I don't think we are all that bad but I don't know what the people around me feel like. I sort of became aware of some of my actions but it's still hard to control them. I think borderline isn't common enough for average people to understand. I try to tell people important in my life about it so they understand me better but that only lasts a few days.

Borderline is so freakin difficult for me to live with so I guess its hard for those around us but a little support and understanding on their behalf wouldn't hurt.

Quite frankly I dont know where the negative stigma came from. The only mass media Ive seen with BPD that many people would know is the movie Girl Interrupted which the chick was suicidal and insecure thats not so much to be specifically hated - I dont understand why certain doctors and professionals target. I think its horrid.

i think it comes from the borderline who is not ready for treatment. this is just a guess, but if someone had tried to treat me when i was 21 years old, totally bulimic, hopped up on pills, angry, aggressive, suicidal and manipulative it would have been a losing battle. today, though i think i am worth the effort.

the problem is, the borderlines who are "full blown" are the ones that need the most help...

Accept for the pill popen and bulima that's how I was. I'm still aggressive and minulipate to a point but it took me having 10 men put me in 4 point restranits, a chemical stright jacket to calm me and almost being instatuationlised for me to change. I was very wild then. I'm still no picknic now and still have the poional ove being violent but under curcamces. I don't ever think I will be compleleatly safe around certian people or curcamcances. A reason that my Dr will not put me ob Serquil, I have pretty much have no emtion ecept anger/rage. My Zyprexa was uped since I'm getting my disemboied fellings(dissocationing) and will have it that way untill I have a better control over my recations to stress. The place were I live has no idea hoe dangerious I can be to myself or others. I'm still a time boumb ticking. All the abuse I've been through growing up then being raped. Before the rape I had a little trust in this world but that got shartted. I'm still deciding if the worlds worth trusting. I belive that I'm better off not trusting. I haven't seen much in my life to think it's worth the risk. To many people desert me.

Yes, I think it is funny that we BPD's have been the most abused since childhood and that's why we are so fucked up now but we are just considered trash now. Trash then and trash now.

My therapist said that people used to think BPD was awful because they didn't understand it very well and didn't know how to treat it.

But she said that now they understand it a lot better and have some really good therapies for it, and when the person wants to recover, the odds are really good.

So if anyone's therapist says they can't recover or that BPD is really horrible, it's not true - keep looking until you find someone who is familiar with recent info and research on BPD and treatments.

I think its because BPD's have a reputation of being manipulative and attention seeking-sometimes it can seem to other people that our self harm or drinking or extreme behaviour is attention seeking which they don't like.

When in fact its just ways that we deal with painful situations, sometimes we dont kno how else to communicate how we feel.

I think these days, with DBT (Dialectical Behaviour Therapy), therapists are learning more about this disorder and are beginning to understand why we act the way we do

Has anyone here read 'Women and Borderline Personality Disorder' by Janet Wirth-Cauchon? It's a feminist book. I'm reading it now and it covers the history of the label and examines the stigma around it.

i think there is so much truth in the statement the people hte what they do not understand - i think us bpds confuse moet people as we are our worst enemy and they think that we should be able to choose not to be how we are.
but i think that with knowledge about bpd becoming more widespread, more health proffesionals are learning how to treat the illness - and at the same time, how to treat the patient.
my psychotherapist certainly didnt have a clue which is why i quit but i hope there is hope...

I think people are very ignorant as to the disorder, many attach it to people who don't even have it, and because it fits a description people assume a lot, with no proper dx from an expert.

Like tidal said we got this way by being abused and neglected and learn poor coping skills, we do not choose to be how we are.
Without treatment or support we can't help it sometimes.

However is a MYTH that BPD are manipulative and attention seekers, that has been the latest findings, gee and it took them that long to figure that out the selfharm wasn't to seek attention?
Another MYTH is that we can harm others, BPDs are mostly a threat to ourselves not others.

On the bright side maybe we can use the bad rep to our advantage, when someone comes on to us and we don't want to hurt their feelings by rejecting them we can always say.."look i'm doing it for your own good, i'm BPD, boo!"...

mwahahaha!

LOL!! ..I am going to have to try that Amiko!

Well I might try that if on the odd chance that someone I have no intrest in does that to me.

I experienced this BPD discrimination with a therapist I was seeing. According to her everything I reported to her was distorted and disfunctional because I had BPD. I was always suspect and under the microscope with her. Every opinion I had was wrong, and she was incredibly critical of me, personally.
It got to the point where I started believing her- that I was totally disfunctionally and beyond hope. I finally reality checked with my husband, who is extremely honest with me, and he agreed that her perspective was distorted- he was even alarmed by her behavior. I abruptly stopped treatment with her.
I have also seen some horrible sites on the web about how to "protect" yourself against the "abusive, destructive" BPD's in your life/family . The sites were completely spiteful and came up once when I was doing a random search for BPD info.
I don't even like to tell anyone I have BPD because of the misinformation that exists.

I think its cruel the way we get ignored , yet people with other mental illnesses get help,
generally i only harm myself as do most of us unfortunately,

i think its because we can function , to a point in the world, but then so do people with bipolar and skitsoprenia{sorry i know i spelt it so bad even spellcheck dosent recognise it!!!}