Are BPD's given to believing conspiracy theories?

[Couper]

I don't want to take away from the discussion by naming anything in particular, or offend someone that might have a genuine belief in something specific, so I will try to put this in the context of the mindset in general.

My uBPDw (hope I abbreviated that right) went completely off the rails with everything that was going on beginning-to-end last year.  Every new conspiracy that came along, no matter how ludicrous, was like fresh meat for her.  In instances where I could have my say without upsetting the apple cart, and being very careful not to belittle her, I would respond with reason and point out the fallacy.  A couple of times early on she came to me beaming as though she had made a world changing discovery and when she would share this newfound wisdom and I didn't lap it up, she would not even argue and just turn away.  Eventually she quit sharing and even went so far as to start hiding it from me.  She went so far off the deep end with rejecting reason from someone she should trust, but was ready and willing to adopt the most ridiculous narratives from total strangers every time something new came along.

It is important to note that politically we are pretty much aligned (thank goodness) but I am inherently skeptical every time some new storyline comes along.  As soon as one would fizzle out she would adopt a new one, but never look back to think that perhaps she had been duped.  Through spring, summer, and fall she became a relationship arsonist.  Almost all of her old friends on social media (friends from before social media existed) cut her off.  She was posting so much caustic material and anybody that didn't share her beliefs (strangers and friends alike) were subject to her ridicule and scorn.  In some respects it was a bit of a relief because she was showing a side of herself to a wide audience that in the past has only been witnessed by a handful of us in private.  She managed to thoroughly and completely disgrace herself and I can only hope that those watching didn't think I supported her beliefs.

She has always quietly had some strange beliefs lurking that she would support based on her own "research" but this was the first time I had seen this sort of reckless acceptance of the absurd and the public rejection of long-time friends.  The whole "in your face" persona was something new.  Is this common to the disorder or is this just some kind bonus prize in addition to it?  

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[maxsterling]

Interesting topic.  My W might create her own reality regarding motivations of others, but global conspiracies?  Nope.

I had an ex girlfriend who in hindsight could check every box for NPD.  She would latch onto conspiracies - fake moon landings, etc.  Usually these would come out when she smoke marijuana, so I attributed them to that.  I also had a brother-in-law who was very classic NPD and he latched onto conspiracy theories. 

Frankly, I am a little surprised that my W doesn't.  She may easily believe that people she knows are conspiring against her, talking behind her back, cheating on her, etc when they aren't, but she won't believe the same about the government or the upper class.  She might claim they are all racist, sexist, etc, but never that there is some kind of organized conspiracy. 

[PearlsBefore]

Like Max, my closest BPD has all manner of "conspiracy theories" about how co-workers or relatives are plotting against her, as well as a lengthy cotard delusion among others...but not really of the geopolitical moon-landing sort - and on the odd occasion they come up, it seems just be an issue of being impressionable (social anxiety?) based on having spoken to someone recently who believed it.

The most amusing counter-point though is that she once saw a "live webcam feed" of "teacup giraffes" that were the size of roosters and she was in a frightful fit that we needed to get one as a pet, and very angry when I laughed (alright, somewhat less than charitably) at her and said it was just some 5-second animated gif looped. 

[Notwendy]

Uncertainty isn't always an easy thing to deal with. I think we all have the tendency to want an answer and to be able to predict outcome. With BPD there's a tendency to project and to have black and white thinking, so I think that would lead to accepting answers like conspiracy theories.

I think that could happen on both sides of politics- going with a conspiracy theory or deciding that the reason someone does something is due to their political affiilation or other aspect - without knowing all the facts of the situation. I think the current pandemic has made for more opportunities to do that- we've been dealing with a new virus, newer treatments and a lot of unknown, in addition being more isolated and leaning on social media for communication.

[Hope4Joy]

My uBPDh is now big into the conspiracies of the last year. Very upset that I don’t get angry about them along with him. He went from politically not caring to extreme.

[lenfan]

I think this is a wildfire affecting BPD's and Non's alike. I'm going with the "Bonus Prize" theory. Hope it works out for you!

[Couper]

The really disconcerting thing (despite the fact that I'm pretty detached from her at this point) is that during a row over something unrelated she looks at me with crazy eyes and a very tense face and says (again), "I have trust issues" as a form of justification for whatever happened.  I asked her something like, "If you can't trust me, how can you trust all these people spreading these unfounded wild conspiracy theories?" and that was a rare instance where she had no answer or justification.
 
It was a genuine obsession.  A lot of food got burned over it while she retreated to the bathroom to read her phone, including a whole pot of hard boiled eggs from which all the water was completely gone just to give an indication of how long these bathroom visits could last.  Since all of the conspiracy stuff has died down this year I wondered what would take its place and it seems to be an up-and-coming evangelist who (I feel) is a charlatan.  Hardly a day goes by that it's not blaring from her phone or laptop.  If he turns out to be one of these guys that gets upended by a scandal it will either be a total meltdown or a frantic search for a replacement. 

I can understand the desire to seek an answer to whatever uncertainty is going on in one's life.  What I cannot understand is the desire to accept an unprovable absurdity, yet reject the rational answers that I provided backed with solid proof.



 

[Atlas2020]

The guy I was seeing has extreme issues with conspiracy theories and paranoia. He believes NASA is fake. He believes everything has meaning (flamingos, pineapples, etc) The reason we aren't seeing each other now is because after I met and became friends with a friend of his and her husband, I went to her for advice and he now thinks that we were conspiring against him and I was paid to see him. I was very supportive of him with the theories. I listened and offered my opinions because I knew what would happen if I wasn't. I tried to explain to him about how I wasn't and would never hurt him the way he thinks, but now he's completely shut me out. It hurts a lot.