I noticed a lot of people in the notes mentioning that they can relate to this comic, and some people saying some not-so-kind things, and I thought it might be helpful to add some context to why people with borderline may feel these ways.
BPD is theorized to be a traumagenic disorder, which means that it's caused by trauma. Not in the same way as classical PTSD, which we typically imagine as coming from One Big Trauma, but from something called C-PTSD. That C can alternately stand for "childhood-onset" or "complex", depending on context. C-PTSD, along with traumagenic disorders such as BPD, NPD, RSD, DID, etc., is most often caused by growing up in an environment where you were under constant stress. That stress can vary- if you were constantly on-guard for emotional or physical abuse, or neglected, or faced constant rejection from peers due to race, disability, gender, all of that can contribute. When you're under constant stress, your system will accommodate to survive, and you may not be able to develop the social and emotional skills you otherwise would have been able to in a healthy environment.
This is why we think BPD and other personality disorders are very likely to be traumagenic. Imagine a person who grew up with dismissive, cold, neglectful parents- their emotional needs were not met, and they were taught from the beginning that there were unsaid negative undertones to things that other people said to them. If you spent years in that situation, would you assume that other people were likely to treat you the same way? Would you be sensitive to unsaid undertones? Do you think that your system might try to protect you from further emotional harm? That example isn't the only situation where someone might develop these kinds of responses.
Someone might also be deeply sensitive to lacking communication and not happen to have borderline. These types of emotional responses might occur in someone who is autistic, has ADHD, has anxiety, or has any of a great myriad of other personality disorders. A person might also need clear communication and have intense feelings without identifying with any of those conditions.
People with borderline personality disorder are not inherently different from you. It's incredibly common for people who have suffered abuse to develop personality disorders, and those people are then far more susceptible to further abuse from their doctors and their loved ones. When we continue the narrative of personality disorders as "abuser disorders", we contribute to & reinforce a deeply ableist cultural norm that results in institutional neglect and abuse. If you hold a belief that people with BPD or any other personality disorder are more likely to hurt others than the average person, I urge you to think deeply about where you learned that idea, why you believe it now, and if there could be evidence that it isn't an accurate assessment of the reality of these people's lives.
vaporwave
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s-u-f-j-a-n-s-t-e-v-e-n-s
