yo its been a year since that one post but do you still think cluster b folks who were abused themselves are still inevitable abusers? 👀 spill the T
I don't think anyone's inherently an abuser, I just think they're a lot more prone to it. I don't want to discourage people from seeking help with that kind of thinking, but I also don't like that saying your opinion effects whether or not someone gets help (people claim this idea makes people continue being bad people), people should want to get help regardless of what others think, just to better themselves.
I say they're more prone because every single person with BPD who's vocal about it *that I've seen* shows the same exact guilt tripping, victim mentality, and blaming behaviors, the same ones my abuser has. I see they frequently claim that the people they hurt "didn't set boundaries," but there's no setting boundaries if these people ignore them anyways. I also notice they cannot seem to take any accountability.
What's most interesting to me is that a lot of bpd symptoms can be summed up as "generally being an asshole." If people with these behaviors didn't have a diagnosed disorder, we would simply assume that they're abusive bad people. Just because they have a diagnosis, their behavior is passed off as "mental illness" instead of maybe, just maybe, this person is actually immoral.
This is a huge part for me, because this is why my abuser was let go by the justice system. She was violent towards both me and my father, but the judge passed her off as a "struggling mother who's overworked with mental illness." Keep in mind all she did was sleep all day, was unemployed, screamed, violently attacked and tried to kill, and was disrespectful to people my entire life.
When my abuser finally got help per the court, all that happened was she got better at masking. She may not have hit or attempted to kill people anymore, but she spoke degradingly about others in a way that shows she had no change in her mindset: she was still the victim, and everyone else was evil, even if she was the one who terrorized them
She never truly got better, and ultimately I ended up moving out when she waved a knife at me and said she wished she murdered me as a child.
Obviously this is over generalization and only what I've seen, and I don't think all people with BPD are inherently bad or something. It's just I'm not willing to become a victim again, and I'm not interested in taking that risk of having close relationships with them.
Sorry this was a big rant about my experiences, I feel this is the only way to get my side of it across, obviously my abuser isn't every single person who has BPD. But it is really exhausting when you mention that your abuser has BPD, everyone comes screaming saying '"but not every person with BPD," it's like saying "not all men."
Sorry this is so disorganized, but to tack on to the people with BPD being abused themselves, that doesn't stop someone from becoming an abuser. My abuser went through traumatic experiences, but the level of cognitive dissonance she had allowed her to be so much worse to me. She literally could not comprehend that she was repeating the abuse cycle. So yes, being a victim previously does not change a single thing about whether or not someone will go on to be abusive. Anything is possible if you have enough cognitive dissonance I guess 😭😭