“We’ve made some progress, on a societal level, toward recognizing and normalizing certain mental health issues, but stigma and misunderstanding around many diagnoses still exist. Most people, for example, have a fairly decent understanding of what anxiety and depression entail. Unfortunately, that isn’t the case for BPD ― and it can lead people to assume the worst.”
The study concluded that clusters of BPD in families have genetic causes and are not caused by shared environmental factors (such as socioeconomic status). That means that if those identical twins had been separated and grew up in different environments, their likelihood of developing BPD would remain the same based on their genes.
It should come as no surprise that problems with mental health have been on the rise over the past two years. However, studies have recently shown that the Covid-19 pandemic is not the sole driver in the dramatic increase in mental health cases. This New York Times article from Kim Tingley explores the mental health epidemic that Americans, particularly American children, are currently facing:
BPD is one of the most stigmatized mental health disorders. As a result, some believe those with the disorder are unworthy of being loved. The emotional instability of those with BPD creates a vicious cycle whereby actions to cope with the burden of stigma exacerbate the condition
