How those with personality disorder see the world as through shattered glass. — Borderline Personality Disorder emerged like a primordial monster out of the swamp of my own adolescence. …

How we blend and camouflage into different environments and why it’s ultimately unsuccessful. — Are you a chameleon? If you have Borderline Personality Disorder chances are you might be. At the very least, this spirit animal has given you the superpower of blending in. Individuals with BPD have no inherent sense of self: Washed away somewhere in childhood, peek inside the heart of a…

An autobiographical fragment of canvas, paints and brushes — I suffered mental health problems for almost all of my life. I’ve seen the inside of hospital wards and prison cells more times than I’d care to count. I’ve tasted despair, which I cannot quite articulate, and trauma beyond words. The truth is I cannot yet shape the contours of…

All you need to know about BPD but were afraid to ask — It’s one of the most stigmatised conditions in all of psychiatry. Sufferers are maligned, judged and misunderstood, victim-blamed and shamed. On one hand, accused of being “manipulative” or “attention-seeking” and on the other “vulnerable” and in need of help. What’s it like living with Borderline Personality Disorder? Those with the…

The story of the Freudian psychoanalyst who coined the term ‘Borderline’ and created the diagnosis. — BPD is a controversial diagnosis alive and well in clinical settings. It is also a relic of the past, plucked from some dried-out psychiatric ossuary – or rather the courthouse. Back in the 19th century, it was called moral insanity and described as a ‘morbid perversion of the feelings’ with…

And how learning how to cry can help you overcome trauma — On one hand, your emotions are out of control, on the other, you’re silent, sphinx-like, walking around with a granitic mask instead of a face. Hollowed out by grief, but you can’t cry. Any tears shed, fall inwardly drowning your heart in untold suffering. These emotional blockages are in fact…

At first glance, the arch-priest of pessimism Arthur Schopenhauer seems an odd poster boy for psychological wellbeing. Indeed a philosopher who said, ‘the world is hell, and men are on the one hand the tormented souls, and on the other, the devils in it’ is hardly likely to endear himself…

And how to escape the minefield of poor mental health care and treatment — How do you treat an emotional burn victim on a cliff edge? That might be the question therapists ask when treating individuals with Borderline Personality Disorder. Then again perhaps not. In truth, clinicians ‘don’t like borderline patients’ (Gunderson, 2009). In fact, a 2014, review of the literature indicates negative views…

What the Buddhist parable of Aṅgulimāla can teach us about justice, mercy, and good mental health. — In Buddhist countries, when a baby is being born, expectant mothers, listen to the 2500-year-old words of Aṅgulimāla: The fabled serial killer who upon encountering Buddha, renounced violence and became a monk. The Aṅgulimāla Parrita, is just one of many protective verses recited in Buddhism for auspicious and inauspicious events…