Can BPD be cured?

The short answer? No it can’t.

The long answer? It’s complicated.

Unfortunately once you develop BPD, you can’t cure it. However you can go into ‘recovery’ where you experience little to no symptoms. But this only comes with a person with BPD actively working either with therapy and medication and self work to help combat their symptoms.

I’m lucky enough that for the past year i’ve been able to access private therapy. Which in turn, has helped me understand my symptoms and why they happen, and I have noticed I dont have as much splitting, and im for a lot of it able to manage my mood swings. However. I have my moments, even further down the line I will still have my moments where I struggle.

With the right support, people with BPD can learn healthy coping skills.

Usually DBT (dialectical behaviour therapy) is the best way to treat BPD. For me I found Art therapy has been helping. So it’s therapy but I get to draw to help process my emotions and help talk through certain events.

Medication can also help manage certain symptoms. Again myself I'm also on medication to help manage some of my symptoms.

It has been found a mixture of therapy and medication can significantly help and persons quality of life when it comes to BPD.

Research suggests that’s as many as 70% of those with BPD have attempted suicide in their lifetime and 5-10% successfully complete suicide (Black, Blum et al. 2004; Zanarini, Frankenburg et al.

The reason I bring this up is because this means it is a life threatening disorder.

In Sheffield where I am. It can be extremely difficult to access the help that you need in order to get better. A lot of the general mental health services will not take on people with personality disorders. Then the services that do take on people with these disorders, their waiting lists are extremely long, and can take up to two years to be able to access the help. So in that time it means that the person with BPD has to do a lot of self work. Which is important. However it can be incredibly difficult. As it can be difficult trying to recognise patterns and behaviours. It also depends on if you have a good support system. Luckily for me I had that. So I was able to hang on until I got access to therapy. However it wasn’t without struggles.

This is to say. While it is absolutely up to people with BPD to help themselves to get better. For those around them if you can, give them space, be understanding. If you can help, that’s great. But let them know you’re not going to leave. Listen to when they cry. We don’t necessarily need problem solving, we most of the time just need to be listened to.

I don’t want anyone with BPD to read this and think that there’s no hope. Because that’s not true. It’s hard, and it takes a lot of work, and trust. Which I know isn’t easy. But you can get to a point where you can have a healthy and happy life, and be able to manage symptoms.