One of the things i truly respect about the psychologist i see each week, is that she does not see people by their diagnosis. She has very clearly stated on more than one occassion, that a diagnosis is just a label to put on paper. It does not define a person.
How true is this? I have been met with unrelenting stigma regarding my bpd diagnosis.
I was watching a youtube video today, by a woman formerly diagnosed with a lifetime of bpd that has turned her life around so to speak.
She began to talk in blanket statements about ALL people with bpd and it really got at me. She was saying that: “no ones love is good enough for the borderline.” I thought that was so damaging to anyone who would research to find answers for their loved ones.
I speak from personal experience as i say, that everything my former partners or people in my life did to love and care for me was very important to me. I appreciated it with all my heart. But i did not always show this. I needed the help and guidance no one but myself, with the help of a therapist, could give to me.
The truth is that we cannot change anyone. Ill say this a thousand more times, people must do it for themselves when they are ready.
To be diagnosed as a borderline put me into yet another box that i had to climb out of. When i research bpd information, some of the most horrible things come up. Stigma after stigma and blanket statements, all powered by shame. Making it appear that bpd diagnosis recipients are evil, selfish and manipulative- emotional vampires even. Using other peoples identity to fortify our own and so on.
And i think its bullshit that my entire life of struggling, has been painted in such a harrowing light for the whole world to misrepresent.
The way my psychologist treats me, as an individual with her own autonomy- is one of the most influential pieces to my personal recovery. I could not grow with a therapist who treated me as a diagnosis. It is invalidating and stigmatizing. And this alone is a detrimental aspect of western psychology.
Tha’ts not to say that the diagnosis itself is irrelevant, but that everyone has their own unique experiences with it: because we are people first.
To make blanket statements that envelope everyone under the same stigma umbrella is not only damaging, but limiting towards personal and and society growth. Awareness is a step towards healing and change. Blanket statements fuel stigmas, and take away from the fact that we are all our own person. A person before a diagnosis.
acerebralcatastrophe 