Life Of Loneliness.

*Suicidal feelings discussed*

 

 

I feel gut-wrenchingly alone. I’m caught between just accepting this is my lot in life, and total despair and suicidal feelings as a result.

 

I have had a lonely life. When I was a child I didn’t have friends as such. I had a lot of difficulties with friendships growing up. My friends either left and went to another school or they just didn’t last. I also had an issue that whenever I felt people were getting too close I’d apparently push them away and the friendship would fade away… I say ‘apparently’ because I do not remember my childhood. I remember snapshots – usually the bad things that happened in my life. I remember standing alone at lunchtimes, at the side of the playground, watching everyone else having fun because nobody wanted to be my friend. Nobody wanted me around. I was the good girl who worked hard… I was shy and quiet and didn’t smile very often… so I was ‘different’ to all the other kids. I remember having to practically beg to tag along with people – this was at the age of 10 or 11… no child should have to do that…. no child should feel that isolated and desperate. I was socially excluded by my peers. I feel sickeningly sad about that to this day. I had friends abandon me and replace me – when I was about 8 or 9 this happened with my best friend – she replaced me with the girl who bullied me.

 

Throughout the rest of school and college I hardly had any real friends. I talked to people, but I still felt that sense I wasn’t accepted… I still felt nobody wanted to be seen with me. I faced more bullying… at one point it was in front of a whole class, including people I considered ‘friends’ and nobody did anything to stop it…. nobody stood up for me or checked if I was okay.

 

I had one good friend who I would’ve called my ‘best friend’ at secondary school – a Chinese girl who used to do piano duets with me …. that just came to an end when we went our separate ways for college. I do feel sad about that as she was lovely. It didn’t come without its issues though… a girl we shared classes with became very possessive over her, and kept trying to stop her seeing me at lunchtimes and getting her to hang around with her instead, and to sit next to her in classes. From what I understand those two are still friends even to this day.

 

I often spent my lunchtimes at the school library, where I started volunteering as a librarian. It kept me busy and I felt less lonely – less like the loner I was at primary school. Other times I went to the music block rehearsal rooms and just played piano.

 

They were difficult times… feeling unwanted…. feeling ashamed … judged. I doubt there are many people who could understand how that felt… especially not many that went to school with me. They probably never even realised what I went through. People bullied me and picked on me… again because I was quiet and shy… an easy target. I didn’t stand up for myself. They picked on me because of my looks as well. I was a relatively hairy child and had spots… probably all part of my PCOS. Not exactly something I could help having. And believe it or not I was a child, not a woman, so I didn’t need to shave all my hair off to be sexually attractive – I wasn’t a child-slut like other girls in my year must’ve been. I was picked on so much I ended up shaving my arms and I’ve only just in the last six months finally managed to break past the mental barrier, to grow the hair back… so many times the memories of such judgements tempted me to shave it all off again, but I pushed through, and now I accept them… although I have my moments of disgust. Your young years do scar you for a lifetime….

 

They picked on me for not shaving my legs…. but I was an innocent child. I didn’t know little girls were supposed to shave their legs. A boy once jokingly asked if I was a virgin…. I had never heard of the word (this was at primary school mind you), and I thought he meant Virgo, so I said no…… people liked to laugh at my innocence. Just like the time my tutor group tricked me into saying ‘maths-a-pation’ and thought it was hilarious that they’d made me say ‘masturbation’, even though I hadn’t…. I didn’t even know what that word meant at that point. There were some boys who obviously knew my name, but they were in the year above, and they called me Lily Savage (the drag-act), because of my hairiness. The girl who bullied me most of all at secondary school called me ‘spot’, because of my spots. These fucking awful children made me hate myself for the rest of my life, and I really do hate them all for it. Because they’ve carried on with their lives, no problem. They’ve all settled down, got married, had children and have no idea about the impact they had on my whole life.

 

I spent the later part of school and my college years not knowing who I was… I tried so hard to change, to be accepted by others… I tried to be ‘louder’ and more fun. I tried to be who they wanted me to be, because I learnt early on that I would never be accepted how I was.  People used to ask my mum (because she was the librarian at primary school), why I was so quiet.  She used to say it’s who I am, and that it was like asking why they are so noisy. She tried to help me out but kids are evil. If you’re one of the quiet ones you don’t stand a chance.

 

I didn’t have ‘friends’ as such at college. I tended to hang around either with my brother or with a couple of guys – one who I knew from school, but who nobody else liked, so it alienated me from everyone else, and two guys from music. I liked their company. We used to sit under the stairs at lunchtimes. Guys were much easier to hang around with. No bitchiness, less drama. They seemed to accept me. I remember sitting with a group of girls in the corridor once, and after a bit they all just got up and left, without telling me where they were going. They abandoned me. This has been my life.

 

And then I left college. By that time my mental health was awful. I had started self-harming whilst at college and told my family towards the end of it. From then on it was taking a break from the stress of college, and working on getting well – seeing doctors, going on medication, therapy etc., voluntary work… I didn’t have friends then. It was difficult. But in a way, looking back it was probably actually an easier time.

 

Then I met someone through volunteering who happened to like the same band as me. We bonded over that, went to see them together, and a friendship was born… the best and longest friendship I ever had – 14 years. The first real friend I had.

 

I heard from someone I knew at school, we met up, became friends… sometimes all three of us would meet up – I introduced them to each other… big mistake. Through all the friendship dramas I’ve endured in the last few years I have realised never to introduce friends to other friends. You should always keep your friends for yourself.

 

I then did my therapy course of DBT – over ten year ago now…. towards the end I became friends with a woman on the course, and she became a good friend, who also understood my illness, because she had it too. In fact she was the one who drew my attention to the term Borderline Personality Disorder, and that that’s what I was being treated for. I hadn’t been told that.

 

I suddenly had three friends! After all my years of loneliness I had three people in my life I counted as good friends. We all met as a group sometimes too. And other people sometimes joined, who knew the others. But mainly it was us four girls. Then my best friend introduced a guy friend of hers into the group, and also her boyfriend at the time joined in too. I’ll be honest, it changed the dynamics of the group having guys there too.

 

The guy wanted to date my best friend – she wasn’t interested…. I secretly liked the guy…. the school friend always seemed flirty with him, and the therapy friend kept it well hidden that she liked him too, so one day when I was out of the country for my brother’s wedding, she broke up with her fiancé, moved back home and got together with him instead. She knew I liked him, as I confided in her. It broke my heart and she broke my trust. I couldn’t be in their circle anymore, so I lost my group of friends. I had already lost the girl from school because she started playing mind games with me and bitched about me to the group. She was a narcissist. So I felt excluded from the group anyway, plus just like at school nobody defended me against her backstabbing and treatment of me. At the same time there was another guy I was interested in, in a different way, who I had found out was using me and playing games with me… only finding this out just before I left the country…. so it really all happened within the space of a month.

 

My whole world fell apart. I lost the friend from school, the one from therapy (which made me resent therapy and recovery too), the guy I liked who played games, the guy I had become friends with and wanted to settle down with… it all happened at once. From having no friends and feeling excluded all my life, and then I had a group of friends. I remember eight years ago now, sitting in the local pub at a table, with all of them around me, and I never felt happier to be surrounded by friends. And then suddenly in 2012, less than a year later, it all came crashing down at once. Excuse me if that year completely fucked me up and traumatised the hell out of me. I hate the lot of them for what they did to me.

 

Out of it all I managed to keep one friendship at least – my best friend… the original one. She never gave up on me. She had a baby the next year, and that saved me from destruction. I loved that little girl so much. She gave me a purpose. She gave my life a new meaning and taught me a lot about myself. I became a different person – a person I liked. A couple of years later, another little baby joined the party. I loved him just as much. Those two kids became my Godchildren and I will always love them. Nothing can change that.

 

I may have lost most of my ‘friends’, but with my Godchildren I never felt lonely. They looked forward to seeing me. I felt wanted. I felt appreciated. I felt proud of them and proud of who I was becoming. There were times, quite often, when I felt I didn’t deserve them. I sometimes voiced this to my friend. I didn’t feel good enough. I felt I was letting them down, particularly when I was going through hard times mentally. Sometimes I wouldn’t be up to seeing them… I knew I couldn’t put on an act. And I didn’t want to make them feel rejected or like a nuisance, and I didn’t want them to be worried or upset. I babysat them in February last year. I found it overwhelming. I was seriously unwell mentally at the time. I don’t think my friend even knows how much I struggled that day. I was good at hiding how I felt. I didn’t want her to feel like she’d imposed by asking me to watch the kids. I wanted to help. I wanted to feel helpful. But it was difficult with two of them at that time. That was the last time I saw them….

 

Soon after that was the first anniversary of my first loss, and when nobody was there for me, including my best friend, I isolated myself because I was splitting on everyone. I thought nobody cared. I thought they all hated me. I thought they all wanted me dead. I withdrew from everyone. I felt so detached from reality… so paranoid… and disconnected from life and other people. I would turn up to work and smile and nod, but feel emotionally dead inside, and like I wasn’t really there. I’d sit on the bus, looking out the window at people walking around, and I’d feel like it was the last time I’d see the world. I was that suicidal that it felt certain to happen, and soon.

 

Being isolated is hard…. once you get into that rut it is very difficult to get out of it. You need people to make the effort for you. I often wrote about that, or made videos as my way of communicating from the prison inside myself. I talked about ‘the hijacker’… that I didn’t feel in control anymore… that I was being led away from my friends, and I needed them to rescue me. They didn’t. They let ‘him’ drive away with me and then blamed me for not sticking around. I needed them to put in the effort for me, where I couldn’t. I was calling out for help and nobody answered.

 

I didn’t see my best friend. I saw her in March once, and then after a couple of months of not talking, we met for a coffee in June and saw a film a day or two later, and that was it. I’ve not seen her for 10 months. I’ve not seen ANYONE socially for 10 months. I’m afraid to now. As I didn’t see my friend, I couldn’t see her children. I was losing that part of my identity. As such, I didn’t know how to be ‘fun Lily’ for the kids anymore, and I was worried I wasn’t good enough to be around them. My self-esteem was low. That was the problem. But my friend didn’t understand it that way. She thought I didn’t want to see the kids. I NEEDED to see the kids. And I couldn’t do that without seeing her. But she’d go weeks without even talking to me.

 

I understand communication works two ways. And she had got it into her head that I didn’t want her friendship anymore. But that’s not the case at all. And if she had read my blogs or listened to my videos, or read my statuses then she’d know that. I was unable to reach out to people, and I made that clear in blogs. I needed her to reach out to me. She knew that. If she felt the same then fine, but I didn’t know that. She never communicated anything like it. As far as I could see she was simply ignoring my cries for help. I was calling out and begging for people to show me friendship. I may have said I felt like I didn’t have any friends, but that was because people were not treating me like I was their friend. I felt lonely and neglected. It didn’t mean I didn’t WANT them as friends, it meant I NEEDED them as friends but they were failing to be friends. She seemed to misinterpret so much that I said last year, and the damage that did is now not fixable, because I don’t think she understands that it’s her misunderstandings of me and of what happened, that have driven us to this point and broken our friendship.

 

Our friendship died last year. My last friendship… gone. The moment it died was when she reacted to a blog of mine… one that was trying to break the deadlock and save a friendship – we would never have spoken again otherwise… most of what she said did damage to our relationship, but the killing line was ‘I did miss you. Do miss you. But nothing will ever be the same now’. She had just villainised me for trying to rescue our friendship. I may not have gone about it the best way. I was in a painfully desperate state… a lot of the trauma of 2012 was going through my head at the same time. All the loss, the mistreatment…. I did what I thought was best at the time. And she had concluded that we would never be the same from that moment on. The actual PROBLEM last year was her neglecting me when I needed a friend… it was her seeming to replace me, and pretending I didn’t exist, yet somehow I ended up with the blame. And I don’t think she’s let go of that one incident ever since. That’s why we’re not friends now.

 

She blames the demise of our friendship on me. On what I did – blogging…. forgetting the fact that I had nobody else there for me. I was having a breakdown. I was trapped within my own mind. I was suicidal and self-harming most days. What did she expect me to do? Did she want us to never speak again? Perhaps. And maybe it would’ve been better. What’s happened since has destroyed me. I’ve faced so much more rejection from trying to save the friendship. It’s heartbreaking.

 

I removed the blog. I apologised. I extended the olive branch at Christmas. It was snubbed. I was snubbed. The kids weren’t even given their presents for Christmas. I didn’t get a thank you, a card, a text, or any acknowledgement. I had to chase my friend up at the beginning of this year, to ask her if she even wanted to sort things out. This made me feel how I felt back at school, begging people to tolerate me at lunchtime. I’ve always had to chase attention, affection, love and care. I’m rarely shown it willingly and freely. This is sickening. It makes me feel worthless and pathetic. This will never change until people start to be consistent in their friendship and are emotionally available.

 

My friend couldn’t decide whether I was worth fighting for. She needed more time. In the meantime I was expected to sit with my insecurities and paranoia about being replaced by her other friends, who she often wrote about having a great time with them. I felt rejected and forgotten.

 

So I had to do what was right for my mental health. I had to step back. I had to unfriend her until she was ready to sort things out with me. I had to allow myself to get well. Her husband seemed to understand this and said it was important to look after myself. I don’t feel she was as reasonable. Her behaviour definitely didn’t communicate it anyway. Having said I felt upset about the Christmas presents, saying that I felt continuously rejected by her, and saying I needed to look after my mental health by removing her, she said nothing to me… she just blocked me.

 

Not exactly the actions of a friend. I know I was going to remove her, but I explained the reason why – I respected her enough to not just ditch her like others had ditched me throughout my life. In all these years I’ve just wanted someone to respect and care about me enough to allow me some closure… to finish on a decent note. The pattern is that they just get tired of me or hurt me, before ghosting me. It’s hurtful for anyone, but damaging for someone with BPD. By saying absolutely nothing to me and just blocking me it communicated that she didn’t accept my decision, and therefore didn’t care about my mental health. It was passive-aggressive. All it did was make it so I couldn’t get in touch with her. It stated that she doesn’t want to hear from me again. It was a punishment with the intention to gain power and control of the situation. It was unnecessary.

 

My last memories of my oldest and best friend, are her blocking me (on two accounts), and removing herself from my Facebook group, after hearing from her husband that I was paranoid she’d done that to hurt me, just like others did to punish me when leaving my life. She made conscious choices to do things she knew would hurt me. I’m finding it hard to come to terms with the REALITY that she’s either become this person who wants to hurt me, or she’s always been that person and I never realised. I’m now thinking that my paranoid thoughts were not ‘paranoia’ but rather ‘gut feelings’ based on reality. I don’t know what to believe anymore.

 

What matters is that I am now left friendless. A year ago I felt like I didn’t have any friends… because of the lack of friendship I was shown. This year I actually don’t have any friends. Last year my friend wasn’t there for me on the first anniversary of my loss. This year she wasn’t there because she had blocked me. I thought things couldn’t get worse than last year. Maybe I was wrong.

 

Yes I have people I occasionally talk to. Acquaintances. Or even ‘friends’ in the looser sense of the term. I mean no offence to these people – but I think they’d agree I’m not one of their closer friends. There’s nothing wrong with that. I can still care about people and like them without us being close friends. It’s just the reality of things. We’re not that close, and probably never will be. So I feel justified in saying I have no friends. She was the last one. My one and only friendship left after muddying the waters by bringing all my former friends together…. how different life might be now had I kept them all separate. It sickens me to think about that…

 

I felt isolated last year. This year I feel lonely….. alone. Being totally honest there are people I’ve prompted several times about meeting up, and nothing has materialised. I know people are busy and forget. I’m guilty of it at times. And I’m sure some people have felt the same way towards me as I do towards others right now… but you just get to a point where you think I’m not going to suggest meeting again…. there’s only so much ‘rejection’ someone with BPD can face. Although it’s not a rejection as such – it’s a loose agreement to meet, so in a way it’s acceptance, it’s like broken promises… it’s a disappointment… it feels like rejection. And I can’t keep putting myself out there and being rejected. It’s dragging my self-worth even further down. So I’m starting to isolate in my mind again.

 

I feel so painfully lonely. I have nobody close to me anymore. Nobody to confide in. Nobody to share the good or the bad with. I feel nobody cares about me. I feel I’m nothing to everyone in my life. This is partly due to my former best friend making me feel I meant nothing to her, but also just the voice of my illness.

 

My illness is bad again at the moment. I’m wanting to do bad things. I want to do something self-destructive. I’ll write about that separately.

 

I just feel so empty, flat and invisible. I always have to ask for people to notice me and care, and it makes me feel worthless and demanding and like an attention-seeker. I can’t keep doing it. Not only do I feel irrelevant to those I know, but I now don’t have a best friend. I live in world where my best friend hurt me and abandoned me so coldly.

 

It’s hard to accept the journey I’ve been on – from a childhood of loneliness and isolation, to a group of friends, to one friend but the Godchildren too, to nobody and nothing…. I’ve gone full-circle. It’s really upsetting.

 

I know I’m not the only person with BPD who feels life is easier not having friends or relationships. Experiences like this make me want to live my life without anyone else…. people just bring complications… especially if those people don’t try to learn about and understand our illness and how to help the relationship flourish. It feels easier somehow to avoid people. You feel that way you won’t get hurt. But at the same time it’s incredibly lonely not having anyone in your life.

 

This is how I feel right now. I feel trapped. I feel either way I end up hurting and wanting to die. Relationship tensions and abandonment hurt me to the point I don’t want to be here anymore. And feeling so alone and invisible makes me think I might as well not be here. I’m feeling suicidal at the moment.  Everything about my life is hurting…. from my childhood, to 2012, to the last couple of years, to the present. I’d say the future, but right now I don’t see one. I hate how people have treated me in the last few years, after the things I went through as a child. It mirrors what I went through. It all hurts so much. And I feel like that little girl, standing by the wall by herself… nobody wanting to play with her… just watching others enjoy their lives whilst questioning her own existence and asking ‘why?’. Life just hurts and I hate everyone who abandoned me, betrayed me and made me feel this worthless. They’ve made me not want to live any longer.

 

 

Online Abuse.

 

 

*Self-harm trigger warning, very strong language and political discussion*

 

A few days ago I went through something I’m still trying to recover from, both psychologically and physically. I expressed my views on Boris and the burka business on Twitter, went out and when I came back I had 34 notifications – I didn’t know what for … I’d forgotten I’d even said anything at that point. As I scrolled through them I saw it was an endless stream of people disagreeing with what I said… saying I was talking nonsense, and attacking Boris. That doesn’t bother me. It initially made me feel bad for what I said, as I was being shown up for ‘being wrong’, and being ‘stupid’…. but eventually I got over that and thought, people are allowed to disagree, it doesn’t mean I’m wrong. Those people didn’t bother me. The ones who did were the ones who attacked ME. This post is about them.

 

I went into adrenaline mode, tweeted that I’d obviously triggered a lot of people with my opinions, and I’d better not read all the notifications or else I’d be cleaning up the mess for a long time – it triggered me. Surprisingly I managed to read them all without harming myself. My heart-rate went up a few times, as notifications came in and as I responded to a couple and got replies back, but I managed to calm myself down and not spin into a full-blown episode.

 

Unfortunately there was one person who affected me so badly I started shutting my account down, and another person who affected me even worse who made me self-harm on an epic scale. I have never punched a wall as violently as I did that day… only ever in my dreams. And I have several scars on my body to go with it. I’m still finding it hard to type or write with my right hand because of the pain. I still have flashbacks to that evening, and the roar of pain and desperation as I hit the wall and slashed at my skin. Thankfully nobody was in at the time, but I dread to think what the neighbours would’ve heard. I remember wanting to do to my right arm what I did to my leg, and had I done so I would’ve ended up in hospital. It also would’ve been the first time I’d harmed my right arm, and that would’ve been it for me… totally out of control. So I actually did a lot less damage to myself than I could have done and felt the need to do. I had to take two diazepam in the end as I was shaking so much, I was panicky, and I wanted to do more damage to myself. It saved me from doing something worse.

 

It’s a balance between me realising I do put myself in harm’s way by sharing my opinions online, so I have to protect my mental health from trolls and bullies. But also people need to stop being shitheads. They need to realise when they’re attacking people for different views, they’re not attacking ‘bots’ and ‘trolls’, they are attacking real human beings, with emotions. They’re not just attacking ideas and politics, they are attacking character, personality and a soul. They are attacking people who have various struggles in life. They do it to feel wonderful about themselves, to feel powerful and put others down, but some of us have a mental illness. This does not mean we’re not allowed an opinion. People should learn tolerance and respect, and how to talk to people without making them question whether they should continue living in this world. The next person they pick on may go a step further and end their life, and that would be on them. Could they live with that? I’d guess yes, because I don’t think these people have a conscience or morals. I don’t think they care about other people. They’d probably take joy in the fact I self-harmed… that the blood is on their hands. That’s the sort of sickos we have in this world right now. No compassion. Seeing everything as a competition… a game.

 

This is what happened….

 

 

This was one response I had – it didn’t bother me that much, but it is one thing that pisses me off about the left – if you post something that they disagree with, they write you off as a ‘troll’ or a ‘bot’…. they dehumanise you… which is ironic really, as they are outraged that Boris’ comments ‘dehumanise’ Muslim women. They have no issue in doing the same to ordinary decent people, who just happen to have a different opinion to them. This person isn’t the only one to do it – it is becoming the go-to response of the left. It’s also ironic because they revealed the troll in themselves.

 

Wikipedia says: “In internet slang, a troll is a person who starts quarrels or upsets people on the internet to distract and sow discord by posting inflammatory and digressive, extraneous or off-topic messages in an online community with the intent of provoking readers into displaying responses and normalizing tangential discussion whether for the troll’s amusement or a specific gain.”

 

My comment was on my own account. For me to be considered a ‘troll’ I would have to have gone onto a tweet by this person, and responded with what I said with the intention of starting an argument. But I didn’t. All I did was express my own opinion on my own feed. People coming in and arguing with me, and trying to get a rise out of ME are the ‘trolls’. I had many people come in and talk about general ‘racism’… about Boris’ other gaffes… about Conservative Islamophobia… about all sorts – that’s going off on a tangent, i.e. a form of ‘trolling’… I simply stated that I think the shit-storm is a diversion tactic in order to discredit Boris, and prevent a leadership challenge. I was saying there’s more to this than ‘islamophobia’… How is that ‘trolling’?? It’s my tweet! I can’t troll myself!!

I felt I had to say something and challenge this ridiculous belief that a normal person cannot make a different point… that they must get a kick out of ‘being controversial’ or must be paid to do it. I wasn’t being controversial either, just stating an alternative point of view! But they had to go on and belittle me, implying I’m stupid or gullible. Says more about them than me. Vile little idiot.

 

 

This is Ivan. Ivan is a rude little man. He was obviously never taught as a child that ‘if you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything at all’. Of course there will be people who disagree with what I said – I don’t actually care about that. I had loads of people express that to me. But they did so by saying they didn’t agree and then had a rant about Boris. They made it about him and the topic at hand. MOST of them didn’t make it about ME, and so eventually I got to a point I didn’t mind them arguing … I wasn’t responding to them anyway, so they were really only arguing with themselves!

Ivan however chose to say my tweet was ‘stupid’. That is to say that the person who wrote it was stupid. It’s offensive. And I have a right to stand up for myself against offensive old men. He talks of the irony of me criticising others for being rude whilst defending the rudest man in British politics – but that’s ironic too… because he’s only ‘the rudest man in British politics’ in HIS OPINION. What these people on the left fail to grasp is that their views are only opinions, and are no better than the opinions of those on the right. They believe everything they think and say is a FACT. I do not believe that Boris is the rudest man in British politics, therefore standing up to the fact that Ivan was rude to ME holds no irony whatsoever.

 

Two people chipped in to this conversation, to defend their ‘comrade’:

 

This was one of them. He(??) didn’t like that I was defending myself and teaching a rude man about respect, and he couldn’t find anything particularly offensive that I had said, so he created an offence by picking out a set of words – ‘people like you’ – and being offended by it. Two things come to mind when I think of this… firstly, he’s trying to ‘put me in my place’ – bring me down to their level… to try and paint me as disrespectful also, despite the fact I was simply standing up for myself. Secondly though he showed that his side of the argument are a bunch of sissies. I had the same from that American Democrat a few months back… she was offended by the words ‘the likes of you’. Snowflake alert! Both ‘the likes of you’ and ‘people like you’ are concepts … I know the left struggle with concepts. It’s a term to denote a group of people… it says ‘you and others who share similar beliefs as you’. I’m always saying ‘people like me / the likes of me’ and I don’t get upset about it, because it’s not an insult. It’s a way of saying ‘not only me but people similar to me’. It’s not offensive and by claiming to find it offensive, with the intention of making me sound like a ‘meanie’, they have only shown themselves to be cry-babies. This is why the average person cannot take the far-left whiners seriously anymore. They are afraid of every word in the English language…. Oh God, I said ‘English’… how ‘racist’ of me…..

 

 

This was another. This is ‘Mouse’. I shall be coming on to ‘Mouse’ in great depth soon…..

 

Anyway, back to Ivan…. oh yes…. I told him I had opinions of him too, but decided I’d model respectful behaviour and not tell him what they were. What I actually think of him is he’s a nasty, vindictive, hypocritical prick. But I instead said we’d leave it there and wished him a good day. His response was to block me.

A bit later he unblocked me. I found this suspicious so blocked him. I was worried he was coming back for round two. That he wanted to abuse me further. And I was right. Luckily I blocked him just in time. He wanted to stick the knife in further….

 

He posted this on his timeline for his 13 thousand followers to see. Oh, and then he blocked me again, as I discovered upon unblocking him to report him. So what a fucking coward. But don’t worry, I can see everything these cowards say about me by logging out. Can’t get away with anything sunshine, and I did report him anyway. I now realise you can report people even when they’re blocked, which is good.

This ‘man’ was the final nail in the coffin for me and made me start closing down my account. I possibly will still close it. But I’m looking at all options first, for how to keep safe. I feel he put me in danger because the left are unhinged. They are also uninhibited. They see no issue with targeting people, harassing people, demonising them, hounding them, defaming them, and with the paranoia I already feel with my mental illness at the moment, I could do without feeling unsafe on Twitter.

A part of me wants to stay and stand up against bullies like him. I want to challenge what he has said…. I will start by doing that here…. He said ‘she thinks she can swear’ – where exactly did I swear at this man? Point it out to me. I did not swear at him. I would never swear at someone in a conversation with them. If he is referring to ‘FFS’ then get a fucking grip man! It’s abbreviated and an expression of exasperation! He clearly is 70 years old then, as indicated by the number in his handle, and he’s trying to write me off as a ‘disrespectful young person’ – well fuck him. I have more respect for old people than all of his lot put together. His lot wish old people would die so they get the result they want. I actually prefer older people.  I identify more with their way of thinking than the young people of today. But if an old person is disrespectful, offensive or rude to me, they do not deserve my respect. I did not swear at him. Okay after seeing everyone having a pop at me I wrote a separate tweet on my own feed, saying I should keep my fucking mouth shut then, and I did say ‘fucking dicks’ (please excuse my language here) – I was in an ‘episode’. I was feeling every emotion under the sun and felt silenced. I felt attacked by these evil lefties, and I hated them for being unable to keep their mouths shut when they disagree with something! It wasn’t an attack on him. And he’s painting it wrongly.

He also says about me saying people ‘have a screw loose’ – oh, shock horror, how dreadful of me to say – I could have said you’re a bunch of narcissistic ‘C’ words…. but oh my God I said they have ‘a screw loose’…. damn it…. they think all their screws are tightly fixed in place… bless them and their perfect self-image. But take a look at this:

 

 

He takes no issue in repeating it back at me…. saying that ‘if anyone has a screw loose it’s those people who think he should be allowed anywhere near the levers of power’. So he blasts me for saying that, but he also said it. Yes, off the back of what I said. But he still insisted that people on my side of the argument are the ones with the screw loose. He just doesn’t like the implication that people on his side of the debate are less than perfect.

He also said ‘you mustn’t dare call her tweets out for being “stupid”, even though some of them plainly are’…. twat face. He might think some of my tweets are plainly stupid. I think he himself is plainly stupid. But gosh, I wouldn’t be allowed to say that would I, as I’m not a raging lefty! So anything I say to the left is ‘offensive’. ‘FFS’…. hehe.

 

He called me a hypocrite. Now I’m going to demonstrate why HE is a hypocrite…… take a look at these tweets later on:

 

 

In the first one he talks about ‘smears’…. yet he happily smeared me to his followers. In both tweets you can see his own offensive manner, about ‘shoving things up your arse’, and calling TM thick. But most importantly in the second tweet he says that kicking Boris out of the Tory party would diffuse the row over islamophobia… ‘but it would also prevent him from mounting a leadership challenge against her’…… What a fucking hypocrite…. he attacked my tweet as ‘stupid’ when it was expressing exactly that sentiment. It may not have been worded that way, but it was saying that people are getting all up in arms about Boris, and Theresa May is in on it, to discredit Boris and stop him challenging her as leader. That’s what I was saying. And he said it himself. He attacked me as stupid for thinking the same stupid thing as him! What a fucking hypocritical moron. And with that, I’m done with him.

 

 

And then came ‘Mouse’. I don’t know what Mouse is, so will refer to them as ‘it’ or ‘them’. Too cowardly to be themselves, they hide behind a fake name and image. Having endured enough shit from people, I blocked them after they joined in my conversation with someone else… this is what they said….

 

 

It’s funny really how one person replying to one other person constitutes a ‘racist little echo chamber’… mate it’s called a fucking conversation, and you weren’t invited. This person, or rather this mouse, is your typical far-left Labour supporter – momentum, ‘anti-fascist’ type. And they are deranged. They see everything as racism. They will make a packet of crisps be about racism. They’re fucked in the head. Anyway, ‘it’ said that if it’s about an item of clothing then ‘what right do you have to tell someone what they can or cannot wear. Grow a brain’ … I think the one lacking anything resembling a brain is this little mouse. You see, at no point whatsoever have I said what people should or should not wear. Funnily enough neither did Boris! They’d know that if they’d fucking read the article. They’d know that he doesn’t support banning it. That women should be free to CHOOSE to wear it… as long as they are actually choosing of their own accord. I never mentioned that they shouldn’t wear it. I just said in response to people saying what Boris said is racist, that it wasn’t about the people – it was about the clothes, and if you can’t even make an observation or criticise clothes, then this world is fucked. Are we regressing? Are we heading to a place where we cannot use the English language anymore for fear of offending people? These ‘people’ do my head in. They need help.

So I have something to say to that second tweet that Mouse wrote…. it is directed at the Muslim community, because that is what was discussed. I think that Mouse has actually shown more racism in that tweet than I ever have – because what they are saying is that Muslim’s are of a certain race. That Jews and Christians are ‘white’, and that’s why they are not being criticised. This is utter bullshit. There are people of all races who follow the religions of Judaism and Christianity, the same with Islam. Mouse is stereotyping, and saying that white people are Christians and Jews, and ‘the brown people’ are Muslims. This is wrong, and in effect is a form of racism. It’s funny that they call me a racist with no evidence of that whatsoever. Yet they display their own views on race and religion and show they are less than pure in their views. Islam is not a race. It is a religion. Any religion should be allowed to be questioned. Mouse just wants to shut down discussion, and create villains out of people, so labels them ‘racist’. This feeds its ego. That’s all this is about.

 

Anyway I decided I didn’t have the spiritual energy to put up with all this nonsense, so I blocked it. Now, at the time I was not aware of the barrage of tweets I received from it. I only saw them later when I had invisible comments on replies to people, so I figured it was a blocked account, so logged out, searched for my posts and saw Mouse had tweeted loads of abuse. I believed at the time it was done after blocking them, but I now admit I was wrong. It all occurred before the block, in a 20 minute window or so. It was still a lot to take… being mistaken about the block doesn’t take away the distress I experienced just from what they were saying, regardless of when they said it. So I will start by sharing things that were said before the block, which Twitter didn’t make me aware of – despite all the numerous notifications I kept getting….

 

 

Just because you disagree with it, doesn’t make it ‘wrong’. Something you could all do with learning.

 

 

Actually I don’t have much to say about this one…. speaks for itself.

 

 

So Mouse went a step further than Ivan and called ME stupid. They clearly demonstrated exactly what their lot are like. When challenged on bad behaviour they don’t apologise or back down, they behave even worse. Pack behaviour. And the whole ‘if you don’t want to be accused of posting stupid stuff, then don’t be stupid’… missing the point entirely that it is only stupid in the opinion of weirdos like you. I got more likes for my tweets than I got negative comments. So there you go. Just your opinion and a fucking lousy one at that… but that’s just my opinion of course.

 

 

Okay, this makes no sense at all. How does this tweet mean that I am also a racist? I fail to see the link. All I said in my tweet is that those who replied to me have proven that they dislike Boris for reasons other than his comments on the burka. And that anything he does is wrong in their eyes…. because he’s a Conservative…. because he’s not afraid to be honest…. because the left hate the right. Saying that it’s not just about a burka, and that people have proven that, has no link at all to racism – this person is obsessed with racism and needs to be locked in a safe place, until they recover from this obsession… until they break the addiction to the word, and to the hatred behind their words.

They just became obsessed with my tweets and probably enraged that I didn’t bite, and talk to them on any of them. They hounded me until I blocked them (which in my own mind was after only two tweets, as Twitter didn’t alert me to the string of other ones at the time! But what I noticed afterwards, looking at this little mouse’s profile… they like picking argument after argument with people… and they like making people block them, and sharing screenshots of the block whilst mocking the person – I’m not the first, and I won’t be the last. It’s just an ego wank. Sad, pathetic, lonely little narcissist with nothing better to do with their time than harass people and use them as a means to bolster their own image as the stronger/better person. Dude, you commented on tweets at least eight times, and I didn’t respond to any of them… because you’re not worth the time to talk to. I could see you for what you were straight away – you’re an unreasonable person and it would be a waste of time saying anything to you, as you already cast me in the ‘racist’ role probably long before I posted my tweets…. you woke up in the morning and thought, ‘I wonder who will be my ‘racist of the day’ today’. And I was the lucky person you selected. It takes more strength to stay quiet when someone is trying to provoke you, than to bite back and give them more ammunition. Some bullies are best to be ignored, and eventually they’ll get bored and walk away. Not all, but ones like this aren’t worth lowering yourself for.

 

 

This one didn’t bother me, as it’s a fair question. But my fair answer would be that actually there are people on both sides of the argument – including Muslims. As much as some say it IS islamophobia there ARE others who say it is not. So would you ignore them?? I know that your side of the debate don’t listen to reason…. you’d fly off the handle at this suggestion, but it’s a fact. Not everyone thinks the same as you. And that’s okay. I get it. You think you’re fighting the good fight…. but there are some who would be grateful Boris said what he did, and wish he’d go further and suggest the banning of the burka. I don’t care if that happens or not. I’m just being objective about the situation. It’s not one-sided. There are women in other countries taking them off in protest, not wanting to wear it – they do not want you defending it… they would want people to help them in their bid to be free of it. Don’t say it’s a lie, just because you know some are offended. I’m simply stating the truth that people feel differently about it, and that is okay.

 

 

What a troll. This demented little turd obviously has so much rage inside that anything I tweeted enraged them, making them tell me to delete my account. When I read ‘delete your account’, in my head my response to it was ‘delete your life’. What gives this jumped up little piece of shit the right to tell me what to do? This is what they want. They want to silence an opposing voice. They want to shut me down. They want to shut us all down, one by one, until the only voice that remains is theirs, and then they can live out their little dictatorship fantasy…. their cult fantasy, where we all think the same. No chance mate. You may bully us into silence, bully us off of Twitter, but you will NEVER be the majority voice. But you enjoy your sad little lefty echo chamber once you’ve bullied all the decent people off social media.

 

 

 

And then I blocked them. And they did this. They told their followers that I’m a racist, with my photo next to it, making me feel like a target in the outside world as well as online. Cheers bastard. I’m still waiting for you to take it down. I reported both you and Ivan, and Ivan was found to be guilty of abusive behaviour and removed all his tweets about me, at least earning some respect from me, and you have been found guilty of hateful conduct. So I’d remove this post if I were you, as it’s the one that puts you at risk of further action from me if you don’t. You are defaming me.

You say ‘Some advice Lily, if you’re being called racist, perhaps it’s because you are’ – this is seriously bent logic. YOU were the one who radically decided I was a racist, despite me posting no racist material at all. If I was being called a racist by lots of different people then your comment, whilst still not true, would at least make a little sense. But you call me a racist, and then say if I’m being called it then perhaps it’s because I am one… that’s like saying ‘my opinion of you is fact’. You’re delusional and seriously sick – seek help. Let’s follow that logic…. I could equally say to someone like yourself that you’re a paedophile… with no evidence that you are…. you would question that, and my answer would be ‘Some advice, if you’re being called a paedophile, perhaps it’s because you are one’….. do you see the issue with this? Just because I’d think it so, does not make it true. So surely you must accept that just because you labelled me as racist, it does not mean I am. If we can all go around deciding who is what, and the logic is that you are that, ‘because I say so’, then what an ugly world we’d live in. You’re contributing to that ugliness.

But if I had applied the ‘paedophile’ logic to you, you would sue me for defamation, particularly if I had put a picture of your real face next to my accusation. This is no less damaging. So remove it, or have it removed and face action. Your choice.

 

Mouse is a wannabe… they follow all things Labour, socialist, ‘anti-fascist’ and Momentum. This thing needs no more summing up than that. That tells us all we need to know. That’s why they don’t bother me that much… I’m happy to let them continue down their sad little path of destruction, but leave my face out of it, you nasty piece of work. These sorts of people cannot be helped. They’re lost souls.

 

Moral of the story is I know who I am. I know what I am and what I am not. I know that these people have a sickness that makes them see ‘racism’ where it doesn’t exist. Calling people ‘racist’ seems to be a cathartic experience for them. It makes them feel better about themselves. I think being deemed a racist by one of THEM is a sign I’m doing okay in life. As much as it’s caused me distress and I don’t want it to happen, I have to remember that I am on the right side of history.

 

Many people like me have been branded as racists, and blocked by far-left people. It means nothing. After the abuse I got, and the viciousness of people disagreeing with my opinion, and returning to my ‘echo chamber’ of like-minded people (just like the left do), I felt at home. I felt safe and centred. I felt sane. If I have to be wrongly given the racist title, a fascist title or whatever else they concoct to try to appear to be better people, then so be it. I would rather be called a racist and yet be among a group of good people, polite, peaceful, tolerant, quiet, respectful people, than to mingle with those on the opposite side, who are everything bad about the world – they are intolerant, violent, rude, nasty, narcissistic, sociopathic bullies who have no respect for other people, for their opinions and for freedom of speech. They also have no respect for the truth. They make up reality. No wonder they’re in such turmoil all the time, and have to lash out at people, because they are suffering with delusions, and not seeing things as they truly are. I have to pity them. I know I’m on the right side, talking to people on the right (not FAR-right as indicated by people like Owen Jones – to whom everybody who isn’t far-left like him, is far-right) – we seem more rooted in reality, more peaceful, open-minded and tolerant of different views. I see nothing wrong with not being on the left. There is nothing wrong with being on the right. The only people who paint a picture of the right being dangerous, violent racist thugs, are those on the far-left who are dangerous violent fascist thugs. So if you’re moderate right-wing be proud. Don’t let the bullies silence you. Know who you are and what you believe in, and maintain the high-ground. When compared to those like Mouse and the far-left, we are the better people. That is why they have to fling insults and accusations at us, and smear us…. because they know we’re better people. Bullies always pick on the good ones, and those they deem to be ‘weak’. But we are not weak. We are the strongest fuckers on the planet. We’ve had to put up with their shit for the last three years at least. And we’ve generally maintained our dignity through it all. Silent persistence and ignoring their histrionics is the way forward.

Keyboard Warriors.

*Self-harm*

Today has been an intensely traumatic day for me, which I will be writing about in the coming days. I just felt I needed to say something somewhere, as I’m in the process of closing my Twitter account, and my Facebook account is closed atm too, so as this is my ‘journal’ of sorts, I thought I owed it to myself to state the fact that I’m not coping at all well right now. I’ve been abused online all day, resulting in many wounds, both psychological and physical. I’ve had to take some diazepam to calm me down and stop me doing further harm to myself.

 

The spite and nastiness of people online is shocking, and I won’t be pulling any punches in telling those responsible just what I think of their behaviour. But that will come in the next few days. Right now I’m trying to stay calm and focus on self-care. Actually I’m struggling to stay awake! Hoping things will feel better in the morning… psychologically at least.

 

People just have to stop being so rude, divisive and hateful, especially when they preach tolerance, love and inclusion. They pushed me to self-harm a lot today… the next victim might not be so ‘lucky’…. the next one might kill themselves…. how would they feel to learn they were responsible for someone’s death?

 

These sociopathic keyboard warriors have taught me how vital kindness is. They are bullies through and through, and they need to take a long hard look at themselves in the mirror, and ask if they really like the person looking back at them… because I bet what they think they are, and what they truly are, are not the same thing… They’re the most revolting specimen of the human race, and they’re lucky they have their anonymity, else I’d be naming and shaming them like they did with me. I will be making their comments public though and thoroughly dissecting their behaviour to try and understand what drives these narcissists to bully.

 

Right now, painkillers and sleep… try and forget the horrors of today. And hope I can find the light again… right now my faith in humanity is next to zero, and I feel closer to disappearing than I have in quite some time. I’m all alone in dealing with this. Anyway, goodnight to anyone awake, and remember the importance of kindness, and respect. It could save a life xxxx

 

 

Stigma: All’s Fair In Love & War… And Politics Apparently.

 

 

*Bad language & self-harm*

 

 

To the woman (I assume) who attacked my personality the other night…

 

This was going to be a post about people like yourself, who have a habit of diagnosing those you don’t agree with, with mental illnesses. I had collected evidence from the last few months of just that, where people said President Trump has Borderline Personality Disorder. I wanted to tackle the stigma that people like you are spreading with your uneducated opinions. But after the way you spoke to me the other night, I’m addressing you as an individual.

 

I never challenge things online. For reasons such as you. It took a lot for me to pluck up the courage to speak up. But I couldn’t see such lies about BPD being spread. You were saying that BPD is a ‘personality defect’ and ‘not curable’. You are wrong on both counts. I felt I had a duty to say something. I naively thought you looked like a decent person, and might be welcoming of new ideas. I thought you might be a reasonable person…. boy was I wrong! I’ve encountered some nasty people in my life – it’s why I am the way I am…. but you are by far the worst of all the people I’ve had the displeasure of conversing with.

 

 

Your responses to me were full of sarcasm, attitude, anger and false accusations. You are a spiteful bully and a narcissist. You talked to me of ‘projection’ – projecting your own projection onto me … which is ironic, as that’s a part of being a narcissist – the same thing you actually mean when you talk about Trump. The thing you’re confusing with BPD. I was trying to educate you on the difference. It’s not my fault you’re a closed-minded bigot. You actually were trying to ‘gas-light’ me as well, by saying ‘you WERE absolutely asking me to have compassion for Trump supporters’ – that’s another narcissistic tactic, to try and create doubt in my mind about what I said and what I meant… to change the narrative to make yourself look better…. it’s either gas-lighting or you’re just dumb and didn’t read what I said at all. Maybe your understanding of the English language is below par.

 

I most certainly was NOT asking you to have compassion for Trump supporters, I was saying people should have more compassion for those with a mental illness, and since Trump supporters do not have this mental illness of BPD, I was NOT asking you to feel compassionate towards THEM. I was asking you to have more respect for those with the mental illness. They don’t have it. Trump doesn’t have it. You just hate him. I could easily claim that YOU and your lot have a mental illness…. I’d probably be closer to the truth with that too, as you seem totally deranged in your fanatical hatred of Republicans. But the truth is your lot also don’t have a mental illness…. you just have different opinions to Republicans… and those of you who seem crazy and show all your bad qualities are not mentally ill, you are just unpleasant people!!! You see? People have different opinions. Just because they don’t fit with yours, and you can’t accept that Trump is the President, it doesn’t mean that he and those who put him in power, have a mental illness… but I would seriously consider whether you have one….

 

 

The way you went on the attack, and were so unreasonable causes me concern. It’s not normal to behave that way. Yes I was challenging something you said, but I did so respectfully, with goodwill. I was not rude to you, I didn’t swear, I wasn’t provocative, so I don’t know what your problem is. I think you are so livid with the result of your election, and hate Republicans and Trump that much that you swipe at anyone who isn’t as livid about it as you. You’d probably take a swipe at a Democrat who has even one ounce of reason or acceptance of things. You need something to control your rage. You are behaving worse than you are accusing others of being! You try and give off this sense that Democrats (just like Remain voters) are better people than those who won the vote…. but you show from the way you speak of them, and your violent, aggressive, hateful and divisive nature that you are in fact MUCH worse as people.

 

 

I wasn’t trying to ‘shame’ you by saying ‘the likes of you’ – that’s a wild interpretation of a set of words…. those words simply meant ‘people like yourself’ i.e. you and others who feel the same as you…. but Twitter has a character limit, so ‘the likes of you’ fitted in better! Deary me if you’re offended by that… ! It was actually a way of not singling you out – not being so confrontational as saying ‘something that YOU are fortunate to not understand’ – for fuck’s sake, if my trying to not be confrontational made you angry then you need help! I honestly don’t see the offence in my words. However calling me an ‘arrogant know-it-all’ IS bloody offensive and I reported you for it and all your subsequent tweets.

 

 

You also said that you’ll rush out and get a psych degree so you don’t insult ‘people who have no compassion or interest in other humans’….. First of all it doesn’t take having a psych degree to know how to be kind to people. I don’t have one, and I manage just fine. Most people I know don’t have such a degree yet know how to be a decent person. It’s not hard… though you obviously think otherwise!  Second of all you talk about these people who have no compassion or interest in other humans, yet you prove that you have no interest in how other people feel, no interest in changing your behaviour and wording so as not to hurt other people, and you have no compassion for mentally ill human beings…. I think this sentence tells everyone all they need to know about you.

 

You said to ‘whine at someone who cares’… you made it perfectly clear you are not a caring sort of person. You made yourself sound like a teenager having a strop. I’m shocked to discover you’re actually in your late sixties! Your behaviour does not reflect this in the slightest. I’d have thought you would know better how to be respectful of others. Clearly not. You said I was just ‘pretending to be on the high road’, simply because you recognised I was on the high road, and you wanted to drag me down from it.

 

You are a little bit delusional and dramatic if you think your country is crumbling around you… your own little world where you get your own way may be crumbling around you, but I don’t think things are all that bad. They’d be a damn slight better if you started accepting things the way they are. You’d find more peace. But you clearly enjoy conflict above all else. The ‘assholes causing it’ are probably those unwilling to accept the result two years on, as it is here. I respect you don’t like Trump, you don’t agree with the result, but calling his supporters ‘assholes’ won’t change anything. It won’t get you anywhere, and will only breed anger and division. You should calm down.

 

 

You say I jumped into what was an obvious political discussion – yes, I did, because you were incorporating MENTAL ILLNESS in that political discussion, and my whole point was that was uncalled for. If it was solely political that’s different – when you bring mental illness into a political discussion it suddenly changes from a political discussion, to a political and mental health discussion. You don’t dictate what is allowed to be discussed henceforth. It’s indecent of you to label someone as ‘borderline’ simply because you don’t like them. Only I was saying it in a nicer way. But I’ll be straight now, and say – it’s a bitchy thing to do, and makes you a very nasty and uneducated person. You are adding to stigma and should be ashamed of yourself. There. Said it. I’ll speak your language, rather than trying to be polite about things… being polite and thinking through my responses still ended up with me being spat at anyway. At one point in our discussion I actually typed in the words ‘To use language you understand – fuck you!’… but deleted it, because I’m not that person. But actually after what you were like, and what it did to me… yeah… fuck you.

 

I wasn’t ‘lecturing you’, I was hoping it might guide you, inform you, enlighten you, and I was making sure people newly diagnosed with BPD know there is hope and that it doesn’t mean their personality is flawed. But you’re a closed-minded moron, so nothing will get through your thick skull. As for ‘think what you like’ – I realised I was talking to the thickest of walls, so your opinion is your opinion, feel free to think it…. but it doesn’t mean you’re right. Still makes you a bitch. Still makes you nasty and a bit of a sociopath to be honest, but keep doing it, whatever works for you….. Again, character limit.

 

But do you know what I noticed? I noticed that you picked apart every innocent word I said, and turned it into either an ‘insult’ or me being ‘above you’ i.e. ‘arrogant’. You read into words that mean nothing. You are either highly paranoid and need help with it. Or you recognised that actually I was right, and you felt bad, so had to attack me to feel better about yourself…. but since I was not offensive to you, you had to try and find some fault in the wording I used, to make it look like an attack on YOU – that is fucked up mate.

 

 

I’ll tell you how you were being offensive – calling me an arrogant know-it-all. You called me arrogant twice. You don’t fucking know me mate. Anyone who knows me would tell you how polar opposite I am to that. You’re the arrogant one. There’s some projection going on with you I think ‘deary’. Patronising bitch. Fuck you. You only WISH you were on a high horse. You were on the ground, and losing ground, so you were wildly, viciously clawing at me, to make sure I was no better than you. You were trying to get a rise out of me. I managed to stay calm through most of it. My heart was all over the place. But I waited for it to calm down before responding. I wish I hadn’t given you as much as I did, because you will use that as ‘evidence about people with BPD being a certain way’. You’re wrong. Anyone would have reacted how I did when provoked. Of course your side of the story would be that I provoked YOU. That I baited you and then played the victim. But if you can’t take a little questioning of your spreading of misinformation on something quite important actually, and your ego is too big to be ‘challenged’, then I’m glad I did it. Because people like you need taking down a peg or two. You think too much of yourself. You think you’re right, and anything else is wrong. That much is evident from things you said to me, but also on your timeline. I simply made a comment in defence of those with BPD – that was not baiting you. It may be what you read into it, but it didn’t require a response, especially in the manner you responded. And you continued it even after I explained and tried to defuse your aggression.

 

The fact is you knew I had BPD, and yet continued to lash out at me and hurt me. This either shows the FACT that you don’t know anything about BPD, and that therefore you should not cause such hurt to someone… though given your opinions about Republicans I’m wondering why you would think anything other than ‘I shouldn’t cause hurt to anyone whoever they are’ – as you think you’re so noble and morally superior….. Or it shows that you’re a psychopath and a narcissist and you take joy in making people like me cut themselves. Because that’s what I did. Repeatedly. Violently.

 

You were fucking offensive and aggressive, and you tried to excuse that by insisting that I don’t know you and called you ‘the likes of you’…. in what world is that even offensive? If you want offensive then read this bloody letter. I’d agree it’s offensive. I’d also say it’s true though from what I’ve witnessed with you and how you made me feel. I’m rightly angry about your bullying nature – this is the reaction to that. Your response was totally uncalled for, and out of proportion with what I was even saying. That’s because you’re so caught up in your hate-filled bubble about Trump, that you perceive everything as an ‘attack’…. you see everyone as ‘the enemy’ unless they agree with you 100%. What I said was not in the slightest bit offensive. And you people wonder why you get called ‘snowflakes’! Seriously. I don’t call people that, but being offended by a general term of ‘the likes of you’ – meaning ‘you and others similar to yourself’ is very snowflake-ish. How anything can be inferred about your character from those words I don’t know. But calling me arrogant is an offence against my character. There’s no mistaking what you meant by your words. So that’s how you were offensive. I notice you deleted that tweet soon after… did it reflect badly on you?

 

 

I don’t think I’ve ever had a conversation with anyone so vile as you. There was one who I used to know who was offensive and resorted to personal insults, when they couldn’t bring me down any other way. But actually even she pales into insignificance next to you. You do your side of the political debate no favours. I don’t actually give a fuck about American politics. I don’t give a fuck whether I SHOULD give a fuck about American politics. I believe in democracy, acceptance and just bloody well getting on with it. But you have shown Democrats to be vile, deranged bullies. I’m quite upset that I also at the moment think badly of Americans. I know I will get over that, because there are lots of lovely American people, but you do them no favours by behaving in the way that you have.

 

 

I’ve seen too much evidence of Americans attacking Trump and sometimes his supporters, saying they all have BPD. This is unacceptable. Nobody can diagnose someone from their armchair. Even medical professionals who say they think he’s got it, cannot and should not do that. You cannot diagnose someone unless you are qualified to do so, and have met them in person and evaluated their mental health. You cannot decide who has what mental illness. If you want to call him a narcissist that’s different, because you’re not referring to the illness of NPD, you’re just talking about his nature, if that’s how you perceive it. People can be narcissistic without having the personality disorder. But I don’t get why you can’t just state the fact you hate the guy, hate everything he says, everything he does, everything he stands for, and will never accept him as President, full-stop. Why bring mental illness into it?

 

Does it make you feel powerful or something? That would be my guess from reading such posts. It gives off an air of ‘I’m better than you – I’m more sane than you…. you’re a crazy person…. you have a mental illness…. your “crazy” is showing’. It seems like you’re all doing it to make you feel better about yourselves. Can you not see what is wrong with that mentality? To put people with mental illness down, to make you feel better…. to use a mental illness as a way of insulting someone you don’t like….. to imply that someone is incapable of doing a job because of a supposed mental illness…. you are stigmatising and discriminating against those with mental health problems. And when you attack one, you attack all. Even though in your mind you’re possibly thinking ‘Depression and anxiety are “good” mental illnesses…. BPD is one of the “bad” ones’. You are still discriminating against those with mental illness. Would you do the same with those physically disabled? Would you use their personal circumstances to make you feel better?

 

 

——–

I would hope that most of those throwing ‘BPD’ at Trump would in reality have compassion for those with such a mental illness. I’d like to believe that people still have their humanity. That if faced with a loved one with such an illness, they would be caring, compassionate and understanding, and defend their loved ones against harmful words like this. Either I’m wrong, and they honestly think those with BPD or mental illnesses are the scum of the Earth, in which case may they live long enough to experience such a mental illness themselves and face such stigma. OR I’m right and they do care about people with mental illness, and are just being foolish in posting such shit online. Maybe they don’t comprehend the damage they’re doing….

 

Trump is a controversial character. People love him or hate him. The hate is toxic. WRONGLY diagnosing him with BPD, and listing incorrect symptoms of BPD to back-up that false diagnosis, will cause trouble for those of us with BPD. When people hear about our BPD they will think of Trump, if these opinions are allowed to circulate unchallenged. Trump does not have BPD… not the recognisable diagnosable version of it. I realise I am equally unqualified to say he doesn’t have it, as I’m not his therapist – but the point is he would have to be assessed by a professional to be given a diagnosis, and I feel I know a fair bit about my own illness, to know what the symptoms are, and what they are not. People say he meets all the criteria. This cannot be assumed. How does anyone know how he feels about himself? About abandonment? Does he self-harm? Is he suicidal? Does he feel empty? How would anyone but a personal psychiatrist / therapist know any of that?

 

People seem to be basing this apparent ‘diagnosis’ on possible anger outbursts – which EVERYONE is capable of… doesn’t mean they all have a personality disorder; on ‘impulsive’ decisions he’s made; on ‘narcissism’ which they believe is a symptom of BPD; apparently ‘pathological lying’ which they claim is a symptom of BPD too – news to me! They talk about his BPD and how he’s self-absorbed, thinks he’s always right. They claim projection and triangulation (playing people off against each other), and gas-lighting are symptoms of BPD… these are all symptoms of NPD, and the two should not be confused! I feel convinced that knowledge of the different personality disorders varies in America from in the UK. I’ve often witnessed people lumping all ‘Cluster B’ personality disorders in together, as though they’re all the same. They’re not. There may be a little overlap between the disorders, but they are different. People have claimed that those with BPD lack empathy, therefore Trump has BPD. What bullshit is this?! Anyone who’s reading this and has BPD knows what a lie this is – we have an abundance of empathy… so much that it actually hurts when others are hurting… we are able to read the emotions of others. We wouldn’t hurt or reject other people because we know too well how it feels, to be hurt and rejected by others.

 

 

 

Everything they say about BPD is wrong. Some even refer to it as a ‘narcissistic borderline personality disorder‘ – there’s no such thing… it’s one or the other. I shouldn’t be too bothered, as they’re only showing their ignorance… but it’s sad that so many speak of something they know nothing about, and those words they speak are damaging and dangerous for people who already suffer a great deal. These people all paint a picture of people with BPD being ‘monsters’. If they only knew the reality they’d feel ashamed of vilifying us. People with BPD are some of the loveliest, kindest, most caring, loyal, funny, creative, generous, loving, understanding people – a damn slight nicer than those who insult them! Whilst people are painting the image of us as people who abuse others, we are in fact more likely to be the VICTIMS of abuse ourselves.

 

This woman who attacked me said that BPD is a ‘sad personality defect’. She is so wrong. Ignorance and the unwillingness to learn from your mistakes, and attack people instead is a ‘sad personality defect’. A stubbornness and arrogance. That’s what I would refer to as a ‘defect’. BPD is not a flawed personality, as we all know. We know about the movement to change the name, as it doesn’t reflect the meaning. It’s not about our personality at all. It is about our emotions, our difficulty regulating them, and how we relate to the world. It’s about how we cope with our emotions. People labelling Trump and followers with it are implying it’s who we are, there’s no cure, we don’t even accept there’s a problem (NPD), and that negative character traits = personality disorder. It doesn’t. Everyone has less than desirable traits – it doesn’t mean they all have a personality disorder. People like this woman for instance… she demonstrated many undesirable qualities in just a few short tweets…. do I therefore diagnose her with a personality disorder? Whilst the temptation may be ‘yes!’ because I’m angry with her, and appalled at her behaviour, there is no reason for me to diagnose her with any mental illness, including a personality disorder. She’s just an arsehole.

 

People can hate Trump. I have no issue with that. I don’t think people should be so offensive towards those who support him and voted for him…. I think these people need to become familiar with ‘live and let live‘… accept a difference of opinion and move on. But let’s just say for a moment that I don’t even care if people hate Trump voters too….. People can say what they like about Trump, the situation, the voters…. they can say they hate him, he’s a prick, his supporters are idiots, they detest their country now, their lives are ruined forever… whatever…. but mental illness? Come on! They’re ‘free’ to say what they like about that too, as we have freedom of speech still, for now, but I want those people to realise it makes them look like not very decent people. A lot of people in the world are trying to be more open about their mental health struggles, and battle the stigma, and such ignorance and hatred – trying to get people to hate those they deem to have a mental illness, is just so backward-thinking. So they can’t use mental illness as an insult, and then claim they have the moral high-ground politically.

 

 

 

My question to those people would be – Would you speak about BPD in this manner if you weren’t associating it with Trump? Forget Trump is President… rewind a few years…. would you spread such vile opinions about a mental illness like BPD? Or are you just doing it to have a go at Trump and make yourselves feel better because you lost? If you would still do it then shame on you…. there’s no hope for you ever changing probably… though it would be nice if you could properly educate yourself about mental illness (note: this does not require going to university and getting a ‘psych degree’ – read a book…. read blogs…. listen to people who have BPD!). If you’re only doing it because it’s Trump then think. Be better than this. Don’t let your hatred of Trump and Republicans turn you into ill-informed, ignorant, insensitive arseholes.

 

I know nobody likes to admit they’re wrong about something. A part of me would be concerned that I honestly upset and embarrassed this woman the other day, and that she was just refusing to admit a mistake. But to be frank I think she’s just a bitter, angry woman, who loves hurting people and putting them down to make herself feel more powerful. I’ve met one or two of them in my life.

 

I hate people trying to paint me as some sort of villain when I’m trying to do something good in the world. I’m not a nasty person (I know you might think so from this post, but this is the releasing of emotions stirred up by a bully)… I don’t like confrontation. I hate conflict. I think the scars on my arms would tell you as much. I’m a peaceful person. I’m quiet and reserved by nature. And my only aim in what I said was to help people who have BPD… to defend them against such vicious lies. To stand up for what’s right. To stand up for those of us with this illness, who feel we have no voice a lot of the time. To try and educate people to stop the stigma. This woman has a fixed idea in her head what BPD is all about. She has demonised us and will never change her stance. Upon hearing that I am one of those with this illness, she obviously decided what sort of person I was and treated me in relation to her beliefs about people like us. This is her problem not mine. She got me all wrong. She misunderstood me as a person… she misunderstood my intentions, my illness, my words. She invented insults out of what I said. She interpreted what I said and tried to tell me what I said / meant, when only I know what was meant… she thought she knew my mind better than I do. She doesn’t know anything but her own mind. I think she lives in her little bubble of hatred… she’s blind to all else. The trouble is though, once someone like this makes up their mind about you, there’s no persuading them otherwise. She’d decided I was a villain, just like Trump and his supporters – I didn’t even have to be a Trump supporter myself to incur her wrath. Once I’d been put in that category there was no coming out of it. I could’ve been the sweetest person on Earth to her, and she would insist I was doing it to wind her up, and to pretend I was better than her.

 

This is what’s known as a ‘superiority complex’. It’s something that’s fascinated me in our politics too, where Labour voters perceive Conservatives to be ‘above them’… ‘looking down on them’…. ‘posh, rich snobs with no idea of real problems’. These attitudes are in themselves ‘snobbish’. Labour voters sneer at Conservatives and call them ‘Tory scum’, to put them down and make themselves feel superior. They claim to be morally superior to hide the fact they  FEEL inferior. The important thing to note is that they’re not actually inferior. And Conservatives DON’T think they’re better than them. This is why it’s called ‘a complex’. They feel inferior, so try to appear superior. Conservatives don’t look down their noses on Labour voters… certainly not for the reasons they think. More recently I’m sure a great many do, but simply because of the behaviour of Labour voters – the same sort of behaviour I witnessed from this woman. When people act like that, you do start to feel like you’re ‘better than them’, and ‘above such behaviour’. You do start to feel morally superior…. and in that way what people with a superiority complex do, is cause the very behaviour they’re afraid of… It’s a self-fulfilling prophecy.

 

As someone with BPD I take on the negative things people think and say about me, as though they’re true. This comes from not feeling certain of who I am – I often split on myself, and go from thinking I’m a good person, to thinking I’m a terrible person. And words like ‘arrogant know-it-all’ scar me. They go into my negativity memory bank, for a rainy day when I’m hating myself. They will replay now forever. In a rational, more positive mind though, I know how wrong she is about that. I know I have the qualities of my granddad, and he was gentle, reserved, quiet and a good person who worried and cared about other people.

 

That was all I was doing by my tweet… worrying how those with BPD would feel. Standing up for them. Challenging stigma. If that makes me ‘arrogant’ in someone’s view, then so be it. I think it’s better to defend and explain a mental illness than to demonise it. I just chose the wrong sort of person to do that with. She wants to remain ignorant. I will continue to fight stigma where I can, but I will stay far away from anti-Trump fanatics from now on. They’re not reasonable people. And I’m not strong enough to cope with them.

 

Said by the husband of who that woman would
have supported in the elections. How ironic.

 

 

 

BPD: My Own Flavour Of Trauma.

 

*Very long post – I’ve split it up with pictures, so you can read it a bit at a time & remember where you got to, if you prefer*

 

I thought I might explore my past, and what may have contributed to my development of BPD. Many people with BPD experienced trauma, abuse or neglect as a child – not all, but many… and I have to say that doesn’t ring true for me, not in regards to my family. I had a great upbringing. I don’t remember much of it at all, as I think I’ve blocked the past out. I look at photos of my childhood and have no memories attached to them. I find this really upsetting actually, as I can see photos of me with my grandparents, and I recall nothing of my time with them back then. I have tiny snippets of memories… incredibly vague, and the things I remember from the past tend to be the negative bits, or silly things, like chocolate bars that used to exist when I was a kid, and remembering their taste. But when it comes to meaningful things, it’s like they didn’t happen to me. When I look at photos of my childhood, it’s like I’m looking at someone else’s childhood photos. Despite this though, I just know my childhood was wonderful. I was loved, given everything a child should be given, and was brought up well, with respect. I don’t think I was ever shouted at or anything like that… I just had things explained to me, and I understood right from wrong. We’re a quiet family, always have been… this is what made me stand out like a sore thumb at school…

The bits I remember most from primary school are centred around the isolation. The desperation to not be on my own at playtime. I remember almost begging to tag along with people, so that I wouldn’t be left to my usual fate – standing entirely alone against the wall of the main building… simply watching others play and have fun together. I would stand there, as though I didn’t exist. I think occasionally the dinner ladies used to talk to me at least, though I could be wrong.

My mum worked in the school library at the time, and she’d often be asked why I was so quiet. She’d gently respond to them along the lines of for the same reason you are noisy… it’s just the way I am. Children can be cruel. I was socially excluded simply for being quiet and shy. I was so much quieter and more shy than I am today. I was serious and hard-working. I did what I was told and never got into trouble. I guess some people don’t like people like that. I think throughout my whole school life I was seen as ‘boring’. But how wrong they were. I just saved the best of me for those who cared.

I was bullied in primary school by a girl called Nicola. It sounds petty now we’re older, but at the time it was a massive deal – she took my best friend away from me, and seemed to take great joy in it. She also had her sidekicks with her and threatened to take something of mine, unless I did what she wanted, which was telling her what my private thought was I’d just had – God knows what that was, but anyway this resulted in me running inside to see my mum and a teacher. I don’t recall too many more details, but I know I dreaded going to secondary school with her… and rightly so… she had her little group and they’d always give me looks and whisper about me.

One thing which I believe actually did a lot of damage, were the teachers. Because of their inability to command respect and appropriately deal with troublemakers, they would often punish the whole class. And someone like me – very sensitive, quiet and who never got in trouble, this affected me badly. Teachers don’t think of things like that though. They just want the power, or to make a point. We weren’t in the SAS for goodness sake!! You don’t punish the whole group for the actions of one person, in the hope they’ll learn their lesson – because they rarely did! All it did was make people like me feel frustrated, angry and embarrassed. All the times I had to sit in a classroom after school because of some stupid twat who wouldn’t shut up. It’s not right, and I remember being angry with the teachers at the time. I remember in year 10 or 11, the whole art class were kept for detention, and the people on my table complained to the teacher and said that I shouldn’t be, as I wasn’t involved in all the noise etc. One of the only times people stood up for me.

But this happened in year 5 as well. We were made to go walking around the playground as a punishment. And I think it’s wrong that someone who WAS well brought up, to have respect and know right from wrong, is punished because some parents didn’t do their job properly. That’s utterly unfair and I think it did a fair bit of damage. Teachers need to be so careful with children – they could influence their mental health for a lifetime. I hope things have changed nowadays. I even recall Mrs Bronk – a maths teacher in year 7, as well as Mr Shirley – a geography teacher too, who would suddenly shout louder than you’ve ever heard… and for someone sensitive that is terrifying. I would not be surprised if a great deal of my anxiety stemmed from these experiences. All I will say is God bless Mrs James, the RE teacher – she had such a serene nature, and didn’t have to resort to shouting, and group punishments. People respected her. There were some good teachers. Unfortunately for every good one there were probably about twelve bad ones.

It was one of the teachers in secondary school who caused me to start self-harming. She was the head of year. Funnily enough this was after I’d finished school and was in college. It was to do with the GCSE certificates evenings, and correspondence regarding that. I won’t go into details here, but all I’ll say is I took something sharp to my yearbook on her photo, and then for whatever reason I turned the tool on myself. That was the beginning of a coping strategy I’ll always regret.

 

 

In secondary school I experienced more bullying and isolation. I was still quiet and shy.. hard-working… the works…. after all that’s who I was! But this bullying intensified. I was never physically bullied, but then sometimes I think the psychological kind can be more destructive… it eats away at you for years, if not forever.

There was a girl called Lisa who was in my tutor group. In year 8 or 9 she suddenly decided it would be fun to torment me in textiles class, when she had her posse around her. Unfortunately I sat on their table, next to her, and she liked to repeatedly tap me on the head with a ruler throughout the lesson, while her minions giggled at how ‘cool’ their leader was. This doesn’t sound serious, but the effect it had was to demean me… to humiliate me… she knew I’d never say anything or do anything to stop her. If I took the ruler off of her she’d simply start again. The teacher was bloody useless. She never made her stop. One time she was doing it whilst the whole class was gathered around our table… The teacher asked her to stop once, which she did, but she started again, and like the quiet, shy girl I was, I just let her do it. Heck if she did it now I’d snatch it out of her hand and split her head open with it, see how she liked it!! Failing that, if I was there again I would walk out of the class. The teacher would sit up and take notice then. What kills me the most about these memories, is that there were people in that class who I considered ‘friends’, and not ONE of them stood up for me. I was completely alone in my experience. This is a pattern which would continue throughout my life.

Lisa even asked me once ‘Am I bullying you?’ … to which I replied yes, and this pleased her. She would make other comments like calling me ‘spot’… because I was a teenage girl and I had spots – shock horror!! This is so damaging. I still have spots today. It’s a hormonal problem. I have PCOS. This means I have body hair and spots which I’d rather I had neither of. And I feel embarrassed admitting to. But it’s a health problem. My ‘hairiness’ seemed to be a huge deal to people at school – Lisa and her minions would ask in PE why I didn’t shave my legs….. uh, perhaps because I was still a child, and not looking to sleep with boys like they probably were!! It never even entered my mind to shave my legs. I never saw myself as a sex object while I was a child. Perhaps these people had dubious upbringings.

I also had hairy arms… in relation to other girls my age (at least until I met a couple of others!). A boy called Samuel made an unkind comment about this, and after that I started shaving my arms, and would do this for the rest of my days. I physically changed myself because of intolerant idiotic children at school. A group of boys in the year above me gave me the nickname ‘Lily Savage’ – who was a drag act in the UK played by Paul O’Grady (for anyone who doesn’t know)… because I had a little bit of hair on my upper lip – again this was because of underlying hormonal problems. People were so unbelievably cruel to me. I don’t know how I put up with it and survived it. I wouldn’t nowadays.

People would pick on me – a boy in my class called Edward, ruined an art project of mine – he did a lot of bad things and was expelled in the end. A boy in my year stabbed me in the head with a pencil as I walked down some stairs, pretending he hadn’t done anything, but I knew it was him. My tutor group got me to say ‘maths’, followed by ‘apation’, and found it hilarious that I apparently said ‘masturbation’ – what with me being all shy and innocent. People liked to publicly humiliate me. And that’s one of my biggest triggers nowadays. One hint of it and I’m cutting myself. Even teachers at secondary school were problems, and we reported one of them. I’d taken a lot of time and effort to make a poster for a science class, and was proud of it, and the teacher decided to hold them up, mine being the one on top, saying what a load of crap they were basically. She’d swear and shout at us. So a group of us reported her, and so did my parents. She then pulled me out of the class and spoke to me about it, and said I shouldn’t have reported her, I should’ve spoken to her directly. Totally unprofessional.

Another teacher in year 7 cookery publicly humiliated me when I burnt my fingers on a baking tray. Rather than letting me go and run them under water, she grabbed me by the arm and shouted that I was a ‘stupid girl’ – in what world is that okay to do?? I wish I could have it out with her now, but she was quite old at the time… she’s probably not here anymore… I struggle to remember her name at the moment too… wonder if it was Miss Worth… I’ve just broken up from writing this, to talk about it with someone and broke down in tears, as the realisation has come for why I’m so sensitive to perceived public humiliation… things being brought to the attention of others…. it all makes sense now why that is my biggest trigger. I was 11 at the time. It was so detrimental to experience something like that as a child. Teachers have a responsibility to help shape the future of young people… they should not abuse that power and leave broken adults because of their ineptitude.

 

 

There are actually so many examples of people, particularly teachers embarrassing me in that sort of way… this was devastating for me. Particularly as I was a reserved person, who didn’t like to be noticed… to then be shown up in front of people was terrible. I wonder if I had this mental illness even back then… can you have BPD as a child? Or was I just sensitive, and the constant bullying, isolation and public humiliation pushed me over the edge? I wish I could get all these people in a room together and tell them the effect their words and actions had on me in my adult life. People don’t think about it at the time, and then they happily move on. Whilst people like me are left to pick up the pieces for the rest of our lives. It’s not fair.

Other school experiences were a girl called Gemma who kept trying to compete with me for a friendship with my best friend. I just didn’t want to be a loner, and wanted to spend time with her, but Gemma was just possessive and bitter. A lot of the time I’d end up hanging out in the library during lunchtimes. It avoided looking like a loser. I actually ended up being a librarian there – helping out the school librarian. She was nice, and this role helped me feel less alone. I even got an award for my services!

And another big issue was the school prom. I didn’t have anyone to go with, so I asked a girl, Zoe, if I could go in the limo with her and her group, as they had one space left… she apparently asked the group, and they decided no. I don’t know if she actually asked them or if she just decided for herself, but I remembered the names of everyone in that limo, for future reference. They were not nice people at all. When I questioned the reasons for them saying no, and asked if it was because they thought I was ‘boring’, she had the bloody cheek to say yes! This was at the end of a science class and I stayed behind crying. This was like public rejection.

But do you know what? I went with a different group of girls, and we had a great time. They found out I wasn’t boring at all. They did the one thing people needed to do in order to see the fun side of me… that they rarely ever did – they gave me a chance. I had a good night and looked gorgeous in my dress (I can say that about back then, as I was a spotty girl who wore glasses, so the transformation was amazing!).

This is the thing… although I was treated badly throughout school, I got awards… I came away with really good grades, including two A’s and two A*s, the rest being B’s…. I passed my piano exams with distinction. Despite these people trying to bring me down emotionally, I excelled at school. I got through it, and did the thing school’s all about – I got an education and qualifications.

It was only after school the effects really started to show.

College was the worst time of my teenage / young adult years. By the end of 2001 I was self-harming… a lot. Although it was quite superficial, it was the frequency that was the problem. I would spend most lunchtimes in the toilets, harming myself and crying. I was depressed. I was stressed and overwhelmed. In a biology class the teacher would go round the room asking us questions… of course I knew the answers to most other questions, but didn’t know the answer to my own… I didn’t get it right, so I felt stupid… again it felt like public humiliation. So in the break I sneaked my ‘tool’ into my pocket, went down the corridor to the toilets and harmed myself, before going back and pretending nothing had happened. It was my way of punishing myself for getting something wrong… which is something I still feel the need to do today.

 

 

In a psychology class I got a bad score on a test – in fact I think our results may have been read out (so more humiliation), and I harmed myself under the desk in the classroom. I passed my A Levels, but I didn’t do as well as I would’ve expected for myself. But I was sinking, and nobody knew. It was a year to 18 months before I managed to admit to my family that I was self-harming… I had only told the college counsellor until then. My parents spoke to the college about the fact I was struggling, and had I been happy for my teachers to know, I could’ve had special allowances for exams etc. But I was too ashamed at the time and didn’t accept this. So my results showed my struggle.

A lot of college I don’t remember. It was a bleak time in my life. I still felt isolated, though this was the time I tried changing, and becoming a little ‘louder’, to fit in. At lunchtime I’d sometimes sit with my brother in a quieter place near the music department, or sometimes I would sit with a group of girls in the corridor who I knew from school, but at times they’d just get up and leave without telling me, especially when a boy called Daniel sat with us. He was a newcomer at school who I befriended – he was shy and really quiet – more quiet than me. People judged him a lot, for his voice and his looks, and they picked on him terribly. I feel awful for what he had to put up with. But people also judged me for being friends with him. When he was around, they didn’t want to be around me. So I ended up isolated as a result. There were better times. There was a time I’d hang out with him, and a double act called Si and Ed… we’d sit under the stairs during lunch, and even went for a game of pool in a pub once…. (I may have won….despite being a newbie). I found guys to be better to hang around with at that point, as girls were so bitchy. Boys were far less judgemental, and more accepting of me. I’m grateful to them. I think at one point I was the only girl in my music class…. I honestly didn’t mind though – the guys were so inclusive.

People did pick on me – my brother had to defend me one day on the college bus home. People on my biology trip wouldn’t let me do the job I had to do, and were hassling me on it, so I threw the pen down and said ‘you do it all then’. They looked at me like I’d grown a second nose. I stared out to sea, wishing I could walk in there and drown myself. Back at the B&B I harmed myself. Those girls later treated me to a ‘makeover’, which everyone liked…. but now thinking back on it it’s a little insulting to imply I needed one!! I forget the details, but I know in psychology, the teacher said something to me, again, quite publicly, and it upset me. I sat there crying to myself. Even from a young age there was a pattern, that built upon itself to the point that one day it would be a huge trigger for me. At the ball at the end of college I clearly remember the looks I got from some people. People don’t realise but sometimes ‘looks’ can be as powerful as words. The image is stained on my memory forever.

The seriousness of my self-harm, and my experiences of rejection and abandonment had barely started, that was soon to come. My early experiences with men came a lot later than most people’s… 23 to be precise. I had a male friend, Adam, who I grew to like more than friends. He said he felt the same. He was my first kiss. All seemed good. And the next day he went quiet on me. It was like he switched and regretted it. He ghosted me after that. I chased after him, desperate to know what the hell had happened. But I’d never get an answer from him. I was confused and broken. In the space of a month we’d gone from friends, to admitting our feelings for each other, crossing the line of friendship, to radio silence and him leaving, going up north without so much as a goodbye, and never really speaking to me again. Our friendship was destroyed in one night. I couldn’t understand it. And it was like being shown something wonderful and having it snatched away. I had no example of consistency and predictability in my early experiences with men. It wouldn’t get any better either…

His friend, Evan, supported me through the loss. We swiftly became friends, and then more. Apparently Adam had warned him off of me, but I thought ‘Screw you, you didn’t exactly treat me with respect – you abandoned me – who the hell are you to tell me who I should be with?!‘ … He may have been right though. All was ticking along fine… I felt like I was good ‘girlfriend material’. I was happy, more confident. And then it all crashed down, very early on. He joined the Navy, and had a family tragedy to deal with, and decided the best answer was to break up with me. Of course I didn’t know at the time he was sleeping with some girl at that time – so more likely he had cheated on me, and wanted to be with that girl. But whatever, it was out of the blue and a shit thing to do. And to lie and lead me on for nine months afterwards only made things worse. He gave me hope, saying that you never know what the future holds. I couldn’t let him go. I wanted to be there for him. My self-esteem was dragged down over the months. I was no longer the person I was to begin with. Towards the end I was a mere ego stroke for him. He used me, and when he said he couldn’t give me what I wanted, I told him it wasn’t what I wanted. The next day he was in a relationship with his now wife. He was a scumbag. I was never first choice to him. There was always another woman he wanted to bed. Maybe they were easier than me. A lot of women do open their legs very easily. Not me. And I’m proud of that. Actually I’m glad I never let any of these guys that close to me. They did enough damage as it is.

 

 

His friend, Joe, was the next to destroy me. Honestly, I did learn after Joe – I said ‘No more being supported by their friends… the chain ends here’. I learnt to steer clear of that circle. They’re all as bad as each other, and between them they’ve disintegrated my trust in men.

Joe and I had a flirtatious kind of friendship, which initially I rejected, as it felt wrong after Evan… but also because Joe was not available. When he became available, I welcomed it, as it brought a new excitement and confidence into my life. Unfortunately I think I built my self-esteem around him. That was a fatal mistake. Things were good with him to start with. And then something changed. I have no idea what, but I would always get most of the blame. He might occasionally say he got ‘scared’, but most of the time it was too intense, too serious or he didn’t think I was into what he was into, no matter what I said. He was the single biggest destroyer of my self-esteem that I’ve ever known.

He was the king of blowing hot and cold. He would feed me crumbs, and me being the vulnerable, innocent, inexperienced…. doormat kind of woman at the time, I lapped them up. I came to believe I was only worthy of crumbs. I felt crumbs were better than nothing. But now I know that nothing is better… and I will wait for a whole loaf thank you. I don’t need crumbs.

Throughout our six years of communicating with each other, and occasionally meeting up, we would fall out of touch, for weeks / months at a time. Or rather, he would stop talking to me. I would say something, think I’d messed it up, and scramble to fix it with another message. I didn’t want to lose him. I totally degraded myself to try and avoid him abandoning me. I kept running back to him. And he loved it. It was all part of a game to him. I can see that now. I refused to at the time. I wanted to see only the best in him. I had fallen deeply for him, and I had a good heart and had faith in him. But I clearly had more belief in him than I did in myself.

Every time he ignored me for months, I broke a little more. He made me feel I was worthless. He made me feel men only want sex. He made me think I wasn’t good enough for anyone. So much so, that when a male friend liked me I didn’t recognise it… or I did, but denied it, as why would such a nice guy want me? I missed out on him as a result. A friend ended up with him, and I lost them both as friends – that was the final thing that pushed my life down a never-ending hole.

But Joe was the single biggest waste of my time – it might sound harsh but it’s true. Because nothing came of that time. All it did was obliterate my confidence, self-esteem and faith in men. Okay, I may have learnt some valuable lessons in that time – namely not to bother with guys like that, but other than that all it did was make me feel used and invisible. He taught me to expect abandonment, and being ignored. It was routine with him. He made me hate myself. He made me feel I was ugly in the end, and don’t deserve to get my needs met. That I’m just here to serve men… fulfil their needs. He messed me up.

But I can say it’s been more than 18 months since I last contacted him. I’ve moved on. I feel nothing for him now. I haven’t recovered from how he made me feel about myself and about men. I don’t know how I’ll recover from that. But I finally learnt the lesson and got over him… something I never thought possible.

Ever since though, I have closed off to men. Even if someone showed interest in me, I wouldn’t allow it. I also no longer chase anyone. If I even feel a hint of rejection or abandonment, including from friends, I internalise it all. I push everyone away because of it. I shut down. I stop talking to people. It’s like I resign myself to being abandoned by everyone. And their lack of protest / effort to prove otherwise, confirms my belief that nobody cares enough to stay.

 

 

 

Some of my issues stem from past friends too. One of them, Hannah, turned on me for reasons I still don’t understand. I think she had her own issues and took them out on me. She projected her own flaws on to me. She smeared me to my other friends, and online. She’d remove and block me, over and over. She’d have hissy fits whenever I tried to help sort out travel arrangements. She said I make life very difficult for myself by letting things get to me. She shut me down whenever I needed to discuss an issue with her, as she’d ‘forgotten all about it’. She told me the psychological help I was getting wasn’t enough. She accused me of things I most certainly didn’t do. She referred to me as ‘toxic’ to her Facebook friends, which I happened to see when she re-added me one time. She couldn’t understand my mental illness, and chose to judge me as ‘negative’ instead, and chose to see my request for her to stop hurting me, as ‘criticising her as a friend’. Despite my efforts to mend things, even when she was the one in the wrong, she decided she didn’t want a friend like me in her life… she told me so… through my best friend. She was gutless. She wouldn’t even have a conversation with me herself. She always had to bad-mouth me through other friends. She did that in our group as well – that’s what started the demise of our friendship. Instead of talking to me privately, she messaged everyone about an issue, and then when I got upset about it, she acted like the victim. And nobody defended me. This obviously tapped into memories of the textiles class where I was being bullied and my ‘friends’ didn’t stand up for me. Even messaging a group of my friends and bringing up an issue with me, had the feeling of ‘public humiliation’ for me. So it triggered me. It was yet another example of someone behaving in an insensitive way. Nobody needs to put down someone, with an audience like that. It made it awkward for me to be in the group. So I bowed out. And they all carried on as if I wasn’t even hurt. I felt neglected and abandoned. And that only got worse when two of them got together.

The guy friend I mentioned before – Sam… the ‘nice’ one, and a friend I made through therapy – Gill. That’s a whole story of its own, but in a nutshell she stabbed me in the back. She pissed all over the girl code and broke my heart, taking everything I had with her. I couldn’t forgive her for it. I couldn’t stick around and see the two of them together, not after she ruined my life. So I cut them out. I had to, to protect myself. I told Sam why that was, and that I appreciated his friendship and would miss him, and he said nothing of the sort in return. He didn’t make me feel he ever valued our friendship at all. He just waffled on about how wonderful his new girlfriend was… how she didn’t betray me (invalidating my experience – not good for BPD) …how perfect she was – forgetting the fact she had just royally screwed me over. He showed no sensitivity for my feelings – the fact I’d just lost everything and was hurting. He proved to me he wasn’t as ‘nice’ as he first appeared, so I probably dodged a bullet there anyway.

But the whole thing taught me that even my friends can’t be trusted. Even my friends don’t care about me, and will abandon me. So now I have issues with friendship. Hannah and Gill doing what they did, was out of the blue and felt surreal, as these things don’t happen to me. I never even used to have friends. And I saw myself as a good friend to them both. I couldn’t understand why they hurt me in those ways. But now… my views of friendship are ruined. And I have ongoing troubles with current friends, and the sense of where I fit in, in their lives. The slightest thing can happen, and I shut down and feel they all hate me. And none of them reassure me otherwise, so it must be a fact. I’ve become a person I don’t recognise and I don’t like. And I now feel I am the problem. In the past I was not the problem, at all. But now I am. Now I’m the common denominator in friendship problems. Friends I made through music interests don’t talk to me anymore. Friends I made through therapy don’t talk to me anymore. Pretty much nobody talks to me anymore. And it’s my fault. It’s because of my mental illness. It’s alienating me from everyone. So I’ve given up on friendship as well as men. My world is getting rapidly smaller.

 

 

I’ve learnt from my friends that I can’t talk about issues with them. They will get defensive and make me feel guilty for being upset. So I have to internalise any emotions I have. I have to stew on things that happen that upset me. I’ve been conditioned to avoid ‘confrontation’ – I don’t like it anyway, and it always takes me every ounce of courage to discuss a problem with a friend. But now I don’t feel I have that option. So I withdraw from them instead.

So it’s not just childhood experiences that mould us into the shape of our relevant mental illness… even experiences in adulthood can play their part.

When I think about this claim that people with BPD typically experienced trauma, abuse or neglect as a child, I now see it did happen to me, just not in the expected way. I wasn’t abused. I wasn’t neglected. Not at home. And the trauma I endured was prolonged, psychological – in the form of bullying, social exclusion and teachers not being sensitive to individuality.

I was a very sensitive child. I was ‘different’. As was my brother. We may not have been the only quiet, shy and sensitive children at school at that time, and before, but judging by the reaction of the school, you’d think we were the first they’d seen! A psychiatrist had to actually tell them that there’s nothing wrong with us, we’re just different, and they cannot and should not try to change us.

I don’t know how much has changed in education now, but back then different needs were hardly catered for. My brother was treated differently at primary school, to try and make life easier for him… this included going to a different area during lunch, with a couple of people, instead of being out in the playground with everyone. I wish I could have had this sort of intervention. It might have saved me from spending lunchtimes stood by the wall, totally alone. This is the neglect I had in childhood – social isolation. I don’t remember it thankfully, but contemplating it I can well imagine how soul-destroying it would have been, even at such a young age.

I think schools could do with bringing the quiet ones together… having classes for those who want to get on, without disruption and without teachers shouting every ten minutes – this really was traumatic for someone like me… always on edge, waiting for the deafening voice when the class got too noisy. No wonder I ended up with anxiety, living in a constant state of dread. This might not sound like ‘trauma’ to some people – and you may think I’m a fraud… believe me I often feel like it too. But I know who I am, who I was, and that I found school and college traumatic… and my guess is that’s why I don’t remember much about those years of my life. I’ve blocked it out.

I just wonder what sort of person I’d be now, if those in my classes had been more tolerant of my differences, and actually included me. Even at that young age it seems nobody wanted to be lumbered with me. I had to ask to tag along. No kid should have to do that. It shows that even at that age I felt like a burden… something I’ve carried with me right up until this day.

It has always felt like nobody wants me around. Nobody accepts or likes me. I’m virtually invisible. This isn’t a new thing. This stems back to my earliest childhood. So I want everyone in my life now, to understand my low self-esteem, my lack of self-belief, my insecurities about friendships are coming from some of my earliest memories, as well as more recent ones.

 

 

I feel I can’t recover from my mental illness, because my mind isn’t the problem. Life is. People are. And no matter what I try to do, people don’t change. My visibility and importance doesn’t change. I don’t believe anyone will ever truly WANT me in their life. I don’t believe they will stay. I don’t believe I matter. I don’t believe people care. I don’t believe I have the power to have a different and better life – because I’ve tried, and I always get the same results that I had at primary school. When I’m faced with rejection, abandonment, being ignored… it’s never just about that incident… it’s the deepest pain you could imagine… it’s a scar that goes all the way back to when I was seven /eight years old… and every reminder of that since. And I feel every time I get the same feelings, it adds another layer of trauma. And now I have got to the point I can no longer tolerate any more trauma. That’s why I’ve withdrawn from everyone. I can’t take it anymore. And I can’t take people not understanding this concept, and my friends choosing to stay quiet rather than ease my suffering, and reassure me. They’re leaving me feeling like I did at school. So I’m done.

I believe I will always be last choice. I believe I’m a burden. I believe I’m worthless, boring, ugly, and a freak. I believe I will never fit in to society. I didn’t as a child, and having missed a chunk of my life because of mental illness, I’m behind people my age, so I feel even more that I cannot and will not fit in. I will never catch up. And I’ll always be seen as a loser. People probably view me as negative. I’ve been called it once before. Is it any wonder though? I know some people face adversity and they bounce back, but I’m not that person. As I said, I’ve always been a quiet, reserved, sensitive person. Life hurts me more than it would hurt others. And I’ve had more than my fair share. It’s been relentless.

So to that person who called me negative: you try going through everything I’ve written above, be left with severe mental health problems as a result, and tell me you would still be positive. If your answer is ‘yes I would’, then clearly you’re not a sensitive person. But for someone like me to have gone through that, and to still be going through it in some ways… I’m sorry I can’t be positive right now. My life feels broken. And I cannot fix it, because it would mean fixing and resolving my past. That can never be done. And the only other thing that could make me better, is if people started to treat me better. And I have no control over that. This is more than just an illness messing with my mind, this is people neglecting me, ignoring me, hurting me. Until people can stop making me relive my past… until they step up and provide me with what I didn’t have in my childhood from others… until people learn to be more sensitive to sensitive people, rather than expecting us to change our fundamental personalities, so that they can continue being blunt and rude… I won’t be able to live in this world. There’s no place for me.

 

 

I am still that little girl who stood by the wall, alone… I am still the girl who was bullied in front of the whole class and teacher, and wasn’t defended by anyone… she’s still stood by that wall, waiting for someone to WANT to be her friend, not just when they have no other option, but because they want to include her. She’s stood there, crying inside. Her heart is broken. She thinks this is her lot in life. She thinks nobody cares, and she’s just there to be used and to be made fun of. I can see her clearly when I close my eyes, stood there. It’s heart-breaking to see. It must have been so awful to feel. Because she did nothing to deserve it. The reason she was socially outcast was because she was quiet and shy. She wasn’t nasty. She wasn’t strange – only in the sense that most children were noisy and didn’t behave, so she seemed alien to them. But she was a nice girl, and sweet… how could people have treated her so appallingly? She couldn’t have been able to understand WHY people didn’t like her…. the reason they didn’t was because of her personality… who she was… they wanted her to change. They’d often tell her to smile. All her school reports commented on how quiet she was, as if that made a difference to her academic ability! School reports should be about how well someone is doing at a subject, not criticism of their personality!

I can’t help who I am. And no matter who I try to be, on the inside I am that girl… alone, dejected, hopeless, broken. That’s not something I can let go of… not without a lot of help. So I ask that those in my life bear in mind that when you’re dealing with me, you’re also dealing with her. Please be more gentle and considerate. Please don’t exclude me like those nasty children did. It’s what I expect you to do – to ignore me, abandon me, leave me out of things… so I won’t be surprised when you do it. But I’ll never get better if people continue to neglect me.

This has been a really long post. But it was necessary, because it’s all been in my head. It’s so complex to explain to anyone, why I’m this way. There’s not a simple answer. It’s just been a gradual build-up over my life, and I feel traumatised by all of it. Until I started writing it out, I didn’t realise I’d gone through so much at school. And this isn’t even all of it.

Some people sail through their school life, never getting bullied. You’re the lucky ones. And if you were the bullies, then shame on you. I’m sure the people who picked on me are wiser now, and would feel bad to know the effect they’ve had on my life. But that does nothing to make me feel better. All it does is make me angry, that I have a life sentence because of these bullies, and they’re able to move on with their lives as if it never happened. Knowing they’re wiser and perhaps kinder now, makes me feel worse. If they apologised for what they did to me, it might go some way to helping, but knowing that they’re ‘better people’ now, after having destroyed my life… I feel nothing. They learnt their lessons too late for me. The damage was done.

I want to do some work on anti-bullying campaigning. I don’t want decent young people to ever experience what I did, and to end up as ill as I am as a result. I want kids to understand the devastating effect of bullying and isolation on mental health. Because at that age they don’t think anything of it. They don’t think of consequences. And they should be made to. These are people’s lives they’re destroying.

 

 

For anyone who would say I’m just a perpetual ‘victim’, or wallowing in self-pity, I’ll pray for you to one day understand and have compassion for things you know nothing about. I didn’t choose this. I didn’t choose to be ‘different’. I didn’t choose to be picked on and bullied for being a quiet, shy girl. I didn’t ask to be socially excluded. I didn’t choose to be lonely. I didn’t choose to be hurt by men. I didn’t ask to be sensitive by nature. I didn’t ask to be robbed of most of my good memories, and only remember the traumatic ones. I didn’t choose my mental illness. I am stuck in a loop. Only, I see life as the loop. I keep seeing repetitions of traumatic events from my school days in my adult life… each time adding to the trauma, never letting me recover from damaging beliefs. I can’t challenge my beliefs anymore, because life reminds me daily that they are correct. People asking me to try and view things differently, with hope, need to realise that there is none for me. That died a long time ago. You’re asking me to picture an existence I’ve never known. It’s impossible. There’s no point hoping for it either, as it will never materialise. People are the complication to that idea. People never treat me how I wish they would. They’re all distant. They all get fed up and leave me. And there’s no way I can get them to treat me how I wish they would. But until they do, I will continue to have these beliefs. There’s nothing I can do. I feel utterly powerless.

I feel like the eight year old girl, standing by the side of the playground, watching everyone else get on with their lives, and I’m stood there wondering why nobody likes me. There must be something wrong with me. And the answer is ‘my personality’. They didn’t like it when I was at school, and they don’t like it now. Difference is at school it was my personality. Now it’s my mental illness they can’t stand… just so happens to have the label ‘personality’ disorder attached to it… (NB: I do know that BPD is nothing to do with my personality, it’s more of an emotion disorder – just ironic it implies there’s something wrong with my personality, when that’s how schoolkids made me feel!).

 

 

BPD causes the deepest sense of loneliness, more intense than unaffected people could even imagine. It’s a loneliness you feel in your bones, your gut, and every cell in your body. It’s a loneliness that doesn’t go away by being with people. It doesn’t matter how much people tell you they care, or how much you feel heard by them, you still feel lonely. You feel they don’t understand you… they couldn’t possibly understand you, unless they also experience such intense emotions and isolation. And even then they can’t possibly comprehend the trauma you’ve faced throughout your whole life. It’s the most horrendous experience, after a life of loneliness brought about by people excluding me, to feel a loneliness in my soul, that no amount of company can quell. Validation goes some way to helping, but even then after those moments of validation pass, I still go back to feeling alone.

There’s almost a sense of paranoia too, especially at the moment. It’s hyper-vigilance… keeping a lookout for any threat of abandonment. It’s one of the reasons I’ve closed my Facebook account right now. I can’t face the constant feeling like I’m either bothering people, or I’m invisible – like they’re all distancing themselves from me. It’s agonising. It’s too many reminders of the past, and too much trauma. Even if it’s only in my imagination, it’s swirling out of control and nobody seems to want to stop it for me. Friends should care. I guess I thought more of them than they did of me. I guess I was a mere acquaintance to them. The trouble with Facebook, is that most people have hundreds of ‘friends’, so I will always be lost in a sea of statuses, photos, videos etc… whereas I only have people on there who I want to talk with. So it’s easier for me to see their news (although Facebook does seem to hide some friends from me!)… I can keep up to date with them easier than they can with me. I’m sure some have unfollowed me, which is fine, I’ve done that too. But I do look at friends who have ‘new posts’ to check I haven’t missed anything. Simple truth is I probably don’t matter that much to most of them. And it’s about coming to accept that.

If I can accept that Facebook is a fake world, giving a false impression of not being alone, then the reality that I am alone won’t hurt as much. It’s just that feeling like I’ve gone from having all these great new friends, to being Lil-no-mates again, is upsetting. I just have to go back to my humble existence. There was a time, after college when I didn’t really have friends. For a few years I just had the one. I did it once, I can do it again. It is upsetting though.

 

 

 

I am aware that I have to take responsibility for where I am. I would have people say to me ‘Stop blaming everyone else for where you are in life, and do something about it’. They’re right of course. I am the one who has to make the right choices now, in order to move forward. But right at this moment I feel too weak to do so. I feel too depressed and need to take some time for me. I know that if I don’t push myself forward I’ll only have myself to blame, but right now I want to blame those from my past. I’ve only just explored my past to try and understand the link to where I’ve ended up. And I’m angry about it. I’m allowed to be angry about it. I’m allowed to sit and wonder how different my life would have been, if fewer people had been arseholes to me. I’m allowed to be bitter towards those people. When I’m done with all that, I’ll push past it. But for now, this is where I’m at. And I do blame all those people as a whole for screwing me up mentally.

People experience all sorts of trauma in their childhood, that they’ll never recover from… people they can never forgive… violations of their rights. I don’t claim to have experienced anything near what some people have, or still do… but everyone has a past. We all have memories and a childhood. No matter how good my home life may have been, I’ll never know, as I’ve blocked it all out thanks to my experiences at school. Those experiences changed me forever, and I will never be able to forget the psychological harm inflicted on me for more than ten years of my youth.

I cannot let go of anything in my life, probably because I haven’t let go of my childhood trauma. So everything gets heaped on top of that, and this means more to ‘get over’. I can’t let go of the pain my friends caused me. I can’t let go of negative beliefs about myself. I can’t let go of people I grow romantically attached to. I can’t let go of grudges. I can’t let go of loved ones. I can’t let go of ‘my childhood’, in the sense of ‘growing up’ – I want to be protected from this awful world. I can’t let go of anger, sadness, fear or jealousy. I can’t let go of control.

This inability to relinquish control keeps me trapped within myself. I have to feel in control at all times. I have to be in charge of myself and my emotions / behaviour. I can’t show how I truly feel because I fear the potential consequences. So I have to keep control. Perhaps this rigid control of myself prevents me from letting go in other aspects of my life too. But I don’t feel safe ‘letting go’. So apologies I can’t get over my past right now. Until I get the right sort of support this is unlikely to change anytime soon.

I’m doing the best I can to keep on living life, with a heavy and broken heart, and a mind that wants to run away from it all. I know it’s not good enough for some, and I know I’ve not made the best choices along the way. My isolation at the moment is self-preservation. I have to protect myself. And I needed a break from all the paranoia and feeling invisible. Better I’m really invisible and in control of why nobody’s talking to me – because I’ve come off of Facebook. That’s a feeling of isolation I can cope with better… not brilliantly, because I know that none of them have probably even noticed I’m gone. That’s how irrelevant I got to feeling. But at least there’s a reason they appear not to care now – because I’ve made it so.

I’m just tired of this existence, where the past, the present and the future are bleak and lonely. I had it said to me by one of the therapists recently, that people often want them to come in, wave a magic wand and take the pain away, but that’s not how it works unfortunately. He was right. It’s what I want. It’s what I need. I can’t do this on my own. It’s like I’m a toddler in a shop, and I’ve defiantly sat down in the aisle, refusing to go on any further. Life has ground to a halt, and I can’t go on any further. I’ve reached my limit.