YOU ARE NOT ALONE - A companion online community discussion board for The Mental Illness Happy Hour podcast with Paul Gilmartin

Okay so I am born on December 24 and for my entire life, whenever I have told this to people, they immediately tell me that my birthday must suck because I only get one birthday-Christmas present. First of all, I am bored to death of this old trope and misconception about people born on or around th...

Let me start by saying that my husband is a great person in so many ways: he's a super talented musician and artist, financially responsible and intelligent (much more so than me), a great cook, funny, passionate, affectionate, attractive and makes me feel attractive and loved. He has emotionally su...

I think it's really common for people who land on the spectrum of a personality disorder to feel the way you do, Cheesehead. I was very defiant when my doctors changed my diagnosis from Bipolar to BPD because I felt like it was more acceptable to have mood disorder than be told there was something f...

Hey cry baby (that's my favourite John Waters movie, btw), What you're going through sounds really tough and feeling that guilt and shame must be incredibly hard for your process of healing. You sound like a very brave and resilient person who is coping with a lot and just doing your best to get thr...

I totally hear you, and hey, if there was ever a place to "whine", this is it! Although I really don't think you're whining and your pity party sounds like a rager. I'll bring the cheetos of shame and fury :D Jokes aside though, what you wrote reminded me of this scene I love from the movi...

First of all, I'm giving you the biggest hug ever right now. I can so relate to what you wrote and the feeling that you have absolutely no control but no way to reach out either and the only way you can try to reach out only seems to frustrate your emotions more. What you're going through is real an...

Same here, Blukatgirl! Her parents sound EXACTLY like mine too (mostly my father, as a combo of both her parents). Listening to this was like a long, relieving exhale.

Great episode, great guest.

The way you describe it, it sounds like Boarderline causes your brain to gaslight you with help from other people who deny your experience. This REALLY sums it up, bigeekgirl! Wow, thank you for saying that. That actually perfectly describes something I've always felt happening in my mind, but coul...

As someone living with BPD, this episode was extremely relatable and helpful to me. I can't say I agreed with everything Susanna said either, but I do think her talking about her experiences with her ex with just that: HER talking about HER experiences. Part of living with BPD does blind us to the e...

This thread is so helpful. Thank you so much to everyone who has told their stories in it, and dookeye, for starting it with such a thorough detailing. So many of the things you're all saying form pieces of my experience with a NPD father (malignant narcissist sounds about right), with whom I recent...