BPD Awareness Month takes place each May and provides an opportunity for those with BPD, as well as their loved ones, to shed light on a mental health condition that affects millions of people around the world. It’s hoped that BPD Awareness Month will help to foster a greater understanding and reduce the stigma surrounding the disorder.

BPD Awareness Month began in 2008 after the National Education Alliance for Borderline Personality Disorder (NEABPD) organized hearings in front of Congress to educate legislators about BPD.

People may wear a grey ribbon to show they’re observing BPD Awareness Month in May. Grey may have been chosen to represent how people with Borderline Personality Disorder struggle with black-and-white thinking. Black-and-white thinking is when someone only sees one end of the extreme in a situation. For example, they might believe someone else is perfect with no faults at all.

How Else Is BPD Awareness Month Observed?

The best way to observe BPD Awareness Month is to educate yourself about Borderline Personality Disorder as much as possible. Websites like this one as well as Psychology Today, Psychiatric Times, and Talking About BPD (among others) regularly post articles about BPD from a variety of angles. Reading these articles and then sharing them on social media can go a long way to improving the awareness of BPD.

As well as articles, there are also a plethora of fantastic books about BPD by authors who’ve experienced BPD first-hand or second-hand. There are also other books designed to help those who have BPD. Not only can you educate yourself by reading these books, but you can also financially support people who’ve been affected by the disorder or are trying to help people with the disorder. Either way, it’s a worthy cause. Check out our article on our favorite books about BPD here.

If you have BPD, you might like to share your experiences of what living with BPD has been like for you. This can be done with trusted friends and on social media. By sharing your experiences, you can educate people on what living with BPD is really like. Hopefully, people will see what a struggle it is and how BPD can affect people differently.

You may also want to donate to charitable organizations like the NEABPD and Emotions Matter who do all they can to raise awareness of Borderline Personality Disorder and offer free resources to those who need them most.

Why BPD Awareness Month Is Important

An oft-quoted study has stated that 1.6% of Americans have BPD. If you extrapolate that figure across the global population then it means over 125 MILLION people have Borderline Personality Disorder, and that may well be a conservative figure.

It’s vitally important to raise awareness of BPD so that people know the signs and symptoms to look out for so that they can seek treatment if necessary. BPD is challenging to live with and the suicide rate of people with BPD is well beyond the national average, however, BPD is also immensely treatable. Through medication and therapy, people can be given the chance to regain control of their lives.

Final Thoughts

Despite being one of the most common mental health conditions, BPD is still less talked about and less well-funded than many other mental health conditions. If you were to ask the average person on the street about BPD, chances are they wouldn’t know much about it unless they had some personal experience with BPD.

That’s why BPD Awareness Month is so important. It’s a month where members of the BPD community can step forward, share their experiences, and do all they can to educate the wider public.

Lack of knowledge and stigma is a darkness that we can all shine a light on and BPD Awareness Month, which happens every year in May, is the perfect time to do just that.