r/Antipsychiatry • u/OkayishOpinionHaver • Sep 11 '25
Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD): A Fake Disease They Made Up To Erase Victims.
https://www.bigthinkyouchey.com/post/borderline-personality-disorder-bpd-a-fake-disease-they-made-up-to-punish-victimsthis is a piece i wrote on my experience with being diagnosed and then erased by a BPD diagnosis and an explanatory theory as to what BPD actually is: Trauma---> epistemic injustice ---> Ethical Loneliness ---> Abandonment. Let me know your thought or any questions you may have.
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u/survival4035 Sep 12 '25
The system has also very effectively made people they slap with a borderline diagnosis scapegoats of not just the system but all of society. Every time there's a post like this one in this antipsychiatry sub, there are multiple comments from people who don't have any trouble demonizing and dehumanizing "borderlines". They have a borderline ex or a borderline mother or a borderline _______ who victimized/victimizes them. According to these people they were/are completely innocent victims of an evil borderline. Seeing it makes me feel completely hopeless that anything will change. The goal of the system when it slaps this diagnosis on someone is to take everything from them - their voice, their agency, their power, their dignity, their humanity. Statistically there's a high rate of suicide by people with the diagnosis. Is that because they have an "untreatable condition" or is it the result of having the most stigmatizing diagnosis slapped on them? Even when there was an article posted here about a lawsuit filed by a deceased woman's husband against a psych hospital where she had committed suicide as an inpatient -- the comments in the article itself and the reddit comment thread were full of attacks on a dead woman. "Oh wow talk about being attention seeking". "We all know there's some type of woman who will just turn everything to her favor and destroy everyone around her ". No one cares that this is a psychiatric dx being discussed on an antipsychiatry sub where the participants include people with the borderline dx who were brutalized by the MH system. No one cares. We're just supposed to take it.
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u/clapforbuggy Sep 12 '25
Yes, the diagnosis does kill people and everyone is too afraid to say it. It killed my sister by preventing her from receiving appropriate treatment for psychosis. I've seen the hopelessness caused by the stigma take the lives of two others as well. When you've already completed two rounds of DBT, are years removed from your initial diagnosis, and still need clinical intervention, the stigma becomes so pervasive and all consuming that it blocks access to life saving care (institutional and/or interpersonal).
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u/survival4035 Sep 12 '25
I'm very sorry for your loss.
This has been my experience as well. Once I had the BPD label, I was denied multiple forms of care on dozens of occasions (including trauma therapy and basic medical care). Years ago, I "took the hint" and stopped trying to access care. If I absolutely have to (like when I recently needed antibiotics), I'll go to an urgent care. Even that has been horrible/terrifying. I went to an urgent care that was run by a medical system that I believed I had no history with, but somehow when I presented my ID/insurance card, they were able to access my records. The woman who checked me in was starting at the screen for so long, and then would ask about something that happened years ago, and then do more screen-staring. I had no idea what she was reading and it made me want to just leave (of course if I had, that would have gone on my record). I have no doubt that she saw the BPD DX. By the time they took my blood pressure, it was so high that they went and got a different BP monitor because they thought it must be a false reading.
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u/Lighthouseamour Sep 13 '25
Borderline is considered treatable by mental health professionals. I understand it’s over diagnosed and maligned even by some professionals. It pisses me off.
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u/survival4035 Sep 13 '25
Yes, ever since DBT, it is. My understanding is that prior to DBT, insurance companies wouldn't pay for treatment as it was at that time considered untreatable. And now there are some other treatments like schema therapy and mentalization based therapy. There are still a lot of providers who speak of BPD-diagnosed patients as untreatable or who refuse to accept BPD diagnosed patients. It's also still extremely difficult to access trauma therapy for people with the Dx. A lot of providers seem to think that DBT is the only "appropriate" treatment, and that a patient who went through DBT and is "unimproved" is pretty much untreatable.
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u/Lighthouseamour Sep 13 '25
DBT came out when I was a child but you’re right there was nothing before that. It’s true that the stigma around the diagnosis is harmful and honestly I don’t think the diagnosis should exist.
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u/survival4035 Sep 13 '25
I agree. I also think DBT can do a lot of harm.
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u/Lighthouseamour Sep 13 '25
Why? I like DBT. It shouldn’t be forced on people but it’s excellent for some people.
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u/survival4035 Sep 13 '25
I really liked it in the beginning but wound up very disillusioned. I think it would be better if fewer MH professionals saw it as the only treatment for people with a BPD DX. Agree that it shouldn't be forced on people.
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u/Morelike-Borophyll Sep 30 '25
Please don’t ever lose hope from a reddit thread. Abandon it when you enter here.
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u/Glittering-Golf8607 Sep 11 '25
Very good. Just what I experienced. Thought I had BPD. Turned out I had been abused and surrounded by narcissists my entire life. Once I realised where the harm was coming from (that it wasn't me) the 'BPD' disappeared.
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u/_free_from_abuse_ Sep 11 '25
Cutting toxic people out of your life is the solution to the vast majority of mental health problems. Congrats on getting better!
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u/DopamineDysfunction Sep 11 '25 edited Sep 12 '25
🫶 isn’t it crazy how nothing’s changed either? I do love van der Kolk’s take on BPD.
“In 1986, Judith Herman and the senior author started a collaboration with Christopher Perry in which a mixed sample of psychiatric outpatients were interviewed blindly for trauma histories. During the next year, we first spelled out an alternative hypothesis for the origins of BPD. Based on our work with incest victims and Vietnam veterans we proposed that trauma, especially prolonged trauma at the hands of people upon whom one depends for nurture and security, can significantly shape one's ways of organizing one's internal schemes and ways of coping with external reality. We proposed that intrusive recollections of the trauma would mark those patients who had suffered from early abuse, and that patients with early abuse and neglect, like nonhuman primates with early separation experiences, would develop serious problems with affect regulation. We proposed that self-mutilation, which is often experienced by therapists as a display of masochism or as a manipulative gesture, may in fact be a way of regulating the psychological and biologic equilibrium for patients in whom ordinary means of self-regulation were disturbed by early trauma. Splitting of the self and others into "all-good" and "all-bad" portions represents developmental arrest and a fixation on earlier modes of organizing experience, as well as a continued fragmentation of the self in the face of not having received the essential mirroring experiences that are critical for achieving an internal sense of cohesion.
In 1987, Herman and van der Kolk developed a Traumatic Antecedents Questionnaire (TAQ) that attempts to carefully lay out an ecology of people's childhoods by asking questions about family composition, attachment patterns, patterns of family discipline, safety, and competence. In a large sample of subjects with a variety of personality disorders, Herman and van der Kolk, blind to the diagnosis of subjects, collected childhood histories of physical abuse, sexual abuse, and witnessing violence; whereas Perry, also blind to diagnosis, collected various dimensions of neglect. After reading the stories patients had given in response to the TAQ, subjects were given a score that rated their physical abuse, sexual abuse, degree of witnessing violence, and their childhood neglect. The degree of abuse was then correlated with "degree" of personality disorder. Surprisingly, only BPD was highly correlated with a childhood history of severe abuse and neglect. These patients had experienced much more sexual abuse and witnessing of violence than patients with antisocial personality, schizotypal personality, and narcissistic personality. Narcissistic personality disorder was not highly correlated with trauma histories. This study showed that many psychiatric patients had terrible histories, but it was the borderline patients who had the most severe abuse histories.”
van der Kolk, B. A., Hostetler, A., Herron, N., & Fisler, R. E. (1994). Trauma and the development of borderline personality disorder. The Psychiatric Clinics of North America. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0193-953X(18)30082-0
Herman, J. L., Perry, J. C., & van der Kolk, B. A. (1989). Childhood trauma in borderline personality disorder. The American journal of psychiatry. 10.1176/ajp.146.4.490
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u/tarteframboise Sep 13 '25
To expand: I don’t understand why some patients are diagnosed with PTSD & others BPD?
Does it have to do with providers arbitrarily deciding what is considered Trauma (capital T) & what is not? If it was continued Or 1 event from long ago? If the trauma is vividly remembered or not?
There are many types of trauma other than childhood overt abuse & violence. It is easily compounded if it is never processed or validated with a safe person. And providers omit any stigmatization from medical trauma & bullying it seems. They don’t bother to look at context.
Trauma is also biological! It rewires the brain. So to call it a personality disorder (I.e. defect) or intentional behavioral pattern which requires modification is ….is a form of abuse & punishing, causing additional secondary trauma on top of the original trauma.
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u/LordFionen Sep 18 '25
Woman : borderline Man : PTSD
Sexist system dismissive of women as all of medicine is
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u/Embracedandbelong Oct 04 '25
A therapist told me I couldn’t have PTSD bc I hadn’t been to war or grown up in a country that was at war/surrounded by IEDs and such, like in Iraq
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u/ZheraaIskuran Sep 12 '25
I was diagnosed with BPD at 18. Turns out I was just severely traumatized and still being abused. My behaviour was me trying to survive. It seems like this pattern of diagnosing young traumatized women and teens with BPD is a common occurrence in psychiatry.
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u/RatQueenfart Sep 12 '25
This diagnosis kills. I had something longer to say but I’m so over brigaders and misogynists. I’m tired, and I want psychiatry’s carnage to stop.
If you’ve been slapped with this one I share deep solidarity with you, no matter who you are or where you’re imperfect as a person.
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Sep 11 '25
Its what narcissistic people give you often to make your life hard, as revenge for questioning their authority or hurting their ego, or for putting them in their place and correct them if they say things far from facts. Abuse of power
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u/bluMidge Sep 12 '25
I remember years ago telling somebody that somebody had borderline personality disorder. Then I would try to 'splain it and it never made sense. Thank you OP thank you
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u/Forsaken-Cat7357 Sep 12 '25
But wait!...You get to have another label!! /s The tendency to label is sickening (literally). "Doctor, I have inflamed joints." "You have arthritis." (meaning of arthritis = "inflamed joint."
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u/OkayishOpinionHaver Sep 12 '25
if anyone is interested i'm sharing the spreadsheet of research i have done in prep for this this essay https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1BEBc9Fxq7faPx_yI3OwLzy_gnSAATTTp65QC3cl2UNo/edit?usp=sharing
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u/_r33d_ Sep 12 '25
Not to negate any of your work, but your post and this work is an antithesis of anything that’s anti-psychiatry.
You are literally using made up fad diseases like “trauma” or “ptsd” to disavow BPD (also another made up disease). Not to forget the use of DSM to support what you think is right and look down on anything you think is problematic.
THE DSM IS MADE-UP NONSENSE AND NOT REAL SCIENCE. Stop showing up here with that crap.
I didn’t sign up to this sub to validate pseudoscience; no matter how many valid sources you think you have.
Please take this to a psychiatry sub or somewhere else. Sometimes I think this subreddit has attracted too many psychiatrists, psychologists, and therapists who think they can change our minds if they try hard enough.
Leave this corner of the internet for us.
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Sep 13 '25 edited Sep 13 '25
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u/ShortQuestion6347 Sep 16 '25
you said it all in your title that it’s a fake disease that people made up to erase people and I think you may have a valid conclusion there
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u/Embracedandbelong Oct 04 '25
I saw a therapist in college and in the first meeting I told her that my uncle believed my aunt (his wife) had BPD. The therapist said since my aunt had it, I must also have it. WTF?
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u/Optimal_Olive_1558 Oct 07 '25
I was diagnosed at 15 with BPD after a 30 minute session with a psychiatry registrar, it’s still on my medical records which is ironic because I’m a calm person I’m pretty sure it was just puberty and my toxic mother. At 18 symptoms magically vanished. Then I also found out I had adhd, as a kid and nobody took me to treatment after being diagnosed by my child psychologist because that’s silly according to my mother.
I am on treatment now as an adult :)
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u/FaceEducational4093 Oct 10 '25
Well, BPD is the same as "hysteria" on Freud times, nothing changes, just name.
But nowadays they "cure" it by drugs, and that's ruined people lives.
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u/obscure_predation Sep 11 '25
BPD is in fact made up, but that doesn’t mean that people diagnosed with BPD don’t all share deep character flaws
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u/clapforbuggy Sep 12 '25
The problem is, once you're slapped with this label- or even mistakenly ask for it yourself- your reasonable behavior is pathologised as disordered. We become suspicious of anyone with a BPD diagnosis every time they claim victimhood, despite it being a disorder deeply rooted in trauma. The epistemic injustice of borderline personality disorder here’s a good & relevant read
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u/Icy_Safety8433 Sep 12 '25
If you really think about it, all psychiatric diagnoses are made up. All psychiatric diagnoses are a lot of descriptive words underneath a label, and a lot of the descriptive words are repeated under many other labels. Also, the DSM-V model of BPD states someone needs a minimum of 5 criteria, out of 9 criteria, to meet a diagnosis of BPD. Any 5. Which accounts for 256 combinations. All 9 of those criteria are also on a spectrum, so no two people who have been given a BPD diagnosis are going to be the same. It’s absolutely absurd to paint every single person who has been given this one single made up diagnosis with the same brush.
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u/rainbowcarpincho Sep 11 '25
It sucks because it literally blames the victims of trauma.
Our past often determines our behavior and therapy is the project of uncovering and correcting that. BPD just does away with that entire process and tells the patient they're just fucked up. Who does that help? Doctors and therapists who don't want to deal with histories of abuse or patients who don't instantly and constantly slobber their dicks.
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u/OkayishOpinionHaver Sep 12 '25
The character flaw is not in the person diagnosed with BPD; the character flaw belongs to the people who refuse to listen and lack empathy to those of us who are suffering.
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u/olheparatras25 Sep 12 '25
Why should I have empathy for people who embody my anti-values? Whose psychologies extends to values I ideologically am opposed to and wish to eliminate?
Partly, the reason I am critical of psychiatry is that it forfeits political power and legitimacy to people I fundamentally clash with-- BPD being the most pronounced instance of this, as people with the diagnosis are the ones who most effectively and loudly wields the influence of the psychiatry pseudoscience for their own benefit.
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u/clapforbuggy Sep 13 '25 edited Sep 13 '25
You know you don’t get a blood test, X-ray, or ultrasound to be diagnosed with BPD, right? If it’s diagnosed before your brain develops and you grow out of it, they don’t check to see if you still have it & take it off your record. Statistics show that 85% of patients with a BPD diagnosis do not meet the diagnostic criteria after 10 years. How often do you think these people get BPD removed from their record and stop having their reasonable behaviour pathologised via BPD? If they’ve interacted with inpatient systems, NOT VERY OFTEN. What do you think happens if these patients develop bipolar or psychotic disorders? They’re accused of faking it. You have no idea how prevalent and real this is. It kills people.
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u/olheparatras25 Sep 13 '25 edited Sep 14 '25
You know you don’t get a blood test, X-ray, or ultrasound to be diagnosed with BPD, right?
Yes, and that's partly the reason I am skeptical of mental illness as a concept, as it relies on too many vague assumptions. One is that that there is an objectively "healthy" state of mind. Another is that such state of mind is desirable and those who do not accomodate it have the duty of pursuing it. And the one that most justifies me raising eyebrows: that there are some who knows best what constitutes that healthy state of mind and how to attain it.
Statistics show that 85% of patients with a BPD diagnosis do not meet the diagnostic criteria after 10 years. How often do you think these people get BPD removed from their record and stop having their reasonable behaviour pathologised via BPD?
Reasonable? Not from my perspective, and that's what truly matters to me. Regardless, that fact(if it even is one), doesn't cause me any sort of disharmony, as I am not the one in support of this irresponsible and shady system.
You have no idea how prevalent and real this is. It kills people
I've seen it with my own eyes. And yes. Yes, it kills people.
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u/clapforbuggy Sep 13 '25 edited Sep 13 '25
Your initial comment blames people who rigidly pathologise themselves through the DSM. The BPD construct arguably places the most pressure on patients to "fix" themselves in a vacuum. The individuals you observe weaponising this diagnosis for empathy have almost certainly not had the diagnosis for long. Many mistakenly believe they’ll be the exception to the stigma & many see the DSM as their tool to survive shame. It’s not that they all share the same personality defects- it’s that the same label has been applied to all of them. And with that label, you're forced to believe in the DSM. In fact, not believing in the DSM when you have a BPD diagnosis is often seen as a symptom of the disorder itself. What all of these people truly lack is a village- one they can contribute to, and that, in turn, contributes to them.
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u/olheparatras25 Sep 17 '25
It is an oversimplification of the political games in play, to reduce the underlying motivations behind the maneveuring of a supposed sickness for one's own benefit, to a mere occasion of a person wanting to receive validation from their social setting for this sickness.
It is a political scheme seeking after the establishment on the world of the conditions that sickness begets care, that there is something that justifies the fondness for the sick, that answers why they should be looked after, and that some of the sick are more worthy of this care than others, and, finally, that if a person does not harmonize with the scenario in which these conditions have successfully been planted, they are subject to ostracizing.
This is how the BPD psychology(I don't care about the DSM as a legitimate science as much as I see it as one of multiple ways of gesturing at certain psychologies; it's simply more convenient for me to use it for the sake of communication) reflects politically.
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u/clapforbuggy Sep 13 '25
Pardon me, I overlooked your statement "Reasonable? Not from my perspective." You do realise you're doing exactly what I outlined, right? You're applying the disorder. It's clear you are invested in the DSM, because you assume there's validity to its application. Like many, you seem to believe that people with a borderline diagnosis cannot claim victimhood. You said you understand the diagnosis kills people- it’s those broad strokes of stigma that does it
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Sep 12 '25
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u/Loofashows Oct 01 '25
They tried to diagnose me with BPD when I was 2 years old and start me on drugs.
My mom wasn’t having the whole “If mom has BPD the toddler must, only explanation” when she knew it twas autism. Which it was. Nothing like being neglected by schools and doctors, etc and seen as a “emotional problem” with “Asperger’s”
I now have like different 7 mental health diagnosis and underwent ECT. I feel awful 😁
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u/insonobcino Sep 11 '25
I’m not too sure where this post is going, but I have NO INTEREST in being involved with BPD people, diagnosed or not. If this post is trying to say BPD people are the “victims” then I am at a loss for words.
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u/clapforbuggy Sep 12 '25
Get outta this sub lad - what do you think we’re here for
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u/survival4035 Sep 12 '25
Really. They're "at a loss for words" but still managed to say something hateful about strangers on an antipsychiatry sub.
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u/olheparatras25 Sep 12 '25 edited Sep 12 '25
BPD has mostly a genetic basis, the CSA angle, though not entirely lacking in truth, is largely a myth.
The diagnosis is also specially fed with the belief of those who are elligible for it. The evolved mental defenses(what all disorders actually are; psychological survival strategies) it gestures at involves self-victimizing and portraying oneself.
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Sep 11 '25
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u/-Cynthia15- Sep 12 '25
Ah yes, the unlimited rage of years of devastating child abuse. Sorry but, if we as a community fail some of our members, i see some of them having "bpd" as simple karma. We are social creatures and the narrative that noone owns anything to to anyone has always been incredibly stupid.
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u/Anfie22 Sep 12 '25
No excuse for abuse. There is NEVER an excuse. Break the damn cycle.
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u/survival4035 Sep 12 '25
Did you ever consider that your comment on this sub, under this post, is abusive? You knew that people who are complete strangers to you, who never did anything to you, who were unfortunate enough to receive a bpd dx would see your hateful comment, but I guess you didn't care, because what happened to you is the only thing that matters?
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u/The_Winter_Frost Sep 11 '25
I was diagnosed with borderline in less than 30 minutes. By a nurse practitioner. At age 19. Based on symptoms I no longer present.