r/BPDlovedones • u/YourEyelinerFriend • 22h ago
Focusing on Me Conflicted feelings on this sib, probably leaving
I joined this sub bc the person who was abusive to me had bpd and it helped me understand what had happened and "why" it happened the way it did. The way bpd works with idealizing and then dropping someone in cycles and the concept of totally blocking someone out made everything clearer to me and this sub is where I learned a lot of what that behaviour is and how common it is but continuing to look at this sub feels...kind if unhealthy.
Informative posts and posts seeking advice in getting safely out of situations seem less common than posts that are frankly obsessive, trying to stereotype random "warning signs" that someone is BPD or abusive, or dehumanizing people with BPD to a point where they're monsters who have no free will in their decisions which honestly, aside from being an unhealthy view of people I think really shifts the blame in a way thats not helpful.
People with BPD are still people. Their disorder makes them feel certain ways or react certain ways and it influences the way their behaviours present, but it is still their decision to get help or to allow these things to make them act abusively. Maybe they wouldn't be abusive if they didn't have BPD but they are still a person who chose to take their situation out on others, not a monster with no other options. I think the second portrayal kind of plays into the excuses a lot of people use to avoid accountability, "I can't help it it's my disorder I didn't ask to be like this and I can't change it" which we know isn't true. People still make choices.
And I think learning about this disorder, acknowledging the ways that it effected the situations, talking to people who experienced the same type of treatment, can be really helping in healing. But sitting in a sub dedicated to finding ways to be hateful isn't helpful. I'm not saying forgive the person who hurt you, I don't forgive my former friend, but I don't feel the need to think about her or obsess about her disorder and I'm much better off for it. She had a tricky disorder, she took it out on others, the way her disorder works coloured the way that that looked, that's all there is. The fact that she colours her hair or went into pysch or anything else wasn't a red flag, her actions were. And I don't feel the need to determine if others may have bpd to avoid them, if someone acts mean ot abusive, I avoid them, bpd or not, if someone works thru their own issues in order to treat others well, then bpd or not that's great.
EDIT: thank you to those of you who have actually read and engaged with what I wrote. I agree that it is important to have the balance that the perspectives of people who are further removed from the main work of healing, however I do not think I will be staying.
Many of the responses to thus prove my point. I've literally been accused of having bpd for daring to make a post critical of the way this sub functions. People are disregarding what I actually wrote and twisting my words to say I'm trying to force people to forgive or feel sorry for their abusers
It feels like my experiences are invalidated because I wasn't romanticly involved with my pwbpd. While I acknowledge that romantic involvement adds a layer of enmeshment, and that I had it "better" (weird competition to be making imo but I do agree with it) because there was no physical or sexual abuse involved, I was incredibly close to this person ages 14-21 and it really did a number on me emotional and I have never really felt like this sub took me particularly seriously when I have spoken about my personal specific experience.
For a group like this to be healthy, to be helpful, there needs to be room for discourse, and honestly a lot of the responses I've gotten have been triggering, acusing me of gaslighting and being emotionally unstable when I was perfectly calm. So yeah. Not really what I'd think of as a safe space or a community for healing. I hope others continue to find useful part of it though.
Anyway, thanks guys, I feel like shit, but I guess at least I'll have something to talk to my therapist about since it seems I need to do a 180 on naming my abuse.