Reconceptualizing Borderline Personality Disorder: Investigating a Novel Form of Stigma Resistance

Abstract

Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is a highly stigmatized diagnosis. This stigma negatively affects people diagnosed with BPD in many ways, ultimately reducing well-being. Stigma resistance strategies are methods that people use to shield themselves from the negative effects of stigma. These include ‘concealment,’ hiding one’s diagnosis from others, and ‘challenging,’ actively trying to change the stigma. We observed another potential strategy used by people diagnosed with BPD: ‘reconceptualizing’ involves conceiving of one’s mental health holistically and outside of the medical model. We developed a measure of reconceptualizing and assessed its relationship to well-being. The measure showed good reliability, and results suggest that reconceptualizing has a positive relationship to well-being. Assessing reconceptualizing as a stigma resistance strategy is valuable because it may be an accessible intervention that buffers the effects of stigma in a highly stigmatized population.