Why the ER Nurses Were Wrong When They Said I’m ‘So Borderline’

Mental illness diagnoses are, in general, not adjectives.

I was in the hospital recently and overheard two nurses talking about me. One of them said “oh, she’s so borderline,” as if that encapsulated the entire reason I was presenting to the ER.

It is not OK to say someone is “so borderline.” This insinuates the person with borderline personality disorder (BPD) is just their severe mental illness, and no more.

Everyone experiences BPD differently; it is rare that two people experience symptoms in the same way. Borderline, for many, is also a trauma response, which generally means that those with it have undergone difficult events in their lives, such as facing great abandonment and heartache.

People with BPD have often already navigated hell, so why force them to navigate it again every time they go to the ER for a mental health crisis?

People with BPD should be treated with compassion, kindness and patience — with the same respect someone struggling with another, less-stigmatized illness would receive.

I’m really disappointed that, when I present in the ER for a mental health emergency, I am simply brushed aside as I am often in crisis; I struggle with an illness with crisis in its nature. Health care professionals seem to forget that people with BPD are people first. Though symptoms are sometimes difficult to treat, people with this illness are worthy of treatment and adequate care.

In 2020, challenge yourself — whether you’re a health care professional or not — to see past stereotypes and instead see people.