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Taken directly from Putting the Pieces Together, here are some of the general BPD-oriented homework exercises listed in Chapter 10. These homework exercises are optional (they are NOT required for your participation or continued membership with the BPDR Forums.) The homework need not be posted in public nor shared in any way. The exercises are simply posted as a way to provide some of the recovery-oriented work that may be of assistance in your journey toward healthy, happy living.

While the homework for this section may seem longer than most other homework opportunities, it is more delineated in The Five Steps simply because it's a deliberate exploration of each facet of the decision-making process.

• Do you see value in the Five Step process? If so, why? If not, what do you disagree with or what would you change?
  [+] Are you able to envision yourself, one day, being able to use the Five Step process in some (if not all) situations in your daily life?
• Pick a situation in your recent past where you feel you could have handled things better or differently.
  [1] Work all five of the Five Steps.
  [2] Even though the situation isn’t present tense, still do the first step and check the past situation for HALT.
• For step three, make sure that one of your possible courses of action is the action that you actually took in that past situation.
• Briefly examine how things would have been different had you chosen a different course of action:
  [1] For yourself
  [2] For the overall situation
  [3] For the other people involved in the situation and/or your life at the time.
  [+] Forgive yourself. Do not beat yourself up for not acting on knowledge you didn’t have at the time. The past cannot be changed.
  [+] Add this newly discovered concept – possible course of action – to your Learning Library for reference in the future if/when a similar situation arises.
• “Lather, Rinse, Repeat.” Do the prior exercise at least twice more.
• Formulate a plan to remind yourself to review The Five Steps and your homework for this chapter on a regular basis. Perhaps a weekly or bi-weekly reminder. A note on your calendar. Mark the day you pay the paperboy as the day you also review the Five Steps.
• As you move forward in your personal journey toward healthy, happy living, work on incorporating The Five Steps into your coping mechanisms at incrementally earlier stages. Rather than settling for always reviewing the steps in retrospect, try to catch yourself earlier in the process and see if you can begin to apply The Five Steps before taking action.
• Make notes or create a special journal to mark your improvement as you incorporate The Five Steps into your daily life to remind yourself of the progress you’re making.

A problem I have with the five steps very often is that I get stuck at just trying to put things in words. Does anyone else have this problem and how do they address it?

It's like in order to put things in words, I have to have a "central self" that is thinking coherent thoughts about myself or the world and often my sense of self feels so fragmented, I cant make thoughts form into describing a problem. It's like in order to do the five steps, I almost have to already have the problem solved to begin with. I asked my T. several times if I'm schizophrenic and he said no.

Would really appreciate feedback if anyone has had similar problems and how they were able to employ the five steps when they were having trouble with this.

hey there,
i just started the 5 steps, and i have to write them down/type them for each situation i am looking at; then, it is all right in front of me to think about!

hope it helps