I’ve decided to start a new series which I’ve called “Walking this Borderland”. I’m going to try to make each post in this series short and readable. My idea is that each will share an idea, skill, or thought that I find helpful in coping with an aspect of the symptoms of my Borderline Personality Disorder. Some of these are things that have been suggested to me by health professionals. Some are ideas a friend (perhaps who also has BPD) has given me permission to share. Some I have come up with or encountered myself in my path living with BPD.
I am sharing these in the hope others may find them interesting or helpful. Perhaps if you suffer with BPD or another Personality Disorder or know someone who does, you may find they are things you can identify with or are relevant or helpful to you. Perhaps they might equally be helpful to people who struggle with other mental health conditions – or even to anyone curious about emotions. Perhaps as a reader you would like to share your own experiences and ideas that help you, in the comments. I’d love it if you did want to do that.
As I have said many times before on this blog, what I’m sharing is personal and every person is very different in what is helpful to them or how they experience emotions. I really hope there is nothing I post in this “Walking…” series that would be unhelpful to anyone reading but please bear in mind that I am only sharing from my experience. Though I have worked in many mental health treatment settings and had some non-clinical training, and receive therapy myself, I am not a doctor, I am not clinically trained, I am not medically qualified to provide support or help to people with a mental health condition. So whilst I hope that this series is going to be useful, I very much urge you to please please access and rely on support from clinicians who are trained to help you.
Ginny xx
Dignity Beyond Trauma 
I’ve just found this series so will read on.
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Thank you 🙂 There are not as yet many posts in the series but I wil keep adding to them!
x
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I read them all and was very moved by what you’ve gone through. Keep working on telling yourself you ARE worthy, despite what you’ve been told all your life. They were wrong!
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Cathy, thank you so very much. One of the hardest things we all have to learn is to have a sense of our worth that does not entirely depend on what people and external circumstances tell us. I think we are all trying to find this in order to be able to cope but it’s particularly hard for us suffering mental health problems or who have suffered a big loss or rejection. We’re all very vulnerable in this way though, I think. Telling our and our loved ones’ stories as you do is a great way to start to find this and to do something that can help others too.
Thank you for your encouragement. It really means a lot.
xx
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You’re right that we all need to learn this. It’s amazing how we forget all the good things we are told about ourselves but remember vividly when someone told us something negative, whether true or not. I’ve recently read the book, “Secret Sister”. It’s the story of sisters who were separated at birth, one lead a life of abuse and the other was raised in a loving home. You might enjoy it. You can see how it was just fate that made them live such opposite lives and that cruelty was no fault of the one sister. She just happened to be the one who got that end of the stick.
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I replied to this but it seems to have disappeared. I mentioned a book you might like called “Secret Sister” about sisters who were separated at birth, one living in a very cruel and abusive home and one living in a loving home. You can clearly see it was no fault of the sister who was abused, just the luck of the draw.
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Hi Cathy. I’m really sorry I have just discovered this and your previous comment – for some reason they had been marked as spam and gone to the spam folder! I’ve no idea why. I’ll know to check there now although hopefully it won’t happen again. Thank you for your recommendation of that book. I will look that one up. It sounds like a powerful story. And yes I agree the negative things we are told stick harder than the positive! I’m trying to dedicate a few minutes at the start of each day to find 5 things to give thanks for or be thankful I was able to do, which sounds tacky I know but I think it may gradually help in recognising the good there is around (even if seeing any good in me takes longer hee hee!) Xx
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I think being thankful for 5 things each day will really help. Gratitude is what has helped me be a much more positive person. I’m not sure why the spam folder chooses random posts to hide.
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Thank you Cathy. It is good to know it is helping you. I hope it may make me kinder by training my heart to rejoice in the good in everything / everyone, not be discouraged.
Ginny xx
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