Borderline Personality Disorder: Wales rugby player Donna Rose shares her story of living with BPD
Warning: This report discusses mental health and self-harm.
Credit: ITV Wales
Up to 60,000 people in Wales are believed to be living with borderline personality disorder (BPD).
It is a condition that is often linked to trauma in an individual’s past.
Wales rugby international Donna Rose was diagnosed with BPD 11 years ago, after a particularly dark period in her life.
She said: “I tried committing suicide, I started to have therapy, I just thought it was a load of rubbish. And I just thought, I’m just a wrong’un, that really stuck in my mind that people thought, you just grew up in a council estate, that’s the way you’re meant to be.
“It got really, really bad. I was trying to commit suicide again. And I was drinking a lot. I was getting in trouble with the police.
“Borderline personality disorder mostly impacts people with trauma. In my lifetime, unfortunately, I have dealt with some abuse. And that has led for me to have borderline personality disorder.”
Donna received her treatment outside of Wales but like others both here and beyond, she said it was a struggle to find the right support.
“One week, I’ll be seeing nurse A the next week I’d be seeing psychiatrist B. And I have abandonment issues. I didn’t know that at the time. But that just triggered me. If you’re going to give someone a psychiatrist to talk to, keep that person, we trust that person because we opened up to them.
“By the end, I would just sit there and be quiet and be like, I have nothing to say. I don’t want to open up to you because I’ve opened up to five different people.
“I’d go to my appointments. But what about the week in between? You know, I’ve just been in hospital, not very well. And I’m seeing them once a week or once a month? What about the time in between? And this, I believe this needs to change because within that time, I’ve self harmed a lot.”
Donna is sharing her story and meeting others who live with BPD to raise awareness of the condition.
