MARY ZANARINI - Giving the BPD Diagnosis & A Common Response: 'Phew... I Finally Know What I Have'

Mary Zanarini, creator of The McLean Study of Adult Development (a long-running longitudinal study on BPD), discusses Borderline Personality Disorder from the viewpoint of an all-star researcher / clinician-scientist. -

[lorenzrosenthal]

in my experience I had at least 6 persons in my BP partner:
* the healthy person
* the rage person
* the desperate / hopeless person
* the depressive person
* the cold / rejecting person
* the idealizing person

Towards the end of our relationship I could see the signs of who was coming next increasingly good, like an old fisherman who smells the storm hours in advance.

[raucousmikey]

Same. At 43 years old. 😎💀👑
Shout-out to all the Warriors out there.

[stinastina]

When I was diagnosed with the disorder I felt devastated. I think because at the same time I was given the diagnosises I was also informed of its stigma and treatment complications. I still find it hard to talk about and don't share my diagnosis with anyone.

[jayzepickle]

Watching this video and saying yes to every point made me start crying. The amount of mental anguish and despair that comes with this is so exhausting to deal with nonstop.
Got diagnosed with this recently by a psychiatrist, currently on DBT (which I recommend, its been extremely relevant to my life and symptoms, almost scarily so, and amazing for self reflection and finding better coping skills)

[bluter-rdzx]

100% exact opposite experience getting my diagnosis. It made me suicidal and hopeless to think about the diagnosis for decades. To ignore the stigma associated with it, the lack of treatment options and the potential for self stigmatization and self hate that's often the result is something she overlooked here. An important factor in the way the diagnosis is delivered is extremely important and it appears Zanarini knows how to do that well. Others just don't do it well.

[jezalana]

This, so much this! When I was told that I have BPD I did, literally, cry with relief. Because if they could describe it and put a label on it then there was hope that I might not have to feel this way anymore and I think, to a certain extent, after years of therapy and various meds that only helped the tinyst bit, if I was lucky, I had started to give up hope. In fact, just seeing her say that still makes me cry at just the memory of that sense of relief.

[ange]

When I received a formal diagnosis I started being very paranoid, my mother used to tell me she wasn't able to (finish her studies, travel, find a nice man without ending up with an antisocial guy...). You name it, it was my fault. She was chronically suicidal and sadically told me she wanted to die since "I was born". After years she told she was suicidal before my birth too. Nobody wanted me around but when I was needed, mostly for inappropriate tasks. Now it was my fault, again.

[Sophie-ucvp]

Going by these questions I definitely don't have BPD. I never had faith in the psychiatrist who diagnosed me - at the time he diagnosed me with BPD he also prescribed me two contraindicated medications, gave me serotonin syndrome and argued with the neurologist who told him he was poisoning me. I'm glad to see here that my mistrust of his diagnosis was correct 🤗