Hello friends! I found out I had BPD when I was 18, and started actively working on myself and my BPD when I was 19. By reading many self help books initially (those aren't mentioned here, they were insignificant compared to the books I found below), therapy, lots of online reading, and even going to church I was desperate to change and to overcome. My progress has not been a straight line up, I have let experiences drive me into suicidal hopeless thoughts as well as attempts, and I have also caused my own destruction a few times. I've tried to kill myself multiple times, and have been admitted to psych twice (Including this year, and I'm 24). 

However, over the past year I have come across books that have dramatically changed my outlook and the way I think. These books have given me a sense of self, helped me realize purpose, given me newfound strength, and has ultimately changed the person I am. This subreddit has been so much help for me, and at many times it was a place I didn't feel alone. I feel driven to share with you all what I hope will change your life too. Life doesn't have to feel hopeless, BPD doesn't have to be who YOU are. These books are not just your hippie blind motivational bullshit, which happens to be many self help books. These books below are not self help, they are philosophical books that happen to spark change within you. They are easy reads, although there were confusing aspects in Thus Spoke Zarathustra, but still most of that book is absolutely comprehensible and it is one of my most beloved books that I have personally wanted to embody. 

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Some aspects of these books that I have personally appreciated is the fact there isn't some sales pitch of "Get Mentally Perfect in 10 days!". Instead, these books help you learn to exist with yourself. They help you to truly acknowledge yourself in a way that makes you want to overcome yourself. They acknowledge suffering, how suffering feels, and most importantly; how to suffer less and change your view on what suffering is so you can overcome and bear suffering to become a better you. They help you learn what it means to be yourself, what it means to build an identity, and to live by character; this has significantly helped me learn what my identity is which I know is a huge problem with having BPD. These books have helped me to face debilitating fear, take the reigns on my life, and truly operate my life. They have helped me come to realize, that suffering, pain, setbacks, and mistakes are as much as part of life as joy, happiness, and successes are. It's helped me appreciate love and happiness without fearing it'll be doomed and gone, as well as appreciate loss and suffering without thinking it they are the only things that truly exist. It has liberated me from the things I was a slave to (my emotions, and letting my circumstance decide who I was going to be), and has made me realize what it really means to be a master of your own fate and self. 

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While my life is far from perfect, I am undeniably changed from the person I was then to now. And it is because of these books, and having a good therapist. I've begun meditating, and meditating made NO sense to me before, however if you read The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying it explains it perfectly and can help you truly meditate. 

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I've rambled enough, here are the books. My inbox is open to conversations. I want to be able to help you all just as I have been helped. I hope that you will be able to find solace and change, and become someone you never thought you could become. I know this disorder is a hell of a thing, and I still have times where it seems to consume me, but there is something overall and underlying that has changed that lets me be able to overcome it. I will keep working on finding new books, methods, and other information I hope to one day be able to share and translate into something significant for those of us who suffer with BPD. 

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Epictetus' Discourses 

[https://www.amazon.com/Discourses-Selected-Writings-Penguin-Classics/dp/0140449469/ref=sr\_1\_1?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1536020721&amp;sr=1-1&amp;keywords=epictetus+discourses](https://www.amazon.com/Discourses-Selected-Writings-Penguin-Classics/dp/0140449469/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1536020721&amp;sr=1-1&amp;keywords=epictetus+discourses)

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Letters from a Stoic - Seneca 

[https://www.amazon.com/Letters-Penguin-Classics-Lucius-Annaeus/dp/0140442103/ref=sr\_1\_1?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1536020751&amp;sr=1-1&amp;keywords=Seneca](https://www.amazon.com/Letters-Penguin-Classics-Lucius-Annaeus/dp/0140442103/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1536020751&amp;sr=1-1&amp;keywords=Seneca)

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The Art of Loving - Erich Fromm

[https://www.amazon.com/Art-Loving-Erich-Fromm/dp/0061129739](https://www.amazon.com/Art-Loving-Erich-Fromm/dp/0061129739)

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Thus Spoke Zarathustra - Friedrich Nietzsche

[https://www.amazon.com/Thus-Spoke-Zarathustra-Everyone-Classics/dp/0140441182/ref=sr\_1\_2?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1536020824&amp;sr=1-2&amp;keywords=thus+spoke+zarathustra+by+friedrich+nietzsche](https://www.amazon.com/Thus-Spoke-Zarathustra-Everyone-Classics/dp/0140441182/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1536020824&amp;sr=1-2&amp;keywords=thus+spoke+zarathustra+by+friedrich+nietzsche)

The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying

[https://www.amazon.com/Tibetan-Book-Living-Dying-International/dp/0062508342/ref=sr\_1\_1?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1536020793&amp;sr=1-1&amp;keywords=the+tibetan+book+of+living+and+dying+sogyal+rinpoche](https://www.amazon.com/Tibetan-Book-Living-Dying-International/dp/0062508342/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1536020793&amp;sr=1-1&amp;keywords=the+tibetan+book+of+living+and+dying+sogyal+rinpoche)

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