I think a huge flaw in mental illness spaces on like tumblr mostly (probably a bigger issue in like 2016 lol) but possibly more in general is like defining urself with what disorders uve been diagnosed with. Like i get it its a big part of your life and perception of the world depending on what you have and nothings stopping you from telling others you have it (its good to be open with people u trust. Not internet strangers though) But 1. listing all ur mental illness in ur tumblr bio or carrd or whatever is a good recipe for targeted harassment and 2. Defining yourself by what parts of you are dysfunctional is going to kill any chance of recovery and you're going to lock yourself into needing to display the symptoms to be valid. Its about your quality of life not proving what trauma you went through. Like, the goal is to lessen the symptoms. They're not you. Well sometimes they are you but. ok like. Its just not good to lock yourself into that because youre never even gonna want to aim for remission. When something becomes your identity, you don't know who you are without it, so you don't want to lose it, and you stay trapped in the worst of it. (Dont twist my words im not saying u can just get rid of a traumagenic disorder. Your brain literally grows differently. Many of those with BPD, like, the amygdala is literally bigger. It can go into remission though! It just takes a really long time and any healing work that you CAN do is going to be vital in helping yourself out in the long haul as well as the short term) Again like, good quality of life and a well-rounded, secure, positive sense of self is the goal. This isnt like a completely coherent or fleshed out thought so dont blow this up just mostly my own anecdotal experience on the matter

Also like. It's so individual. The same disorder can manifest in so many different ways for different people. Defining yourself with, like, the Big List of Symptoms...it's measuring yourself against something that might not fit you 100% and basing your "validity" off of it. Labels help but they might not always get everything and you don't need to like, measure how Valid you are compared to a non-individualized collection of symptoms. You just need to figure out what to sort out for yourself to live a better life. Connect with people who understand where you can. There's grieving yourself and there's toxic self-pity and unfortunately it's difficult to tell the difference. I don't even know where to draw that line lol. Im thinking that clearly defining that line matters less and focusing on how you can help yourself out matters more. Anyway i forgot what i was talking about There was a huge beehive somewhere outside i think there might be 2 actually. Never seen them but i can hear them when i walk up the driveway. So much about recovery is just doing the hard thing and realizing the areas where you play a part in your own suffering. It takes a while to get there. I remember being reeeeeeal bothered by that truth and not accepting it for the longest time. Not mad at myself for that. It's just part of the growing pains. You get there eventually