Something that gets easily overlooked in discussions on addictive drugs is that they serve a purpose, especially for those with borderline personality disorder. This is awkward to talk about, because before you even get to discussing what that purpose is, people are often understandably withdrawn to indulge the topic at all.
Talking about the purpose of drugs feels outlandish to them because saying they solve problem makes it sound like you advocate for them, especially for people who have no other solutions for the problem you say that they solve. And yet, they do not exist without purpose.
Completely censuring any mention of the function of drugs leaves people more open to addiction, not less. So, acknowledge it right away: Drugs primarily serve an emotional purpose. Heroin and alcohol, for example, are not taken for their health benefits. Rather, they are taken because they help deal with something less easily manageable. Social anxiety is a common one with alcohol, while depression is usually what heroin is used for to address. Thought the dangers of self-medicating with these things are obvious.
This Is What Makes People with Mental Illnesses Vulnerable
People with mental illnesses are vulnerable to many different abuses, for example drug and alcohol abuse. Like all people, mentally ill individuals have emotional needs that society is not that well-equipped to respond to.
How many people go their whole lives vulnerable to depression due to naturally occurring chemical issues in their brains and never get the help they need? It is even possible — even probable in some areas — that people go their whole lives thinking that it is not a matter of “getting help”. Many people accuse the mentally ill as being “weak”. This is like accusing a cancer patient of just having a weak body. People get sick. Sometimes it’s in the body and sometimes it’s in the mind.
One mental affliction that makes a person incredibly susceptible to drug and alcohol abuse is borderline personality disorder.
What Is Borderline Personality Disorder?
One of the main things you need to know about Borderline Personality Disorder (also called BPD) is that it is classified as an “extremely common” mental condition. That means around 1% of Americans suffer from it. In the grand scheme of things, that is a pretty large number.
BPD is characterized primarily by an inability to evaluate oneself. The human mind is already geared towards accentuating the negative. In doing so, people notice when things are dangerous or out of place. This is a survival mechanism which easily turns on.
In this case, the ability to spot danger and problems becomes inwardly focused. This makes the sufferer of the illness regard themselves with extreme criticism. Views of their own body, reflections on their own behavior, and other self-observation becomes self-scrutiny.
This leads to irritability, moodiness, and issues communicating with others. All of it is a result of their constant self-policing; it is hard to relate to others if you are in a constant state of alertness as to whether or not you are being too foolish or too serious, too quiet or too loud.
Another common outcome of this disorder is depression. It is probably not hard to see where this comes from.
How BPD Leads to Substance Abuse
Before reading onward, one thing must be clear. Not everyone who has BPD is destined for substance abuse. Additionally, not everyone who develops a substance abuse issue suffers from BPD.
In searching for an explanation as to why some people get mental illness or become addicted to substances while others do not, it is easy for a person to conflate one with the other. They end up spinning a story of, “It happened to them for this reason, and therefore I am immune to it.”
This is a wrong way to think, as it ignores reality.
BPD leads to substance abuse because it makes a person tend towards a level of emotional instability that makes drugs seem like viable solution. The disorientation of alcohol, the numbness of heroin, and even the absence of mind caused by marijuana all seem preferable to being smothered under the malaise of debilitating self-hatred.
What Can Be Done About This?
Mentioned earlier in the article is that saying drugs and alcohol have a use tends to make people worried because this seems to imply that they are a potentially good tool for solving specific problems. Well, here is where you understand there are many better alternatives.
In all the ways that BPD is a harmful disorder, drugs and alcohol are bad solutions even if you escape dependency. And dependency upon these substances makes it even worse.
The correct way of dealing with BPD (which is to say, the more effective way) is by seeking therapy and medication designed to help deal with it. This medication is not alcohol and heroin.
The medicines used to treat BPD are usually different forms of anti-anxiety and anti-depressant medications. There are many kinds of medicines, and it is quite normal for some to work and some to not work. However, even the ones that do not work the best are more productive than a vice.
And while therapy is extremely difficult due to the nature of the problems it seeks to solve, it proves to be more successful than drugs and alcohol (which, if you are curious, both have a 0% success rate in treating BPD according to Ocean Recovery).
Conclusion
To summarize: Borderline Personality Disorder is a mental illness that causes feelings of worthlessness, often causing a person to seek out illicit substances to try and deal with the pain. But while these illicit substances will numb the senses, they won’t fix anything.
What helps deal with Borderline Personality disorder is therapy and medications that actually address the symptoms of anxiety and depression. Drug abuse is not inevitable, and there is help for you if you need it whether you have a dependency or not.
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