Supporting sister who has Borderline Personally Disorder
Hey so my sister has Borderline Personally Disorder and I don't really know how to support her. I'm wondering if anyone can give advice on what I can do. She's in hospital at the moment and I'm going to visit her for the first time and I'm scared I might say or do something that will upset her because I'm so ignorant of the condition and how it effects her. I've read about the symptoms and stuff online but I thought getting some understanding of it from people who have it or have more knowledge of it would be useful. Any advice would be really helpful.
@HatsEatYou
Hey! Sorry for the late reply. Hope the visit went well. BPD can be hard to understand and a scary diagnosis for the individual with bpd and for loved ones. Sounds like you really care about your sister and having been diagnosed with bpd I can say I always appreciated the people who tried to understand the experience rather than judge me. I think one of the important things with bpd is validation. Validation that what they are feeling is real and that they aren't a terrible person. Validation does not mean agreeing with destructive behaviors though. Another important thing when someone you love has bpd is to make sure you are taking care of yourself and don't take the things your sister says personally.
Hope this is somewhat helpful and sounds like you really care about your sister
@InvaderStitch Thanks for the reply, my visit went very well. I brought her and cheesey pasta and it made her pretty happy. I'm glad I got to see her smile again. What you've said is pretty helpful, I'm still working towards understanding her and her condition but I think I'm in a better position to support her now.
@HatsEatYou
That's wonderful to hear. Glad the visit went well!