpretation.

The interview took the form of a series of questions covering a range of the BPD diagnostic criteria.  These were asked by Joy who was able to ask me to explain further or clarify any of my answers.  It also meant when I said, “No, I don’t do or experience that!” she was able to ask about it in a different way to make sure.  

I’m not quite sure why we did it.  I had to have a BPD diagnosis to be referred to do the DBT in the first place – though she did say that if I put the work in I could expect not to meet the criteria anymore at the end, which is a very appealing thought.  The actuality of the interview however was as unpleasant as any huge skid you can imagine.  It forced me to think about all the things about me and that I do that really are horrible smears in my life.  By the end I felt pretty crap (excuse the pun).

Role on the end of DBT!