BPD on Social Media

[Guts42]

Anyone else notice a few "influencers" with BPD on social media?

I gave in and got a TikTok account after friends trying to share things with me from that platform.  Also my uBPD "diagnosed" her ADHD from videos on TikTok (read: she identified with one or two traits and then started manifesting more)

Out of curiosity I searched for BPD.  To my surprise I found quite a few people who openly talk about their BPD, treatment, etc.
For those curious look up ThickabodCrane and BPDKenny.

I'm interested in other's take on them.

[Notwendy]

I am not on much social media but it's known that social media is a playground for personality disorders and I think there's articles on how to spot a narcissist's profile. I have used Facebook.

If you think about it, it's the perfect setting to create a fantasy image- which is something someone with a PD does. It's also not real. People tend to post their best pictures and good news so it appears everyone is at their best and all is wonderful. How many posts do you see of people's pictures when they first get up in the morning, or haven't washed their hair? Not many.

On thing that gets me wondering is the provocative selfie pose. Boundaries ( lack of) are another clue- where the posts are just not quite appropriate or reveal more personal info than necessary.

For example, in my age group. Some FB friends have posted picture of themselves in age appropriate attire doing things with their families or a portrait. I don't see them post selfies. I also have a same age acquaintance who posts those selfies that are so common among the teen agers. I don't know if any of these women have BPD but if I had to guess, the different picture would make me wonder. I have also seen posts with TMI on them.

Some people are on multiple social media platforms. I think it would be similar.

[pursuingJoy]

I'm in the FB, ig, and dabble on TikTok age group. My kids are snapchat/tiktok age.

I found Thickabodcrane on instagram and checked out some of her posts. Her approach is...aggressive? almost like, 'take me or leave me, but this is me.'

I think the challenge in part is the snapshot quality of social media. How could you possibly get anywhere near informing the public about what BPD really is, in one post or 20? One of the reasons BPDFamily is so helpful is because we're committed to facts, not pop-psych. People take the time to untangle all of the many facets of BPD and share reputable, tested resources and approaches.

I really appreciate that conversations about mental health, including BPD, are becoming mainstream. They're being destigmatized and while that's amazing, it comes hand in hand with it almost being a badge of honor, to quote my kids. If you don't admit you have a mental health challenge (depression, anxiety, ADD, ADHD, etc) you're clearly in denial or not 'with it.'

[LovelyRita50]

I really appreciate that conversations about mental health, including BPD, are becoming mainstream. They're being destigmatized and while that's amazing, it comes hand in hand with it almost being a badge of honor, to quote my kids. If you don't admit you have a mental health challenge (depression, anxiety, ADD, ADHD, etc) you're clearly in denial or not 'with it.'

My exwBPD seems to be going this route. She has been using Twitter heavily since we asked her to move out at the beginning of June. She posts things like, "The best thing about dating me is absolutely nothing. Run, MF," or, 'Everyday is a good day when you're delusional.'

She also tries to portray herself as a person who is very concerned about social justice, but that mostly amounts to rants about how life is unfair to people with her disabilities, rather than doing anything concrete to help change things. Ever since she lost her job early in the pandemic, she has been self-identifying as disabled, although what she really does is skip medical treatments and refuse to take her medication regularly,  then claims to be disabled because of it.

[EyesUp]

My upwBPD is a nano-influencer.

i.e., right after she told me that she was going to quit social media, she blocked me and her post frequency exploded.  How do I know?  Many others in our mutual circles commented, e.g., "saw your wife got vaxxed" or "saw your wife got a new car" or "saw your kids were at the beach" or...  you get the idea.  She posts everything, and then some.  A lot of "look at me" with a smattering of "I'm a victim." 

My take is that Facebook and Instagram are not entirely healthy - even for healthy people.  That's not to say that there isn't utility and interest and potential for good in these platforms - only that the nature of the media invites narcissism (and its various associated traits) to spread plumage...

The snarky mom influencers who dis their husbands on a daily basis can be very instructional - when I saw who my wife was following and liking, I reevaluated my own habits and ended up unfollowing a wide range of mildly toxic profiles, and reducing overall time spent scrolling.

There are a few profiles out there addressing BPD and Narcissism that post helpful affirmations / validations - but the bite-size wisdom of the platform just doesn't have depth for these topics.  And I also worry about Facebook (which owns Instagram) and their ever-changing privacy policies and glitches.  Actively engaging with BPD/NPD content on FB or IG  could be a real liability / privacy concern for many here... Personally, I won't do it. I strongly prefer a site like this one vs. any FB private group or Messenger.  No thank you.

[once removed]

its hard to quantify, but there does appear to be a bit of a surge that has come along with posting about mental health/mental illness very openly on social media. documenting it, entire accounts dedicated to it, etc. anecdotally, ive noticed a lot of people self diagnosing with BPD on social media. its a thing on twitter to include your diagnoses in your bio.

additionally, i have a few people (diagnosed) on facebook that share posts from and follow accounts like "borderline trash" and "borderline memes". a lot of it is self loathing kinda stuff or "here is an example of how crazy i am".

i dont really have an interest in any one persons perspective (which often times is given as if its authoritative) on such a wide ranging spectrum of a mental illness, personally, but i do feel like it all normalizes something that theres so much misinformation and boogey-manning about.

[ThanksForPlaying]

Check out The Social Dilemma. It's a documentary available on Netflix. It's not about BPD - just an interesting social media warning from the people who wrote the social media algorithms. These people are scared to let their own kids use the platforms they created. Eye opening for sure.

[yeeter]

It is trendy to label PD's.

My opinion is that it diminishes the diagnosis.  Narcissism in particular is thrown out a lot, and if you are suffering from a relationship with a true narcissist it becomes annoying how watered down the term has become due to overuse/armchair diagnosis.