You can see how so many of these overlap and seem to fall underneath the category of "life skills".

But the magical part of all of this is that because these behaviors are uniquely learned... We can physically re-wire our brain to override these emotions and in many cases (through several solutions) they disappear completely.

I personally believe that life is indiscriminately cruel and that every single person alive could benefit from this, diagnosis or not. By being on both an anti-depressant and mood stabilizer, I am now able to get out of bed and work on the other important aspects of my mental health.

For me personally, these are absolutely necessary and after three days of not taking them I see a drastic change in my ability to cope with everyday stressors.

There is no definitive box that applies to everyone, but in my case it was all of the above. I could easily drone on in an academic fashion OR I could cover the common symptoms through my genuine experiences IN PINK. and the rates of follow through are tragically high. For me, this has happened several times and is often associated with several other symptoms combined.

My family has a history of illness and my make-up left me sensitive and predisposed to my surroundings. 10% diagnosed with BPD do die by suicide, and I have been trained to treat any talk resembling this as a life threatening issue. I didn't necessarily want to die, but I absolutely didn't want to live.

And 5.) people believe that only women develop this, when in actuality it comes down to the simple fact that men are socially pressured to refuse help when it comes to emotional imbalance. First and foremost, it is most often considered a learned disorder.

Like, the kind of real that makes most people uncomfortable but is also a total game changer... 4.) Those who are unfamiliar with BPD tend to confuse it with "Multiple Personality Disorder" (which is now called Disassociative Identity Disorder) but those are nothing alike.

I was fortunate to have an incredible mother who counteracted some of this, but the damage was done and the reversal of this will take me years.

Psychotropic medication is not a magic cure, but it sure is a fucking wonderful contributor to my happy, healthy life.

As a mental health professional and a person with lived experience I can promise you this: meds are not a cop out.

I have a co-morbid diagnosis of depression (hereditary) which also contributes. My efforts were futile (obvs), but still decidedly dangerous.

Add on top of this: a childhood filled with emotional abuse from a father figure and you've got one fucked up Jes. Copious amounts of "how to commit suicide" research consumed the larger part of my darkest days, and I'm glad that there was no ending of my life; I have a lot to do y'know?