Meet the Other Phone. Protection built in.

Meet the Other Phone.
Protection built in.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

I feel totally lost (MH related)

23 replies

TheWhistling · 09/05/2025 16:15

I've always thought of myself as a not particularly nice person. Or at least, I have moments of awful behaviour.

I've suspected for a while I have ADHD, it the symptoms didn't fully fit.

I'm now convinced I have Borderline Personality Disorder. Which I'm ashamed to say is something i never really believed in, thinking it was just an excuse for poor behaviour. But the more I've read, the more it fits.

I feel utterly lost and like I'm a blight on the lives of everyone I know. I really don't know what to do or how to fix things.

Posting because I just don't know how to navigate this or how to talk to anyone IRL.

I'm broken.

OP posts:
Idontknowhatnametochoose · 09/05/2025 16:26

Write a list of all your positive qualities. You will have some! You're clearly self-aware and have a conscience, which is more thsn many people. You have capacity to reflect on yourself. You have potential for empathy. Whether you have bpd or not doesn't make you an awful person. I understand how upsetting this is because sometimes I'm self critical too and it hurts, but we are all human with failings. Noticing where you might have issues gives you a massive boost of awareness and motivation to make changes. Don't get sucked into feeling awful about yourself- I really like your honesty. You have a lot to offer.

TherapyName · 09/05/2025 16:32

I would recommend you have counselling/ therapy - and I am of course biased!

Joking aside, it will give you a safe space to talk things through. You have a lot on your mind. A good therapist will give you space to share your fears and help you explore your thoughts and behaviours.

TheWhistling · 09/05/2025 16:34

Idontknowhatnametochoose · 09/05/2025 16:26

Write a list of all your positive qualities. You will have some! You're clearly self-aware and have a conscience, which is more thsn many people. You have capacity to reflect on yourself. You have potential for empathy. Whether you have bpd or not doesn't make you an awful person. I understand how upsetting this is because sometimes I'm self critical too and it hurts, but we are all human with failings. Noticing where you might have issues gives you a massive boost of awareness and motivation to make changes. Don't get sucked into feeling awful about yourself- I really like your honesty. You have a lot to offer.

Edited

Thank you for replying.

I always feel terribly guilty and embarrassed when I reflect on my behaviour. But I can't actually seem to prevent it in the first place. My fear is that I'm not capable of change.

Right now it's hard to see ant positives at all.

OP posts:
TheWhistling · 09/05/2025 16:36

TherapyName · 09/05/2025 16:32

I would recommend you have counselling/ therapy - and I am of course biased!

Joking aside, it will give you a safe space to talk things through. You have a lot on your mind. A good therapist will give you space to share your fears and help you explore your thoughts and behaviours.

I've tried counselling in tbe past with no real success. I don't think I engaged properly though, in hindsight.

OP posts:
Itiswhysofew · 09/05/2025 16:48

My DN has been diagnosed with BPD and she is a much loved family member. She's been through a lot and does find family a bit of a struggle. She lives with me now, works part time and lives a quiet life. I'm hoping that she'll eventually feel able to make a good life for herself independently, but if not, she'll always be welcome to live with me and her family will be there for her.

Don't be hard on yourself. You deserve help as wellFlowers

BobbyBiscuits · 09/05/2025 16:53

You can try and seek a diagnosis of BPD from a psychiatrist but there isn't really any treatment for it, not medicine anyway.
I've got very unstable emotions and thought I had it, but I now think it's ADHD.
If you were neglected or had something bad happen when you were a kid apparently that can lead to BPD.
I hope you can seek counselling either way. People can behave in horrible ways sometimes but it doesn't mean you're a horrible person. Regardless of any diagnosis.
I wish you well x

CallItHome · 09/05/2025 16:56

Look up the criteria and go to the GP if you feel you have it. It is often linked with a history of childhood trauma.

Whilst no tablet can cure it as such, there is therapy that can help with the emotional dysregulation. You’re not a bad person. It is good however to take steps to understand yourself more and manage your behaviour. For your sake And also others around you.

Good luck.

TheWhistling · 09/05/2025 17:03

Itiswhysofew · 09/05/2025 16:48

My DN has been diagnosed with BPD and she is a much loved family member. She's been through a lot and does find family a bit of a struggle. She lives with me now, works part time and lives a quiet life. I'm hoping that she'll eventually feel able to make a good life for herself independently, but if not, she'll always be welcome to live with me and her family will be there for her.

Don't be hard on yourself. You deserve help as wellFlowers

Thank you. I do work full time and I have a partner and family. I'm in my late 30s though. I've been on antidepressants for years but no Dr has picked up on any of the other symptoms.
Hugs to your niece.

OP posts:
TheWhistling · 09/05/2025 17:04

BobbyBiscuits · 09/05/2025 16:53

You can try and seek a diagnosis of BPD from a psychiatrist but there isn't really any treatment for it, not medicine anyway.
I've got very unstable emotions and thought I had it, but I now think it's ADHD.
If you were neglected or had something bad happen when you were a kid apparently that can lead to BPD.
I hope you can seek counselling either way. People can behave in horrible ways sometimes but it doesn't mean you're a horrible person. Regardless of any diagnosis.
I wish you well x

My father was an alcoholic. I had a mostly happy childhood apart from that.

OP posts:
Madcatdudette · 09/05/2025 17:08

Don’t be hard on yourself firstly, you’re not broken but you may need some help learning about yourself.
I was diagnosed with ADHD very late in life but not before I had been diagnosed with BPD and Bipolar.
My ADHD diagnosis has been life changing and I am living a very successful life now.
Please speak to your GP about your mental health experience. It takes ages if you’re in England but it’s worth it in the long run.

Shatandfattered · 09/05/2025 17:11

Couldve wrote this myself. My fiance left me a week ago and ive not even got friends and family left to turn to. Been rejected by the doc so many times when referred for diagnosis but i have extreme mood swings, excecutive dysfunction, dissociation, derealisation, erratix behaviour. I dont think i will ever recover from the loss

Agix · 09/05/2025 17:15

Hey OP, why do you not think you're a nice person? Can you list reasons?

I always thought I was not a very nice person. It was a conclusion I came to. People didn't like me, reacted strangely or badly to me. It got me really down because I wanted to be kind to everyone. I tried, and it would go wrong. I withdrew from people as a whole due to it. My current partner (when we first met and started getting to know each other) was astonished when I casually proclaimed I'm not a nice person, as he thinks I'm very nice. I was confused that he thought I was nice.

Jump to now, I'm currently awaiting autism assessment. It's not that I'm not nice, or kind, or a good person... People react to me negatively because my social skills can be off, and I get overwhelmed with people with makes me difficult. We think, anyway. I hope there's another explanation for my people don't react well to me, besides I'm just not nice. My partner is likely autistic too, or at the very least isn't put off by me.

I dunno. Just rambling I suppose. One not-nice person to another, I hope you're OK.

BobbyBiscuits · 09/05/2025 17:18

TheWhistling · 09/05/2025 17:04

My father was an alcoholic. I had a mostly happy childhood apart from that.

That could lead to BPD. It's to do with uncertainty and abandonment I think. Which addiction in the family could make you feel. But you're not a horrible person. I think for me, a certain amount of allowing yourself to have your emotions, you have a right to feel upset, angry etc. it doesn't necessarily mean you've got BPD.
Have you sought counselling? X

TheWhistling · 09/05/2025 17:32

Shatandfattered · 09/05/2025 17:11

Couldve wrote this myself. My fiance left me a week ago and ive not even got friends and family left to turn to. Been rejected by the doc so many times when referred for diagnosis but i have extreme mood swings, excecutive dysfunction, dissociation, derealisation, erratix behaviour. I dont think i will ever recover from the loss

Ah I'm so sorry to hear that.
I really hope things pick up.

OP posts:
Shatandfattered · 09/05/2025 17:34

TheWhistling · 09/05/2025 17:32

Ah I'm so sorry to hear that.
I really hope things pick up.

Thank you, i hope you can find some sense in your own struggles. I just realised i replied to this post all about me, one of the biggest flaws i unintentionally allow to happen all the time 😖 god i exhaust myself 😂

TheWhistling · 09/05/2025 17:46

Agix · 09/05/2025 17:15

Hey OP, why do you not think you're a nice person? Can you list reasons?

I always thought I was not a very nice person. It was a conclusion I came to. People didn't like me, reacted strangely or badly to me. It got me really down because I wanted to be kind to everyone. I tried, and it would go wrong. I withdrew from people as a whole due to it. My current partner (when we first met and started getting to know each other) was astonished when I casually proclaimed I'm not a nice person, as he thinks I'm very nice. I was confused that he thought I was nice.

Jump to now, I'm currently awaiting autism assessment. It's not that I'm not nice, or kind, or a good person... People react to me negatively because my social skills can be off, and I get overwhelmed with people with makes me difficult. We think, anyway. I hope there's another explanation for my people don't react well to me, besides I'm just not nice. My partner is likely autistic too, or at the very least isn't put off by me.

I dunno. Just rambling I suppose. One not-nice person to another, I hope you're OK.

I have a short temper at times. I react very badly to any perceived slight. I can't let things go. I overreact. I speak/react before I think and can be rude.
There's more but it's hard to put into words properly.

OP posts:
TheWhistling · 09/05/2025 17:47

BobbyBiscuits · 09/05/2025 17:18

That could lead to BPD. It's to do with uncertainty and abandonment I think. Which addiction in the family could make you feel. But you're not a horrible person. I think for me, a certain amount of allowing yourself to have your emotions, you have a right to feel upset, angry etc. it doesn't necessarily mean you've got BPD.
Have you sought counselling? X

Edited

I have when I was younger, but I don't think I engaged properly.

OP posts:
Blueeyedpuppy · 09/05/2025 17:52

Do you have triggers. There's an awful lot of mockery about being triggered these days but it's a very real trauma response.

I shall share something I used to do and it looked bad but a therapist explained why I did it. He helped me communicate to DH why I was doing it to him and eventually stop myself from doing it again.

I'm quite fussy about how I like certain foods. Let's say a sandwich. I would communicate my preferences to DH but he would ignore them and make my sandwich his way. It happened many times. I would do my best to eat it and politely ask he did xyz different next time. Next time would come and he did the same thing. After a while I would start shouting immediately when he did the same again, would launch the sandwich at the nearest wall. He still took no notice, so I started literally throwing at his face. With shame, I shared this with my therapist. I didn't know why I did it. I didn't know why I could not stop myself. Yes, I even did it with him in full view of the public to shocked looks. The therapist took a childhood history and told me it had triggered a response from childhood trauma involving feeling unloved, unwanted and ignored. Also, reminded me about a relative who would force me to eat food that made me vomit under threat of psychologically tormentative punishment for not eating it (giving me the silent treatment interspersed with occasional nasty insults and threats of being forced to eat nothing but that food until I no longer objected to said food). The same relative would hold me responsible and use the same punishment when her kids broke the rules, even when I followed her rules, because I should have stopped them as the clever one. She made me the mother figure of children around my own age and younger, with all the responsibility but none of the power of a mum. I was left with a fear of being unheard, disregarded, blamed, of having my feelings pushed aside and having my autonomy removed. This is an example. I have other triggers but they're all based around the same themes. I'm a shouter and a impotent rager. It is in me. I'm not proud of it but it's who I am. Strangely, so was the relative who caused my trauma. I wasn't a shouter when I first met her. I have seeming ASD traits too but am not diagnosed and never will be. I have learned to control myself, the vast majority of the time now, after taking therapy and treating it seriously.

It also turns out I try to take personal responsibility for the actions of everyone around me when they do stuff wrong. Even strangers. As the Americans say, "go figure"🤷🏼‍♀️. I tend to think I should have predicted what they would do and should have somehow stopped them to prevent ensuing trouble happening. That one is part of having people pleasing tendancies too. Trying to always be the responsible, thoughtful, observant, sensible one. It makes me very angry when people take advantage of that biggest side of me.

I also learned I behave the worst with DH and rarely anyone else because my mind tells me he is my safe person who can be trusted to see the real me still there beneath an unplanned freak out. I've met some truly wonderful people in the NHS who have helped me get over my problems. The help might be a little hard to find but it is there if you are patient. To quote one cardiology nurse who witnessed a minor meltdown in answer to me critising myself as too weird, "ah, don't worry. That's nothing compared to what I've seen. I'm weird too. Everybody is weird in some way. Anyone can lose it in the right circumstances. Life can be too hard sometimes".

I dare say someone will tell me what a terrible person I am but I've learned not to really give things so much headspace any more. I apologise and really mean it if I lose my new found self-control. If anyone I may have upset can't accept an sincere sorry, they can sod off. My days of dwelling on these things in the quiet moments are pretty much gone.

I've shared this with you because I used to feel very bad about myself too. I hope you could make some sense of it as it's a bit garbled. I've got a headache at the moment.

Have another try with therapy maybe. Really get stuck in. If I can do it, so can you.

TheWhistling · 09/05/2025 18:28

Blueeyedpuppy · 09/05/2025 17:52

Do you have triggers. There's an awful lot of mockery about being triggered these days but it's a very real trauma response.

I shall share something I used to do and it looked bad but a therapist explained why I did it. He helped me communicate to DH why I was doing it to him and eventually stop myself from doing it again.

I'm quite fussy about how I like certain foods. Let's say a sandwich. I would communicate my preferences to DH but he would ignore them and make my sandwich his way. It happened many times. I would do my best to eat it and politely ask he did xyz different next time. Next time would come and he did the same thing. After a while I would start shouting immediately when he did the same again, would launch the sandwich at the nearest wall. He still took no notice, so I started literally throwing at his face. With shame, I shared this with my therapist. I didn't know why I did it. I didn't know why I could not stop myself. Yes, I even did it with him in full view of the public to shocked looks. The therapist took a childhood history and told me it had triggered a response from childhood trauma involving feeling unloved, unwanted and ignored. Also, reminded me about a relative who would force me to eat food that made me vomit under threat of psychologically tormentative punishment for not eating it (giving me the silent treatment interspersed with occasional nasty insults and threats of being forced to eat nothing but that food until I no longer objected to said food). The same relative would hold me responsible and use the same punishment when her kids broke the rules, even when I followed her rules, because I should have stopped them as the clever one. She made me the mother figure of children around my own age and younger, with all the responsibility but none of the power of a mum. I was left with a fear of being unheard, disregarded, blamed, of having my feelings pushed aside and having my autonomy removed. This is an example. I have other triggers but they're all based around the same themes. I'm a shouter and a impotent rager. It is in me. I'm not proud of it but it's who I am. Strangely, so was the relative who caused my trauma. I wasn't a shouter when I first met her. I have seeming ASD traits too but am not diagnosed and never will be. I have learned to control myself, the vast majority of the time now, after taking therapy and treating it seriously.

It also turns out I try to take personal responsibility for the actions of everyone around me when they do stuff wrong. Even strangers. As the Americans say, "go figure"🤷🏼‍♀️. I tend to think I should have predicted what they would do and should have somehow stopped them to prevent ensuing trouble happening. That one is part of having people pleasing tendancies too. Trying to always be the responsible, thoughtful, observant, sensible one. It makes me very angry when people take advantage of that biggest side of me.

I also learned I behave the worst with DH and rarely anyone else because my mind tells me he is my safe person who can be trusted to see the real me still there beneath an unplanned freak out. I've met some truly wonderful people in the NHS who have helped me get over my problems. The help might be a little hard to find but it is there if you are patient. To quote one cardiology nurse who witnessed a minor meltdown in answer to me critising myself as too weird, "ah, don't worry. That's nothing compared to what I've seen. I'm weird too. Everybody is weird in some way. Anyone can lose it in the right circumstances. Life can be too hard sometimes".

I dare say someone will tell me what a terrible person I am but I've learned not to really give things so much headspace any more. I apologise and really mean it if I lose my new found self-control. If anyone I may have upset can't accept an sincere sorry, they can sod off. My days of dwelling on these things in the quiet moments are pretty much gone.

I've shared this with you because I used to feel very bad about myself too. I hope you could make some sense of it as it's a bit garbled. I've got a headache at the moment.

Have another try with therapy maybe. Really get stuck in. If I can do it, so can you.

Thank you for this, its given me a lot to think about.

I think a big trigger for me is feeling disrespected and like I'm being questioned or criticised. For example, if I'm at work and someone questions my decisions.

I also do genuinely apologise. But by then the damage is done and the other person thinks badly of me.

I have to say, your DH sounds like part of the problem though. Why couldn't he just make it the way you wanted!?

OP posts:
BobbyBiscuits · 09/05/2025 18:39

TheWhistling · 09/05/2025 17:47

I have when I was younger, but I don't think I engaged properly.

Same as me. I'm finally getting back into it now. I think it would probably be helpful for you also? It's certainly worth a try.
What are the main things you'd like to change about your life? How are your relationships at the moment? I think if you think about that and speak to a professional that might be a good plan. Life is hard, especially when you don't feel like you fit in. I hope things improve for you. X

Orangesandlemons77 · 09/05/2025 19:11

Look into CPTSD as well might fit better

TheWhistling · 09/05/2025 20:55

BobbyBiscuits · 09/05/2025 18:39

Same as me. I'm finally getting back into it now. I think it would probably be helpful for you also? It's certainly worth a try.
What are the main things you'd like to change about your life? How are your relationships at the moment? I think if you think about that and speak to a professional that might be a good plan. Life is hard, especially when you don't feel like you fit in. I hope things improve for you. X

I’d like to react better to things, I’d like to be able to brunch small things off and not overthink or overreact.
My partner is very supportive but he must be sick of my shit.
I mask very well with friends.

OP posts:
BobbyBiscuits · 09/05/2025 22:12

TheWhistling · 09/05/2025 20:55

I’d like to react better to things, I’d like to be able to brunch small things off and not overthink or overreact.
My partner is very supportive but he must be sick of my shit.
I mask very well with friends.

It sounds like you've got a loving partner and good friends. And you realise when your behaviour is out of order. So that's half the battle won already really. X

New posts on this thread. Refresh page