What Helps Jo, 27, With Borderline Personality Disorder

With our ongoing “What Helps Me” series, The Mighty is leaning into what sets us apart from other health sites: We aim to provide real health advice from real people who live it.

In this spirit, we asked our community for the best insights and tips they’ve developed for managing their conditions. As always, they responded with their unique health stories and we are happy to pass along their well-tested resources to you.

Today, we meet Mighty member Jo. She is 27 years old and lives with borderline personality disorder.

Jo, what helps you?

THE MIGHTY: What helps you most when your condition affects your physical health?

JO: If I find myself becoming sluggish and feeling unproductive, I find drinking a couple more glasses of water a day is a great start. I try and keep small promises to myself, [and those] build up over time. A short walk along the seafront to reconnect to myself and lift the fog [helps too].

What helps you most when your condition affects your mental health?

Talking with friends! Listening to music is really helpful too. I allow myself to feel all the emotions that may come up and [let them] wash over me. I tell myself it’s OK to feel how I am feeling and I remind myself that “This too shall pass.” I [may also] try [to] get out for a walk.

How do you cope when your normal self-care isn’t working?

I ride it out. I accept that it’s a crappy time, but soon, the clouds will lift. I might reach out to friends more, or take a day off work to just sleep! I find catching up on sleep is a great way to reset. I might take a day off to just clean my flat, burn some incense, and watch feel-good films.

Thank you to J0 for her contributions to our community. Did you find this helpful? Add your gratitude in the comments.

 If you want to tell us what helps you, you can complete our survey here.