Forums » Smalltalk » AMA: Borderline Personality Disorder

"People with borderline personality disorder (BPD) often have a strong fear of abandonment, struggle to maintain healthy relationships, have very intense emotions, act impulsively, and may even experience paranoia and dissociation."

Yo. I have been diagnosed with BPD for approximately 7-8 months now, and since it's a pretty misunderstood condition, I am here to clarify things. I am unmedicated (by choice) and do not attend psychotherapy. Please refrain from any questions regarding how I was diagnosed/when I ""knew"" I had it, as those are invasive to my privacy and frankly, slightly disrespectful. Other than that, shoot away. Also I'm not qualified to tell you if you or someone you know has it. Go to a doctor.

Doing this anonymously to protect my identity, as people can react very differently to you once the cat's out of the bag; BPD is a strongly stigmatized disorder and most folks will feel like they have to walk on eggshells if they learn you have it.

I know that fears of violence are a very pervasive stigma around many mental health diagnoses. Besides that, what is a stigma you find bothers you or gets in your way more often than others, one of the top myths you'd like to be busted? (If you feel there are important things to say about the violence issue, I am fully willing to read about that, too.)

I'm also curious, if you feel roundly informed or experienced enough to speak on it, how you would say BPD compares to Rejection Sensitive Dysphoria (RSD), an issue currently most commonly associated with ADHD. From what I've read, RSD (in as much as it's recognized) seems to be seen as something like "BPD lite." (Apologies for for perhaps crude phrasing.)

If you don't mind me asking: What's one of the more annoying stereotypes that you've heard about people with BPD?