Friend with BPD
This might be a long post, but the general idea of my post is that I would love resources/advice on how to support one of my friends with BPD after a falling out!!
TW// suicide
To begin, J and I met on a social media site and began talking quite frequently. I would say even 4-5 days in, they told me they loved me (in a friendly way). I wasn't sure how to respond to this, but I didn't want to hurt their feelings so I let them say it but I just didn't say it back. Continue on and we are still close friends, we end up calling quite frequently and even watching shows together. Specifically Criminal Minds, which J made me feel like I could not watch with anyone else/without them because it was "our show."
Now, this really weird situation happened where a lot of our mutual friends on Twitter began calling J out for being manipulative and guilt-tripping people. At first, I didn't really believe it because we had always gotten along, and if J did something I didn't like I was open and honest about it. For example, J had a list of people that they hated bc a lot of our mutuals really liked them, and one time J even started a public argument with one of my good friends who didn't even know each other. This left my friend confused and me feeling like J was being very rude, and when I brought it up, J said they only stopped the fight because it was upsetting me.
After a lot of people came forward about this behavior, J blamed it on BPD and made it seem like everyone was being inconsiderate of this. I don't know if this is true? Having BPD is not easy, but does it justify actions like that? I got scared and ended up trying to disconnect from J, at which they completely freaked out and even threatened suicide if I were to leave them. As scared as I was, I didn't want to be stuck in this situation and ended up blocking/removing J from all of my sites and even their phone number. J still somehow contacted me by EMAIL, which is crazy that they had all of this access to my stuff.
After all of this happened and months went by, I started to feel bad and was really worried about how they were doing, so we got into contact again. We talk every now and then, but I still fear that a situation like before will happen and I don't know how to handle it properly. If anyone could suggest some tips or anything for being supportive, I would really appreciate it!
Thank you
Hey @ @criticalbones
I have to admit, I love your username, I wish I had that for myself, it sounds so…satisfying!
With regards to J, goodness that is a tough one. What J did was unacceptable, regardless if he has BPD or not, it’s all about identifying where the behaviour is not appropriate and doing action on them to ensure it doesn’t happen.
How do you feel about J being in your life with the stuff you went through before, are you prepared for that or are you trying to work out how to get rid of J for good?
Best wishes
F r e n c h M a r b l e s
⚫ Quality Mentor ⚫Listener Coach ⚫Forum Supporter ⚫Project Agent
Press the ‘Reply’ button to respond to me, so I can get a notification, otherwise I might not even see it!
@FrenchMarbles
Thank you!! I quite like the username myself, it was actually an auto-generated user from reddit that I just stuck with:)
In terms of my relationship with J, we don't talk much but they also seem to be much more stable than before and I try to be careful how much information I share with them, but sometimes I feel like they want to know too much. Especially being states away, it quite scared me when they recommended a therapy place for me to go to that was very close to me. I do not like how much information they know about me and my friends. Which reminds me, when I tried to part ways, J started requesting my friends' Instagrams trying to get to me. The whole situation made me feel awful, but right now we get along and they don't share much about themselves anymore.
I don't know if I should cut them completely out because our interactions are healthier than before, but this could be because they have a partner to rely on and not me anymore? It's a combination of things for sure