[Serious] People with mental health disorders, what is one common major misconception about your disorder?

I’m not generalizing, just presenting my POV.

I’m In recovery from BPD. Here’s the link to NAMI about it.

I say ‘recovery’ because a few years ago-probably my whole life, but was diagnosed properly a few years ago-because I have made significant progress in therapy and with medication. I was ‘downgraded’ recently to BPD traits. I have a litany of underlying disorders, but BPD is like the umbrella. There are slight ‘relapses’ I have, but I’m lucky enough to have a great treatment team.

But on to the biggest misconception I hear:

-I am not a sociopath. I never wanted/want to hurt anyone. In fact, I would hate myself forever if I harmed anyone. Some people associate BPD with sociopathy-they’re actually the opposite. Sociopaths (To the best of my knowledge and to put it lightly) ‘don’t feel’. With BPD, everything is felt deeply-mostly sadness and anger, which can be uncontrollably harsh to accept and deal with. It sucks.

-I am not a narcissit. I actually don’t like myself, and have a very low opinion of who I am. Superior? No, I’m dirt. Will I leave you in the dust to get what I want? Nope, I’ll bend over backwards to help you and ask for nothing in return. Something like that.

To sum it up, I am not out there to hurt you, I don’t want to use you, and I hate who I am most of the time. I am not your crazy ex, I’m not a serial killer in the making (Though I am fascinated by criminal psychology, but off topic). In fact, there is an emptiness inside, but that’s out of loneliness more than anything. Think of it like this (And I’m out-of-context paraphrasing a line from The Water’s Edge by Karin Fossum): “It’s like standing on the sidelines, watching as everyone else goes by.” So, while there are people in my life, it’s lonely obsessing over the delusion that everyone will abandon you unless you make them happy.

The last and most important bit: I know and own everything about this. I don’t let the label define me. I only ask that you not judge me, please.

If this was a bit incoherent, let me know. I’m willing to answer any questions you may have.

/r/AskReddit Thread