I think you could be part in one stage and part in another. I don't know if your stuck, but it's easy to get stuck by ruminating. Ruminations are like a whirlpool. I'd like to press you to read the individual steps you mentioned in more detail if you click on each one. Reading them what parts do you see yourself at?
I can say this Number 4 Creative Action, even if you are at stage 1, 2, or 3, is helpful to try to start to pepper into your life a little at time. It's like a tangible part that you see results in immediately. Have you tried doing a few creative action things?
Yeah! Did you see my funhouse post?

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I am trying to make music again... . the ruminations are pretty terrible. i have spent more time with this woman in the past 4 years than I have spent with any other person in the past 10... . I don't really have a social life anymore... . this relationship destroyed my social life. Moreover, I am toxic right now... I would not want to be my friend. I am a combination of debbie downer and some negative nancy. Severely depressed and oversensitve/anxious... . the ruminations are not that bad right now. I mean compared to the catatonic state i was in after the 5th breakup already ruined a lot of my friendships since everybody thought I was crazy, this is nothing. i already relived all the trauma through flashbacks and got it out of my system... . happy to say that ptsd was actually something more acute. In any case, I've had a lot of social problems in the midst of this relationship. I have made an absolute fool out of myself.
One of my good friends is an advisor to a top official in dc, he said "You nuked yourself" with this other BPD girl his brother tried to hook me up with... . he was an esteemed friend and I thought he was going to kill me because his brother was a "persian king" and this was "his mistress" ... . etc. Seriously, this was some odd behavior on my part... . and i can clearly see a woman with BPD in any issues I have been having.
I do not know why these people have so much power over me. It is subconscious, and it is sick on my part
I guess it is in my family, heavily... . that is all I can think of?
Other people on here don't seem to have the same experiences that I do with running in to these people whenever i leave the house.
The two women my friends introduced me to outside of this relationship both had BPD.
They did not know about my issues with BPD... . actually one was my friend introducing me, and one was just my other friends roommate... . but it almost seems like something has been set off in me... .
I have never known about this disorder and have met 2 other women with disorder at key times when i was trying to get over this relationship, and these were at key friends' houses... . etc.
So you can imagine how frustrating that has been... . meeting these women at friends houses, trying to get over the rs... . and then realizing they both have dx for BPD. Serious.
Maybe i felt like i couldn't get away from the BPD women? One of the BPD's was trying to coach me with my exwBPD and in the end tried to seduce me away... . that's BPD on BPD crime!
So I am definitely biased and situationally this hasn't been easy for me. Of course it would make sense that both of these friends may have PDs... . one has NPD and the other well... . his brother works in a high office, but this guy is not a good guy.
So there is a pattern of PDs in my life and i can't seem to get away from it.
I am an eccentric guy, but harmless... . I don't have a PD but i put up with crap behavior from people. I think I'm a co-narcissist or something... . in any case. i can make a change, I just don't want my next move to involve someone with BPD... .
I met this girl at a superbowl party a few weeks ago, she was cute and seemed to be sensitive and worked at a company that i thought we could help out. I go to her facebook page, bam "Im a black hole of need"... . this is following me around and I cant handle it anymore! It almost feels like fate... .
I need to move in different circles... . does anyone know geographically where the lowest incidence of BPD occurs?
Because if my business fails, I will sell my car and move there. Serious. Sounds like a good plan... . nothing holding me down here. I don't want the business to fail... . but I do want to leave orange county.
Even my therapist thinks I should leave orange county. She knows this is not a good place for me right now. She agrees that it is a personality disordered society. She has a small bubble of friends and she loves them, but none of them form new meaningful relationships. It is a lousy place to be in my situation.
I really would like to relocate as soon as possible... . so i am just working as hard as i can, going to therapy, posting here... . and hopefully i will be able to move... . at least to los angeles, that is better than here. More creativity and culture despite the shallow and narcissistic Hollywood, blah blah. Theres a lot of great things about la... . i would spend more time there, but gas is a fortune and i don't have the ambition to drive my crappy car all over the state looking for authentic people.
Eventually i would like to move back to denver, colorado... but people are crazy there as well (shootings, etc... . ) but at least they legalized weed so everybody can calm down.
I was thinking that meetups in the area are probably chalk full of sociopaths looking for people like me to take advantage of. Is this paranoid?
In any case. I think I am going to keep going to therapy, finish my project, and find somehow to move with a better spirtual and cultural balance, because I think I am absorbing a lot of negativity from the area i live in