India, May 21 -- May is Mental Health Awareness Month and Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) Awareness Month. BPD remains one of the least discussed, least understood mental health conditions in India. When I came out of my psychiatrist's office with a diagnosis of BPD, my mother seemed relieved. "Borderline means it's not serious, right?" she asked. But nothing about how my world had been unravelling felt "not serious."

In common parlance, the term borderline often implies ambiguity, something not quite there. But in psychiatric terms, BPD is one of the most severe and complex personality disorders, marked by chronic emotional pain, an abundance of trigger points, a fractured sense of self, a debilitating fear of abandonment, and in ...