Committed to an asylum at 17
She later healed the world
1961
Hartford, Connecticut, USA
A 17-year-old girl was institutionalized
She burned her wrists with cigarettes
Cut her arms, legs, and stomach with blades
She repeatedly tried to end her life
Her discharge records stated
During her 26-month stay
For a considerable time
She was the most unstable patient
Her name was Marsha Linehan
Hello
Everyone
I am Wang Lijie
Today, through real-life stories
I'll introduce a misunderstood disorder
Borderline Personality Disorder
You may not have heard the name
But you've likely seen its shadow
People called dramatic, extreme, or difficult
Those who erupt like volcanoes in love
Then retreat like glaciers
Exhausting others while suffering the most
Many of them
May be experiencing this disorder
Without even knowing it
Back to Marsha Linehan's story
While locked in Hartford Retreat
Doctors tried every available method
Electroshock therapy
Cold water baths
High doses of sedatives
Even solitary confinement
But nothing worked
She only got worse
In that era
For patients like her
The medical verdict was simple
Incurable
But after discharge, Marsha did something
That changed her life forever
She went to a Zen retreat
There
She encountered a concept
Not resistance
Not suppression
But acceptance
Radical, unconditional acceptance
Whatever state you are in
First acknowledge it as it is
No judgment
No escape
No trying to change instantly
This hit her like a lightning bolt
She later said
At that moment she understood
Healing starts not with change
But with acceptance
Then comes change
The order of these two words
Determines everything
Marsha became a psychology professor
Spending decades
Turning this into a therapy system
Dialectical Behavior Therapy
The most effective BPD treatment
Saving countless lives worldwide
But the most shocking part was 2011
That year
Marsha was 68 years old
She gathered 300 people
At the hospital where she was held
And for the first time admitted
She herself
Had Borderline Personality Disorder
The room went silent
The once most unstable patient
Became the world's leading expert
She didn't hide her scars
She turned them into medicine
Now
Let's zoom back out
To see what this disorder really is
First, a number
About 1% to 6% of the world
Is affected by BPD
What does that mean
How many contacts are in your phone
Hundreds
By conservative estimates
Three to five may have this disorder
You just don't know it
They could be colleagues
Neighbors
Relatives
Or even yourself
And in China
The situation is even more unique
In our national mental disorder classification standards
this diagnosis didn't exist for a long time
Many patients went to hospitals
and were diagnosed with depression, anxiety, or bipolar
or even schizophrenia
They struggled for years
trying round after round of medication
but the symptoms didn't match
Until someone suggested
checking for a personality disorder
Imagine that feeling
suffering for so many years
with even the diagnosis being wrong
Let me use an analogy
Imagine your emotions as a thermostat
A normal thermostat is set to a stable range
When external temperatures change
it adjusts automatically
to keep you in a comfort zone
But for BPD patients, the thermostat is broken
Not completely broken
but the sensitivity is set to the highest level
If the outside temperature rises one degree
they feel like it rose ten
If it drops one degree
they feel like they've been thrown into an ice cellar
This isn't just a metaphor
This is actually happening in the brain
A 2023 brain imaging study published in
European Archives of Psychiatry and Clinical Neuroscience
found that in BPD patients, the amygdala
the core area for emotional response
is significantly smaller in volume
Meanwhile
their insula
the area responsible for sensing internal states
also has a significantly thinner cortex
More importantly
the connection between the amygdala and prefrontal cortex is impaired
The prefrontal cortex is your rational brake
The amygdala is your emotional accelerator
When a normal person hits the gas
the brakes still work
But for BPD patients, the brake line is cut
The gas is floored
and the brakes won't hold
So it's not that they don't want to control emotions
It's that the brain's hardware at that moment
physically cannot control them
This point is very important
Let me repeat
BPD is not a character flaw
It is not a moral issue
It is not just being stubborn
It is not being dramatic
It is a structural failure in the brain's emotional regulation
But in real life
The greatest harm they suffer
Often comes not from the illness itself
But from misunderstanding
"You're too sensitive"
"Why are you so dramatic?"
"Can you stop making a scene?"
"You're just controlling me"
"Look at others, no one is like you"
Every word is like a knife
Stabbing someone already covered in wounds
The core fear of BPD
Is abandonment
Not just a normal fear of breakups or losing friends
But a fear that reaches the bone marrow
How intense is this fear?
Even if a reply is ten minutes late
Their brain enters full crisis mode
"They don't love me anymore"
"They're going to leave me"
"I'm being discarded again"
Then they do things that seem bizarre to others
Constant calls, message bombing, emotional breakdowns
Even self-harm to check if the other person still cares
These actions are not manipulation
It is a drowning person clutching at straws
A 2026 study in a clinical journal noted
BPD emotional dysregulation has three core dimensions
Impulsivity, lack of awareness, and emotional blurring
Pay attention to the last one
Emotional blurring
It means they don't have too many emotions
But they can't tell what they are feeling
Anger, fear, sadness, shame
These boil inside them like a pot of soup
But they can't say what's in the pot
If they can't say it
They can't process it
If they can't process it
They release it in the most primitive ways
Cutting themselves
Breaking things
Binge eating
Alcohol abuse
This isn't a choice they make
It's an emotional pressure cooker without a valve
It can only explode
There's another fact many don't know
Extensive research shows
BPD is strongly linked to childhood trauma
A 2023 study clearly states
Childhood emotional abuse is a key predictor
of developing this disorder in adulthood
It's not just physical abuse
It's not just neglect
It's emotional abuse
What is emotional abuse
It's when a child needs to be seen
But is instead invalidated
"Your feelings don't matter"
"You shouldn't feel this way"
"Why are you so difficult"
These words are seeds in a child's brain
Growing into an emotional wasteland 20 years later
Let me tell you another story
In 2017
Comedian Pete Davidson went public
About his BPD diagnosis
He was a regular on Saturday Night Live
The biggest comedy stage in America
To outsiders
He was young and at his career peak
What could he be suffering from
But Pete said
For over a year before diagnosis
He had frequent sudden breakdowns
And afterwards, he couldn't remember a thing
He first went to rehab
Thinking it was a marijuana problem
He quit for three months
But nothing improved
Then a psychiatrist told him
"It's not an addiction problem"
"You have BPD"
On SNL's Weekend Update
In front of the entire nation, he said
"I have BPD"
Then he added
"Depression affects 16 million people"
"There is no cure"
"But treatment helps"
"Go see a doctor"
"Talk about medication"
A comedian
On the grandest stage
To tear off one's mask
Takes immense courage
Another story worth telling
Brandon Marshall
NFL star wide receiver
In 2011
He became the first athlete in the big four
To admit to Borderline Personality Disorder
Before that
He was known for his temper
Fighting teammates on the field
Smashing things in the locker room
Constantly in off-field controversies
Everyone called him a jerk
A troublemaker
A locker room cancer
But after diagnosis
He entered McLean Hospital
Spent three months learning emotional control
Afterward, he said something powerful
I used to think I was a bad person
Now I know
I am a sick person
There is a world of difference
Between being bad and being sick
This distinction
Is the starting point of understanding
So, is it treatable?
The answer is yes
And more effective than many think
Marsha Linehan's DBT therapy
Centered on Zen-inspired dialectics
Simultaneous acceptance and change
You are in pain right now
That is true
I accept it
At the same time
You can learn new ways to cope
That is also true
These are not contradictory
They must both be true
A 2022 study in Psychotherapy
And Psychosomatics found
Even six months of DBT
Is as effective as a full year
A two-year follow-up showed
The results are lasting
Self-harm decreased
Emotional regulation improved
Overall mental symptoms are improving
One detail in this study moved me
Researchers found that
Patients exploring emotions early in therapy
Had the best results after 8-10 months
Those who developed emotional flexibility
Switching easily between emotional states
Saw the most significant relief in depression
Another term left a deep impression
Self-compassion
The study found that
Patients showing self-compassion mid-therapy
Achieved the best final outcomes
In other words
Being gentle with yourself
Is not just fluff
Is not weakness
But a clinically proven healing mechanism
A 2023 brain imaging study proved this
Researchers found that
After 10 weeks of DBT therapy
Distorted emotional space in the amygdala
Actually returned to normal
Measurable structural changes occurred
The brain can be repaired
The thermostat can be recalibrated
I previously discussed depression and suicide
That was about the brain's chemical tsunami
This time I want to go deeper
BPD is different from depression
Depression is like a mute button
Everything is gray and dull
BPD is like the brain on full-noise mode
Every signal is amplified tenfold
The quiet and the noisy
Suffer in different ways
But the level of pain is the same
To those with such friends or family
You don't need to fully understand them
Just remember one thing
When they seem to be acting out
Their brain is in an uncontrollable storm
You don't need to rush in to fight it
You just need to stand there
Let them know
After the storm passes
You are still there
That is enough
Marsha Linehan proved one thing
The deepest wounds
It can become the most powerful medicine
Not because wounds heal themselves
But because
When you truly cross that darkness
You gain something no one else can give you
You know how long the tunnel is
You know the shape of the tunnel
You know where the curves are
Most importantly
You know there is an exit
At 68, she returned to that asylum
Facing everyone
She said those words
Yes
I was the most unstable patient here
She wasn't showing off scars
She was telling those still in the tunnel
The exit exists
I made it out
You can too
Do you know anyone like this
Have you ever misunderstood them
Or perhaps yourself
Ever feel your emotional thermostat failed
Let's talk in the comments
Every honest story you share
Could help someone in the dark
I am Wang Lijie
See you next time