Reviews

The following are a list of reviews for the book "Stop Walking on Eggshells" and the BPD Central web site.

Reviews from Professionals
Reviews From the Media
Reviews from Consumers

Reviews from Professionals

"Borderline personality disorder throws millions of lives into chaos — not just the lives of people with the disorder, but those around them. Here at last is a book of survival and empowerment for anyone who cares about someone with BPD. This is a truly invaluable resource — a must read."  John Bradshaw.

"SWOE is an indispensable book for people who live with someone or love someone who suffers from this disorder." John M. Grohol, Psy.D.

"The site www.BPDCentral.com  represents one of the few sources of information to the lay public. Through the Internet they are forming a virtual community. And they're challenging the longstanding notion that borderlines are [in general] stuck with an unyielding condition. Many psychologists welcome this type of networking, seeing it as a coherent source of information about a complex, misunderstood disorder. " The American Psychological Association's Monitor.

"After working with hundreds of borderlines in mental health settings and in the everyday world, I, as a psychiatric social worker, had read most of the recognized works on BPD. Most were academic or treatment oriented; they did not offer relief for the lay person who has a borderline loved one in their life. This book stands head and shoulders above the rest. It is easy to read for clinicians and non-clinicians alike. It is objective and gives nonjudgmental information to the borderline and to the non-borderline. Here's hoping that clinicians will be more willing to hang in with the borderline for the long-term after reading this book. I'm recommending this as must reading to other mental health practitioners." (Anonymous, from Amazon.com ).

Reviews From the Media

"Stop Walking on Eggshells and BPDCentral  are filling a huge information gap. "There are several thousand articles on BPD, but we know barely anything about the families," says Perry Hoffman, Ph.D. Common Boundary

"When Kreger initiated a world Wide Web site [and discussion group] about BPD…hundreds of [e-mails] started pouring in from grandmothers, children, and borderline patients started pouring in.The Saturday Evening Post.

Back to top

Reviews from Consumers

From e-mail to the authors, the discussion groups about BPD, and www.Amazon.com  (where all 15 reviewers gave the book the maximum five stars).

“Thanks to this book, I finally got my life back."

“Turns confusion into reason.”

“A singular, indispensable, life-saving contribution on BPD.”

“This book is so on-target it is unbelievable!”

“A work of genius!”

"Almost too conscientious and compassionate about BP behavior…That said, this book of healing for loving non-BPs deserves every bit of its 5-star rating. An astonishing and rare achievement and a godsend to non-BPs and to those BPs committed to their own treatment. Thank you, Randi and Paul."

"I don't know how Randi Kreger and Paul Mason, M.S., achieved such a lucid masterpiece of savvy compassion for both BPs and anyone sadly taking undiagnosed or untreated BPD for sanity… Many blessings to all the non-BPs who have found their way to this sobering book while making hard decisions. This book [is] great. To hear others describing my life, when it is actually theirs, took away so much pain…I [could not believe] how closely this book describes my ex. Now it's time to work on me."

“An excellent resource for making sense of borderline madness.”

“Thank you for the knowledge your book imparts upon us all. It should be required reading for all psychologists and psychiatrists.

“Your book has affected me as much as the Bible, the first place I turned.”

“As a BP, I found the book to be very educational and sometimes shocking. I learned how my behavior affects others around me. It made me more aware of what non-BPs are thinking and feeling and encouraged me to change my behaviors through cognitive efforts. The authors are both sensitive to the needs of the borderline and the non-BPs by using realistic and non-accusatory language.”

"Studying the book has brought me an emotional release and validation that I never would have believed possible."

"I read the book for hours last night and was enthralled. It's such a relief to know that others are aware of the kind of hell that we've been through over the past 13 years. My fear is melting away; I know it will resurface again, but at least I have some idea what is going on here."

"Three months ago I read Stop Walking on Eggshells (SWOE). Being a person of action, I immediately instituted each and every technique offered. I never wavered, never moved. It can be done. Since the initial dust melee, little else of consequence has occurred. Minor things here and there, I always handled with SWOE techniques. My BP has been working diligently within himself to change. Between his strong efforts and my SWOEing, life is completely different around here. A lot of you seem to have read SWOE, but from the posts it seems that only a few have really instituted what you have read. Do it today… Our house is starting to heal…Randi, you have truly changed my life."

"Paul and Randi really seem to understand the non-BP's good intentions, needs, impossible dilemmas, and endlessly fruitless efforts. They give us credit. I am really excited about this book and may not be able to get back to work or reading your posts until I finish the book!"

"I am only a short way into the book, but I needed to write and tell you how great I am finding it. It is so comprehensive and already has touched on some of the most difficult issues. You have done a great service to those of us who love and care for someone who has BPD. In addition, I think you have helped those who suffer from BPD by helping us to really understand the turmoil that feel daily.

"Got the book! The world came to a screeching halt and I spent two days devouring it. Wonderful! I dove into it with such a passion that I will have to read it again, slowly and carefully, to find those "lightening struck here" places again. Your work has been a candle in my darkness!"

"In the last three days, I have voraciously devoured Stop Walking on Eggshells. The sections on Limit Setting, Protecting Children & Distortion Campaigns exhausted my highlighter; you and Paul wrote these sections for me. Thank you for taking the initiative to research this subject and direct your writing to those left in the wake of the BP's. Your book has been one of the larger bricks used in the rebuilding of my foundation."

"I continue to reread and highlight my copy of Stop Walking on Eggshells. It is by far the best reference I have read. It has given me a direction that was previously elusive and ephemeral."

"I can't even begin to thank you enough for your book. I started it this weekend and am devouring it whole! I have to force myself to slow down and digest it in smaller bits. You've given me hope that I may some day have a real relationship with my mother."

"I have been reading your book and I finally feel a cool breeze flowing through my dry and blistering emotions. Your insightful literature and descriptions have been so helpful in making me realize I was right to leave the relationship."

"I just bought your book at 10:30 last night and am only through Chapter 2, but I know already that it represents one of the key milestones of my life. Yesterday I prayed to God to help me find a way of learning to deal with the BP in my life. I went to the bookstore with the idea of trying to find a resource. I had given up, and was ready to leave, when your book jumped out at me like a bolt of lightning. I literally can't wait to read the rest of it, and have high hopes of finding at least the kernel of the solution I seek."

"Your book has just become available in New Zealand this week and I sat and read it in one session. It was a shock to sit and read about me from my wife's view point. I have been in therapy for seven months and it is hurting. I have been unable to share my feelings with my wife for fear of losing her if she found out some of the pain I have suffered in past years. What pleased and frightened me about your book was that some of it was so mirror-like I knew my wife would recognize the tale as something she has lived with. She is halfway through the book and can see me in it. The main thing to deal with right now is getting over the awkwardness of someone knowing so much about how I have feel and still feel. With the help of your book I hope to change."

"I am about to finish reading Eggshells. The name describes my life and the life of our children. I was astonished from the start that every page was a page out of my life, like you reached in my brain and pulled out all of my feelings, thoughts, and worst of all pain."

"Your book is by far the best one ever written on BPD. I have read them all, or most of them, but yours is the only one that makes any sense and tells the non-BP what to do and gives some coping skills. I'm overwhelmed with your book. You have done a lot of research, hard work, and have something to give to others."

"I felt like I was drowning and someone threw my a life line! I am reading the book for the fifth time. Using the communication skills as outlined has brought some sanity to what had been chaos. I am recommending the book to others in the field (I am in the helping field) and to others in our family."

"I can't tell you what SWOE has meant to me. First, there is a huge need for the public to know and understand this information. So many people impacted by something they don't understand — including many in the "helping business." Thank you for the lifesaver your resources have been to me, and my family, and literally hundreds of people. I imagine you already realize this, but the impact of you providing SWOE impacts not just the family but everyone who has contact with any BP .in a very long chain reaction. Benefits from what you are doing accrue even way beyond direct contact and extend to businesses, communities and people who never even know where their benefit came from. You are providing what truly is a life-changing service having exceedingly far reaching ramifications."

"Reading SWOE was like a revelation from heaven. Everything fit so perfectly and made such sense. I was moved nearly to tears in several places."

"Stop Walking on Eggshells has been a godsend. I am an American woman living outside of the United States in an Arab country. I have been living in an ever escalating cycle of verbal and physical abuse from my husband. My husband is a textbook BPD, with an explosive temper and a person who has to be in control of absolutely everything, even what I wear, how I speak, how I sit. He threatens to kill me or the children. Your web site and your book have been so important for me over the past 1 1/2 years, my sole source of information that put me on the road to "recovery," to become me again. Thank you for helping me find the courage to reach this far."

(Received one year later) "I don't know if you remember me — I wrote to you almost one year ago about my BPD husband. I was living in a foreign country and wanted to get on a plane and come home but I was terrified because he had threatened to kill me and my children if I ever tried to leave. Well, with your encouragement I DID IT — you helped me realize that I was not crazy and that I was making the right decision. We are living a quiet, violent free life now. I have started an organization for American women living in foreign countries and we have a web site. Thank you again for helping make the decision that changed my life and the life of my children."

"I have made the decision — and intend to stick by it this time — to end this relationship. Your material helped me make this decision - but most important, it gave me information and comfort when I needed it most. Once I am sure I do not need my copy of SWOE any longer I am going to donate it somewhere. My local psychiatric hospital library does NOT have a copy and my library system has five copies but all are checked out with a waiting list, so my donation will help others."

Back to top