My Mum died in 2009. I was 19, she was 39. She had borderline personality disorder and her death was linked to that. There was an inquest into her death where the coroner condemned the police for failing to protect her. Her vulnerability was greatly underestimated at the time.

Her condition was repeatedly misunderstood throughout her life and a lot of the help and understanding she should have received was undermined by the stigma associated with BPD.

There’s still a lot of misinformation out there about BPD and it’s infuriating to see it tbh.

My Mum wasn’t mentally well, she really struggled. But she didn’t harm others or go out of her way to cause trouble or conflict. She wasn’t manipulative or scary. The confusion, pain and anger was mostly internal and she went above and beyond to try to help others.

It’s disgusting to see how much stigma there is around a condition that is so deeply linked to trauma.

I have PTSD and there are so many crossovers with BPD, but society likes to affiliate BPD with “crazy women” and PTSD with war heroes. So that’s where we’re at.

It’s not ok to direct contempt at anyone for the health conditions they live with. I struggle to see what’s changed since 2009 to be honest, but I hope that we’ve learned lessons since Mum died.

(The diagnoses are no longer limited to one gender but if you look into their origins there’s a huge difference)