Living with… borderline personality disorder

Practitioner and counsellor Hollie Berrigan discusses the sometimes devastating effects of a BPD diagnosis and its labels and misconceptions as well as the benefits of nurse support and care

• Professionals who immediately link BPD with suicidality and self-harm may miss vital information about such patients
• Experiences can feel like an infinite number of paper cuts, while ‘recovery’ appears to erase things lived through
• Special memories include nurses who allowed relationships to form, soothing and healing rather than holding their patient at arm’s length

I am a consultant lived experience practitioner and integrative counsellor working with people who have difficulties that are often labelled as borderline personality disorder or BPD.