If you have a family member who has Borderline Personality Disorder chances are you have, at some point, tried to rescue them. Perhaps you are still trying to rescue them. The notion that we can rescue a family member with BPD is really an illusion. A painful illusion.
Most people who have a family member or loved one with Borderline Personality Disorder know the pain of being on The Other Side of BPD. Borderline Personality Disorder does not just affect those who are diagnosed with it. BPD effects anyone who is close to them as well.
If you have a family member with Borderline Personality Disorder you certainly don’t need me to tell you that it can be a very painful and challenging situation in your life. It can leave you feeling alienated from the family member who had BPD. It can leave you feeling helpless in the face of the self-destruction that many with Borderline Personality Disorder engage in.
One of the most difficult things to cope with when a family member has BPD is how to get out of the rescuer role. How to ensure that you have some quality in your life that isn’t negatively affected by an untreated borderline.
There is so much pain involved in loving and caring about someone who has BPD and who won’t acknowledge that there is a problem and who won’t get into therapy with a professional. It is a powerless place to be. The natural thing, it seems, to want to do is rescue that loved one, that family member.
However, the idea that one can rescue another from Borderline Personality Disorder is really an illusion. A painful illusion as I talk about in my video Non Borderline Illusions of Rescuing A Borderline
© A.J. Mahari, August 31, 2008 – All rights reserved.
