Sad to say I have given up

BPDgirl
Wed, 03 Aug 2011 20:48:37 +0000

caymandriver07:

ooh BPD Girl, that’s quite a can of worms you opened there

Since you brought it up, I have to wade in and ask how a parent would know if their child was deeply suffering…(it’s really a rhetorical question but i’m conscious that those parents among us who are desperately hoping it’s something else, not BPD, maybe something a nice pill could fix, might grab hold of your comment and run amok with it).

There be the danger when there is an illness that can’t be seen…no one knows what it’s like, it can’t be described, and with BPD, for those that suffer words can’t begin to convey their feelings, and for loved ones, we spend too much time listening to the words and believing them at face value rather than seeing they are just a vehicle for communicating a feeling for which we don’t have any context to understand.



Yep, it is a can of worms. I’m not saying it is the case. It was just a brief thought. Three disorders in particular – borderline, narcissistic, and antisocial – can be a bit like a stew. The symptoms can overlap so much that they all kind of taste the same. But if you’re a team of skilled clinicians, maybe you can pick out the carrots (borderline) as opposed to the peas (narcissistic) as opposed to the potatoes (antisocial). Even though, again, they all taste pretty much the same at first. And I just have to emphasize again, I have NO clue about momma-three’s daughter. I’m just throwing thoughts out there.

It is true, though, that anyone who is a “non” (non-bpd, as we with bpd sometimes call them), has no context for understanding our feelings or behaviors. As you say below…



Anyway, while i’m on the subject, BPD Girl have you ever seen the movie Mask, where there is a scene where the main character tries to explain colours to a blind girl. He uses temperature to convey colour. You have a great gift in your writing. Perhaps you could write a book, kind of like a translation guide for those that don’t speak the BPD language. I know your words have certainly helped me and others on this thread realise how much we don’t really know about what life is like with BPD. It’s a reminder I need, daily it seems.



That’s so true. I was thinking, for instance, about the most extreme dissociation that I have ever experienced. I was wondering, after mentioning it briefly on this thread, how I would describe it if someone asked. It truly would be like describing color to a blind person: it’s like having saran wrap in a one inch layer all around you, keeping you from the world; it’s like being in a sluggish dream; it’s like you are being held in a small box and are merely being told about what is going on around you; it is like you are in slow motion; it is like everything is fuzzy; it is like you’re alone beyond all aloneness you’ve ever experienced or ever will experience; it is like…

On and on. And I realize, because of this, that there are infinite experiences in this world that I will NEVER understand, that I will only get very rough and unartful approximations of… and this is true of all of us.