25 Fictional Characters People With Borderline Personality Disorder Relate To

It’s no secret art can imitate life. Perhaps that’s why we often find books, TV shows and movies so relatable. When searching for a good show to watch or book to read, we sometimes find ourselves searching for characters we identify with, watching how they go through experiences similar to our own.

When you live with borderline personality disorder (BPD), sometimes finding a relatable character can validate your experiences, make you feel less alone and more understood. 

We wanted to know what characters people with depression identify with, so we asked people from our BPD community to share one character they relate to.

Here’s what they had to say:

1. Clementine from “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind”

“She’s impulsive, charismatic, changes her mind frequently, feels emotions intensely and is vulnerable and honest to everyone she meets.” — Lisa M.

“Clementine from ‘Eternal Sunshine of The Spotless Mind.’ She is so perfectly me. It’s me in character form. Everything about her… it’s like watching my life.” — Laurel R.

2. The Hulk from “The Avengers”

“The Hulk. He struggles with his identity and emotions. His emotions are often intense and unpredictable. Some people don’t understand him, others love him and some fear him. He feels his a danger to those who love him. He regrets a lot of things. He spends a lot of time in isolation to protect the ones he loves. That’s my life and I often refer to myself as the Hulk.” — Tammy R.

3. Rebecca from “Crazy-Ex Girlfriend”

“Rebecca Bunch from ‘Crazy Ex-Girlfriend!’ She canonically has BPD! And we also share the same name and have ex-boyfriends named Josh.” — Becca S.

“Rebecca Bunch! Not just because of her diagnosed BPD, but because [of] her impulsiveness [in] anything and everything, and her intense guilt magnified into her self-loathing. Literally my life.” — Sarah H.

4. Anakin Skywalker from “Star Wars”

“Anakin Skywalker. He knows he is good, he knows in some respects he is exceptional, yet he is [debilitated] by this paranoia that he is being held back and denied his rightful place. His darkness consumes him.” — Ben H.

“Although often painted as the ‘villain,’ even as a kid, I have always strongly related to Anakin Skywalker from ‘Star Wars.’ While it’s important to acknowledge this doesn’t mean people with BPD are evil, his general character before he is Darth Vader has been described by professionals as BPD. The preoccupations with abandonment and loss, intense passion, sensitivity, anger, impulsiveness, paranoid ideation about betrayal, the frequent shifts between what he thinks and feels and feelings of being lost, empty and unsure of one’s identity and true self are all relatable to me.” — Kellyann N.

5. Jessica Jones from “Jessica Jones”

“Jessica Jones. Broken but powerful. A survivor. I see my own strength in her. When she beats the bad guys, I feel like I can too. ‘The bad guys’ for me are my symptoms of mental illness and C-PTSD. The Marvel Universe is my favorite place to retreat. As an underdog, I feel I relate to all their antihero tropes as they seem to metaphorically represent literal parts of my life. Marvel movies are part of my self-care.” — Autumn G.

“Jessica Jones is my alter-ego. She says the things I can only think. She wants to be loved and is constantly afraid of losing the ones she cares about.” — Grace S.

6. BoJack from “BoJack Horseman”

“BoJack Horseman for sureeeee.” — Jey S.

7. Harley Quinn from “Suicide Squad”

“Harley is seductive but oh so dangerous — unpredictable. She was a smart respected psychiatrist who fell in love with her patient. She’s loyal. She’s the result of pain and love because people change after being hurt so much. Yet she’s still so naïve. She is labeled as ‘insane’ but it’s exactly like when you say, ‘I apologized for being crazy but no one apologized for making me this way.’” — Amy F.

8. Harry Potter from the “Harry Potter” Series

“Harry potter. Being raised in an environment where he was secondhand to everyone, yet knowing he was different and better than the environment he came from. He came from nothing and and yet treated everybody with better respect than he ever got.” — Leena S.

9. Elsa from “Frozen”

“I’ve always connected with Elsa from ‘Frozen’ simply because she’s told all her life by her parents to ‘conceal, don’t feel, don’t let it show’ which is very relatable for me. People telling me ‘dont show your emotions,’ ‘control yourself,’ etc. She also isolated herself because of her powers and lack of control she had of them and I isolate because of my BPD and the lack of control I have over my emotions. I’ve always just had a soft spot for Elsa because I see so much of myself through her.” — Courtnie H.

“Elsa from Frozen. I definitely isolate myself to keep from hurting others and feel like I can’t control what happens when I get mad.” – Ashleigh T.

10. Tina from “Bob’s Burgers”

“Tina Belcher. I have one favorite person, I have one or two fixations, I always stuck out from my (foster) siblings, I don’t deal with uncomfortable situations, I often say things that are inappropriate for the situation.” — Sarah P.

11. Rocket from “Guardians of the Galaxy”

“Rocket from ‘Guardians of the Galaxy.’ At one point he talks about being torn apart and put back together again. That’s exactly how I feel a lot of the time.” — Nova T.

12. Christina from “Grey’s Anatomy”

“Christina Yang from ‘Grey’s Anatomy.’ She can be emotionally distant, apologetically empathetic, but complicated and hard to crack. I relate so much.” — Mark H.

13. Rick from “Rick and Morty”

“Rick from ‘Rick and Morty.’ Acting like he doesn’t care when he actually does, like he doesn’t need anyone yet wants to be loved and most of all, his self-destructive behavior.” — Daniela H.

14. Stef from “The Fosters”

“Stef from ‘The Fosters’ with the way she wants to save the world and keep her family from any pain but also won’t let people closest to her in even when she’s drowning.” — Satonia R.

15. Tiffany from “Silver Linings Playbook”

“Tiffany from ‘Silver Linings Playbook.’” — Lexi D.

16. Mickey from “Love”

“Mickey from the Netflix Original Series called ‘Love.’ She struggles with dependency issues for love, sex and drugs. The show depicts her struggles with relationships and her difficult relationship with her father. She has a difficult time dealing with separation from her partner and she is constantly self-sabotaging. She is so relatable as someone with this disorder.” — Danielle W.

17. Daria from “Daria”

“Daria. I just had a name put to my BPD last summer. I aways felt like she really cared but put on a facade of ‘I don’t care’ to keep from letting the world hurt her. That is me in a nutshell.” — Melissa G.

18. Dean from “Supernatural”

“Dean Winchester because a lot of the stuff he says is stuff I can relate to.” — Oliver L.

19. Jessie from “Toy Story”

“I can relate so much to her anxiety, clinginess, black and white thinking, abandonment issues and constant fear of being alone.” — Kairi Z.

20. Peter from “Spider-Man”

“Peter Parker/Spider-Man because after the loss of his uncle, he becomes extremely emotionally detached from his aunt to protect himself from being hurt more, but attaches himself to his best friends and love interests, impulsively putting his life at risk for them, and yet still struggles with being himself. He’s either the good guy or the bad guy depending on how others look at him, but he’s doing his best to cope with loss and preserving his current relationships.” — Sami S.

21. Betty from “Riverdale”

“I know it’s a bit cliche, but Betty Cooper from ‘Riverdale’ totally speaks to me. She has an impulsive side where she turns ‘dark’ and embodies a totally different personality. It’s just like me when I’m ‘getting bad.’ She controls her emotions through hurting herself (albeit mildly) and engages in classic reckless BPD behaviors.” — Daisy A.

22. Raven from “Teen Titans”

“Raven from the original ‘Teen Titans.’ She wants to be alone most of the time. She appears somewhat uninterested in everything and cynical towards the world and the people in it, but has a very moving and important story to tell about her past and loss she endured.” — Hannah T.

23. Nick from “New Girl”

“I relate to his outbursts. The way he copes and when he throws that hood up, I get it.” — Erica F.

24. Marla from “Fight Club”

“Always looking for a way to fit in and yet a malevolent undertone.” — Kimberly K.

25. Rapunzel from “Tangled”

“All those emotions in one moment… so me!” — Heather M.

Can you relate?