On Wednesday evening, I won a Mind Media Award for Talking About BPD. I am absolutely over the moon. It means so much to me that a blog about living with a diagnosis of borderline personality disorder (BPD) was chosen as the winner.
I really hope winning this award draws attention to the fact that people with a diagnosis of BPD need to be treated more respectfully and taken more seriously than is often the case right now.
My shocked face & speech!
People with BPD are often told that they are attention seeking, manipulative and not worthy of help. Access to relevant treatments for this condition is a postcode lottery and, whatsmore, the safety and quality of crisis care varies wildly from place to place.
Individuals with this condition are often silenced out of fear telling family, friends, employers, colleagues or other health care professionals (e.g. a physiotherapist). When a quick google search of 'borderline personality disorder' can bring up articles with titles such as 'how to get rid of your borderline girlfriend' and 'five reasons why borderlines will ruin your life' it's easy to see why people don't disclose their diagnosis.
This all needs to change. People with BPD need to be offered appropriate therapies, be given compassionate crisis care if needed and treated as individuals with capacity to feel better when given half a chance.
Thank you *so* much to Mind and the panel of judges for acknowledging Talking About BPD.
All of the other nominees are making such important work, so this was certainly a surprise. I think the yelp I gave when my name was announced demonstrates surprise! I loved receiving the trophy from the wonderful @bodyposipanda too!
I want to say a huge thank you to everyone who has supported Talking About BPD. It has grown more than I ever knew it would.
More than anything, I want people diagnosed with BPD to get the support, understanding and respect that everyone deserves.
Note: Although I am very happy to have won a Mind Media Award, I feel that Mind's choice of sponsor for the awards was insensitive. I think that choosing the private healthcare provider Bupa as the award's sponsor was insensitive. Given that BUPA offer healthcare hat is only affordable for those who have enough money to pay for it, I feel it would have been more sensitive to have a more inclusive sponsor.
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