This is a question that I personally find quite rage-inducing. Its a question only on someone with zero knowledge of BPD would ask and probably someone who thinks mental health issues are nothing more than a myth. But I will try and hold back my rage and answer the question as honestly as I can. Do be warned that the answer to this question might be triggering for some as it is little more than the cold-hard truth…
So…How Bad Can Borderline Personality Disorder be?
For a lot of people with BPD, it is a disorder they have learnt to live with either via help from others or self-help, or they are very strong-willed and refuse to let it get them down (this often boils over in the end). Some people show no signs at all, but still have BPD and others show all the signs but lead a healthy normal life with a job and family. So to those people, BPD is often a cause of problems, but they learn to live with it, to deal with it.
But on the flip side of that BPD kills. I’m not going to sugar coat that answer, it really can result in people committing suicide or by ending their lives via self-destruction. BPD can be a disorder that consumes a persons life and destroys all things around them. How bad can it be? Imagine wanting to have a perfectly normal life, but holding a grenade each and every day just in case you want to destroy it all because you feel you don’t deserve it that day. Yes, BPD can be that destructive, to the point it makes some people go into themselves and not even be able to lead any sort of life at all.
Sorry if this answer is a little raw, but it is something that those of us with BPD will know is a very triggering question which is probably coming from someone who is an ableist. Sadly about 10% of people with this disorder die by suicide and that is not a small number at all.
