BPD and Work? Find The Best Career with BPD (Video)

Here are over 70 best jobs for people with BPD who don’t know what to do for work. Please note: a lot of people with BPD are capable of doing any job they want, and some people with BPD have an easier time managing a job than others. This video is for those with BPD who are having a hard time find fulfilling work, don’t feel sure of themselves or are struggling to find a good career that fits their own unique experience. BPD and work can be a difficult mix but you are capable.

Why BPD and Work Can Be Hard

The reason some people with BPD struggle with work is because their BPD symptoms make it hard to focus and stay committed. When you’re constantly dealing with intense, quick to fluctuate emotions in response to interpersonal conflict or misinterpretations – it can be harder to concentrate on the normal happenings of daily life. Add BPD splitting to the mix, and you have someone who struggles to remain focused on their long term goals or someone who regularly changes them. A “perfect” job can suddenly become a “nightmare” when your coworker says something short & to the point that a person with BPD may take as an insult, or when your boss dismisses their ideas or suggestions.

I’ve personally always had a hard time balancing BPD and work. Between my fear of abandonment distracting me at the office (I was hyper focused on the fight I was having with my favorite person) and the BPD splitting (everything was either amazing or awful) – my concentration on my workload was dodgy to say the least. The longest I’ve stuck with a job is 4 years. That might seem on the longer end to some, but I spent half the time miserable and the other half looking for a way out.

What Others Have to Say About BPD and Work

“Since people with BPD are living on an emotional rollercoaster, they tend to lash out and say things they don’t mean, but afterward, they almost always feel guilty and ashamed,” says Jonas on Mental Curve. Because of this, there is tension in the workplace when emotions get involved for someone with BPD. They are extremely sensitive, and the tiniest things can trigger intense reactions. Once they hit the point of an emotional breakdown, it is difficult to calm them down again, and it could take a while before they can let it go and breathe again.”

Stacy on Quora says, “Our work relationships are really not that much different than our personal relationships – in some cases we spend more waking hours with our coworkers than we do with our families and certainly our non-work friends. People who love us have a vested interest in dealing with our mood swings, employers do not.”

“A lot of people with BPD have issues with authority figures that you can trace back to their caregivers’ failure to provide appropriate modeling, guidance, and support and often a person suffering from BPD will end up acting out their childhood issues with their parent in a similar fashion with their boss,” says Jason.

All of the above quotes about BPD and work rang true for me. This is why I was self employed for so long, although that brought up a whole other set of problems.

Read the text version of this post and more about my own experience with BPD and work here.