A True Story About Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD)

Borderline Personality Disorder or BPD is a mental illness that can have a devastating impact on lives of the patient and their families. It occurs in about 2% of the population (more often in women then men); but accounts for 20% of inpatient admissions to a psychiatric hospital. People with this disorder suffer severe mood swings. They are prone to self-injury, and suicide attempts. Although, the cause has yet to be determined, studies show a genetic link. They also reveal that the patients may have suffered from sexual abuse and brain injury. This article is a true story about one family's struggle with this disease and the impact it has had on their lives.

I was at work when I got the call. The nurse at my daughter's school needed me to come in right away; she told me that my daughter Amy had been cutting on herself. I was so shaken, so totally taken back that I barely could tell my boss that I had to leave on a personal emergency. I was scared out of my mind. I was totally unaware that she had been doing this to herself. She seemed normal to me. This was a nightmare but it was only the beginning.

When I got to school, Amy was sitting quietly in the office waiting for me. I was lost in a fog. The nurse start explaining to me what had happened and suggested I take my daughter to Community North. It is a hospital that has a psychiatric wing: a hospital that I was to become quite familiar with over the next 10 years. When we arrived, Amy spoke with the crisis counselor and she was admitted to their adolescent ward.

They took her back into the ward and we filled out a lot of paperwork. There was a questionnaire asking us about her health and about any symptoms that we had noticed. Honestly, we hadn't noticed any at all. When we got back home we told her sisters and brother what was going on. They were as upset as we were by the whole thing. Some of my other children held themselves responsible. I guess most of us believed it was our fault. We struggled to find answers. We even grilled Amy. She gave us stories, but I don't think that she had a clue either.