ForeverDad
What do you mean by "unpaid"?

It really is annoying, and I'm good at avoiding her when I know she comes around. I have my lookouts. But I'm not all sad and feeling awful anymore. I just simply have no interest in having her be part of my life in any capacity, even in passing. I owe her nothing, not even to share the air we breathe. Some people just don't get it and act like I need to be her friend or something.

I'm not going to manufacture reasons to be around her. Our jobs do not overlap at all. Oh well.

No one really understands it until they've been on the receiving end of it. 

Even my mom, who saw first hand the insanity as she was "painted black" and made into this villain who was trying to ruin BPDxw's life and our marriage, will push me to get in pointless back-and-forth exchanges with her because she thinks me ignoring obvious argument bait is me "not standing up for myself" and crap like that. 

It is just how it is. 

It's unfortunate for you that you have that continuous connection at your workplace.  It's less burdensome than having a child together at least but sounds like more of a steady source of annoyance.

As an amateur family genealogist - that means unpaid - I've noticed some obituaries years after death, so those must have been "celebrations of life" too.  It all depends on who's doing the remembering.

As it says in the book of Ecclesiastes 7 "A good name is better than good oil, and the day of death is better than the day of birth."  That doesn't seem to make sense until you consider that at birth you don't know yet whether that baby will grow up to be a productive person or not.

Which reminds me of King David.  (I have a tendency to let my mind wander. Bear with me.)  He took another man's wife, Bath-sheba, but the resulting infant became ill and died.  While it was ill he was praying and fasting but once it died he stopped mourning and that perplexed his servants.  David explained, "While the child was alive, I fasted and kept weeping because I said to myself, 'Who knows whether Jehovah may show me favor and let the child live?' Now that he has died, why should I fast? Can I bring him back? I will go to him, but he will not return to me." - 2 Samuel 12

I've done amazing in my healing journey. Picked up new hobbies. Slowed the drinking so much since it's not my crutch anymore. Lost tons of weight. I feel pretty good almost always.

However, I do still avoid my ex at work. I've seen her in passing. I don't look at her. Make small talk. Tell her one of our dogs passed, no updates nothing. I think this is fair. A group of people here who know 'enough' are starting to annoy me. You're being a btch. Who cares anymore? Go be around her, etc. I see no reason to voluntarily put myself around her when there's literally zero need. It doesn't come off as strength to me. I have nothing to prove.

It makes no sense to posture and go be around her on purpose. Why do I need to prove a thing when this person has assaulted me, abused me in all facets of the word and tried to have the cops come get me? And then ran around telling everyone I was an abusive monster? I just have no want/need to be around her.

And knowing how her brain works she'll see this as some sort of 'in' to reestablish communications. She came to my building yesterday for zero reason. Oh well. My buddy wanted to leave work....early at that, which is another problem in itself, but I said I'm not leaving yet. 1) It's 20 minutes before our tour ends, and 2) Why am I trying to just go make myself known?

I'm not like in hiding and I really am doing better, much better, but I'm also not here trying to strut around in front of her. I don't like her.

There's a creator that I occasionally see on TikTok that makes a running series of a guy making wishes to a genie.  He might wish, "I want all the money in the world."  And poof, he has all the money.  Since there's no money left, humanity goes back to the barter system and now the money is worthless.

Each episode, he makes a different wish that doesn't turn out how he expects.  In another, he wished for $5M USD, all in non-sequential hundred dollar bills.  He thinks, surely I have outsmarted the genie this time.  The money appears, and seconds later the FBI bursts into the apartment and arrests him for a bank heist.

In another, he wishes for $50M in unstamped gold bars that is created from raw ore within the solar system.  He specifies that this is gold that nobody has ever seen before, is not being accounted for anywhere, and has no effect on the global economy.  The genie says, "Hmm, great wish...I think you finally cracked the genie code."  Then the gold appears falling from the ceiling and crushes the guy like a pancake.

In fact, I know in my heart that I will not help her if she does not somehow reach the bottom herself. I know he's circling around, I think he's looking for answers considering this fake nickname on twitch. I think the situation is uncomfortable for both her and me. I ordered a book I hate you don't leave, think it's a good idea to read it

I just had a brief visit with her - the first in a long time. I learned that she is involved in as many as 9 lawsuits around a decision she made at work. One of the folks involved was a good friend at one point in her life - this is another pattern. Her friends end up being on the wrong side of her eventually. She's also being pushed out of her job so is looking for new ones. This is classic BPD stuff, right? It's so surreal, because she seems otherwise good. And right now she seems to want to connect with me - and I just can't. I can do surface, but guarded. Listening to her explain this I just felt myself looking at the pattern and not the situation, while my dad focuses on the situation - and wondering how no one else is seeing this pattern and questioning it? She is in the process of her own lawsuit and now this.

As an aside, during that same conversation, she claimed that it is rare for people to have more than one personality disorder, and especially rare in the same cluster. My reading / research on this is that it is actually common for people to have more than one, and often in the same cluster - am I wrong? She said it as if its fact and since she has a child who she says had one (but formal diagnoses is bipolar 2), it's no good engaging her on it. In years past I would engage that convo, but I've learned not to with her unless it really matters.

I think within Christianity, or monotheistic religions, the "Be Careful What You Wish For" trope is still used, but framed as a deal with the Devil.  The person making the deal gets what they want, but fails to foresee how severe the other end of the bargain would be when they lose their soul.

In the "traditional," non-monotheistic telling, man fails when he wishes for something, because he is mortal and fallible and cannot bear the power of the gods (or whatever they may be).

Well, sorry you're going through all that.  I think, for me, the biggest thing I learned was that there are individuals who fit into this sort of thing.  What I mean by that, is that I knew there were mentally ill people, but I assumed everyone who was not mentally ill was at least "normal" in that you could trust them and they would see things the same way you do on some level. 

Learning about BPD (and cluster-B behavioral disorders in general) ended that view for me.  But in a way, it was beneficial insofar as it did explain a lot.  People that I knew that were fundamentally dishonest, and I had a hard time understanding why they were like that, well, maybe they were NPD or BPD? 

I think you need to realize that when you engage with this person, their response is not going to be the same thing you expect.  Their thinking is disordered, (and often paranoid) and so whereas you may be sending an email seeking closure and some answers, they are possibly assuming you're trying to blame them for something or attack them. 

Also prepare for them to try to come back into your life in a very indirect, and possibly aggressive way; for example, for her to suddenly demand her things back and blame you for disposing of them.  Or to attempt to reconnect and pretend like nothing ever happened. 

Think through how you'd deal with these things, but again, remember that if she's BPD, she is mentally disordered, and you would never be able to trust that the things she's saying are true or candid.  If you decide to stay in a relationship with a pwBPD, you would have to embrace the chaos; you will not be able to "fix" them and have the sort of relationship you want.