If you live with borderline personality disorder (BPD), you might be familiar with the classic symptom of “splitting,” also known as black-and-white thinking. People who “split” often have difficulty integrating positive and negative qualities of people or situations — causing them to think in extremes (i.e. I’m all bad or all good, or They love me or they’re out to get me). Splitting can …
Read More »3 Assumptions Not to Make About Someone With Borderline Personality Disorder
When I was first diagnosed correctly with borderline personality disorder (BPD), I was 27 or 28 years old. I had spent years in and out of psychiatrist and psychologist offices. I had been diagnosed with bipolar disorder, severe depression,anxiety disorder, social anxiety disorder general anxiety disorder and a number of other disorders that didn’t quite fit the bill. This is …
Read More »The Unpredictability of Borderline Personality Disorder
I used to wonder why it is called borderline personality disorder (BPD). That is until my symptoms got worse, and I had to find the answer the worst possible way. It literally feels like you’re standing on the borderline of emotional and mental instability. Some days, you struggle to make sure you’re still “sane.” Other days, it feels like you’re …
Read More »5 Secrets I’ve Never Told My Friends About My Borderline Personality Disorder
Living with a mental health condition can mean keeping a lot of secrets. Not necessarily because you want to keep them, but I’ve generally found people often don’t want to know about what they don’t understand — what is not perceived as “normal” behavior. Try, for example, answering someone who asks how you are with “I am having an excruciating week because …
Read More »How to Love Someone With Borderline Personality Disorder
The way to love anyone is to love them truly and with your whole heart. In order to truly love someone, you have to accept them for who they are. You have to accept their shortcomings, their successes, their bad habits and their humor. When loving someone with borderline personality disorder (BPD), acceptance is one of the most important things about …
Read More »The Different Ways I ‘Split’ as Someone With BPD
The world is constantly split in the eyes of someone like me who has borderline personality disorder (BPD). We only see things in extremes, one end of the spectrum or the other, black or white with no other shades in between. Everything is polarized. I’m high or I’m low; you love me, or you hate me. The time it takes to travel …
Read More »To the Suicidal Mama Fighting to Stay Alive for Her Kids
Fellow Mama, I see you lying there in bed, trying to will yourself to get up. I know some part of you might wish you hadn’t woken up this morning – that you could fade away into nothingness because it seems a hell of a lot better than dealing with the demons you fight off daily in your head. I …
Read More »Why Fear of Abandonment Leads Me to Suicidality
How can you not understand what you do to me? Are you really so blind every time you completely destroy me Remember when all I wanted to do was run away from you As you turned your back ignoring me, basically saying fuck you. How would you feel if every second you wanted to die And the only person you …
Read More »People Who Are Suicidal Don’t Want to Die, They Just Want the Pain to Stop
This piece was written by Bria Barrows, a Thought Catalog contributor I know this is an extremely sensitive topic, but it is one that needs to be discussed. Because I know for a fact that at one point in our lives, we have been suicidal or have known someone struggling with these thoughts. One in five people struggle with mental health issues. That means …
Read More »Pete Davidson Gives an Inside Look to the ‘Manipulation’ Associated With BPD
During an intimate conversation on comedian Marc Maron’s “WTF” podcast, “Saturday Night Live” cast member Pete Davidson revealed he had been diagnosed with borderline personality disorder (BPD) — an often misunderstood disorder that affects your mood, relationships and how you see the world. Davidson had some genuine (and some funny) things to say about what it’s like living with BPD, from how he’s …
Read More »Photo Taken 7 Hours Before a Suicide Attempt Shows a Hard Reality of Borderline Personality Disorder
“I had no idea I’d try to take my own life in the morning.” This is what Milly Smith, who runs the popular Instagram account selfloveclubb, wrote beneath a photo that was taken seven hours before she attempted suicide. Although this might be surprising to some, Smith lives with borderline personality disorder, which she explains, “means that my mood can switch …
Read More »What I Want My Best Friend to Know About My Borderline Personality Disorder
To my best friend, I’ve always apologized too much for things that were never my fault. I’m tempted to do it again here. But instead of apologizing for burdening you, I’ll say thank you. Thank you for sticking with me, even when my personality is affected by an illness — borderline personality disorder (BPD) — I don’t yet understand. I …
Read More »What Shaving My Legs Means for My Mental Health WITH BPD
Have you ever sat and thought about how weird it is that humans are here when there were once dinosaurs? Or about how evolution managed to give us opposable thumbs from fins and strip us naked from the fur which had developed as a defense mechanism from the cold, harsh winters? It’s weird. People are weird. How is it that …
Read More »What It Means to Be a Young Person With Borderline Personality Disorder
I am 21 years old and I have a mental illness. I will probably struggle with this mental illness for the rest of my life. It will always be there, lurking in the shadows, watching me and waiting for the perfect time for it to creep back into my life when I least expect it. I have a mental illness, …
Read More »How to Practice Self-Love in Borderline Personality Disorder Recovery
Most people really struggle with the idea of engaging in self-love. They think, “I don’t want to be conceited!” It feels awkward to even talk about the concept, let alone start to think about doing it. Most people are not taught that self-love is something to which they should aspire. They are not taught to value it as a behavior. …
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How to Survive Christmas If You Live With Borderline Personality Disorder
“What’s the matter with you? It’s Christmas!” Heard that one a few too many times? …
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How to Survive Christmas If You Live With Borderline Personality Disorder
“What’s the matter with you? It’s Christmas!” Heard that one a few too many times? …
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