Have you been diagnosed with BPD or know of someone who is? If you do or indeed are I think these ten BPD related facts might still blow you away. I have dug deep to make sure these facts are truthful and all stats checked with national statical data. While some might be a little triggering for some people they are all interesting…
There Are 4 Main Types of BPD!
While some will argue that there are more than this the 4 main types that can be classed as diagnosed are Discouraged Borderline, Impulsive Borderline, Petulant Borderline and Self-Destructive Borderline. Each once picks from the main 9 symptoms of BPD and each one is officially recognised as a class of BPD.
BPD Can Be Hereditary
Most people think you only get BPD through childhood trauma, but that is not true at all. In fact, it could be as simple as someone in the family passing it down. But this doesn’t happen when you jump a generation as it is not so much DNA linked, more than the parent or close relative will display BPD emotion and symptoms to you as a child and you pick up on them. That is why it is worth all parents with BPD informing their children that they might suffer from it one day as well.
BPD is Uncurable
Sur,e this is a hard one to swallow, but it is indeed true. You can’t ever be cured so to speak, but you could gain control of your symptoms and live a healthy, normal life. With the right therapy, anyone can learn to live with BPD, but they will never be “cured” of it.
Almost Everyone Can Learn To Live with BPD
No matter how bad things seem now or how bad you get when you are in the depression dip of BPD, you can get better and almost everyone can with a lot of self-effort and some professional help sprinkled in. It might not seem like it, especially at the start of therapy, but you will get there in the end if you stick with it.
BPD Makes You Your Own Worst Enemy
It’s not just those of us with ‘Self-Destructive Borderline’ that re our own worse enemies, most people with BPD are. But its really not our fault. We push people away because we love them, we don’t seek help or therapy because we think we will instantly fail. This is part of what makes having BPD so hard, its the constant battling with ourselves.
There is BPD Help Out There
Here in the UK, you will often feel that there is no help and advice out there for people with BPD, but that is not true at all, especially when it comes to online. Sites just like this one offer countless nuggets of advice and there is professional help out there even in the UK. Sure, getting access to it is often a postcode lottery, but you just need to ask everyone and apply for anything.
10% of all People With Poor Mental Health Have BPD
Before you poo-poo that stat it has been thought up by leading psychologists and it is based around the 9 main signs of having BPD. All you need is any 5 of the main symptoms to be classed as BPD diagnosed, so that includes depression, emotional instability, Cognitive Distortions, Anxiety and even just Impulsive Behaviour, that could mean a lot of people. When you think about those main symptoms for a moment, it will class most people with poor mental health as having BPD!
You Can Have BPD at Any Age
Yes, you might think it is something that develops in the teens, but thousands of children under the age of ten have been diagnosed with BPD and many people over the age of 90 with it as well. There really is no age limit, nor is there any particular skin colour. It can affect anyone at any time in their lives, but the earlier it is caught, the easier it is to be treated.
75% of People Diagnosed with BPD are Female
While that number seems high you can put a lot of it down to the stigma of men not getting help or advice for their poor mental health. Sure, there is more awareness of BPD out there, especially advice for us males being diagnosed with BPD, but the number is still very low.
Some People see BPD as a Gift
This one is a little hard to believe, but there are some people who see it as a gift, rather than a curse. You can easily see why by reading articles like this one: Ten Strengths and Qualities Having BPD Gives You. While I personally don’t feel that way I think it is oddly nice that some people can flip it around into something nice, or even something to be proud of. Me personally, if I could finger-snap it away I would have done so immediately.
