Hi /r/BPD, throwaway account for obvious reasons, but thought I should share a little story with you on how I personally try to manage my BPD.

As a 21 year old male, I've almost always had identity issues, growing up I've tended to "chameleon" and copy a lot of other people, even fictional characters in the past. At this point, I'm almost absolutely convinced that I don't have a one true personality, and everything I am, is just at best a mix of every other personality I've copied thus far.

As a little background info, my mother died of cancer when I was about 10 years old, so I've always been somewhat emotional and needy. As a result, I think my clingyness got annoying to some people, and I've kinda stopped in fear of scaring people off with my neediness. So since high school I've always been kinda socially awkward. 
I've always felt frustrated and disappointed, I'm sure most of you guys understand how hindsight can be a pain. Like "Why didn't I speak up, when I should have? Why should I have waited to make my move?" etc. Essentially I craved perfection, and hated failure, especially if someone else could do something, why couldn't I?

Now onto the title at hand, I've been a fan of batman for a few years now, ever since I started university, and it has honestly been the best character to 'chameleon' so far. I'm tired of being paranoid and thinking people are out to get me, I'm tired of being disadvantaged as well, and here comes a superhero that just resonates with me. 
Now before you start thinking, I'm either a rich kid or I like jumping off roof tops every night, I'd like to assure you I'm not, but there are similarities to him

For those unfamiliar with the dark knight, the single most important thing that distinguishes him from the rest of the superheroes of the justice league is the fact that he has no powers, and is only human. Relatable right? But take it a step further, essentially he's the disadvantaged one.
He's the one that's most vulnerable, the one that constantly has to punch much higher than his weight, but he doesn't do it with brute force, he just uses his wits and his smarts. A very 'human' quality.

The thing is, I realise that most people aren't going to understand where I come from, and obviously they will treat us without knowledge of past, which kinda sucks for me because I hate either losing or being bad at whatever I'm doing. So I push myself, but I know I can't be as good as them, because I lack confidence, fear of failure, or they just have more experience. So the simplest solution?
Do what batman does in those cases, don't fight fire with fire. Don't fight fair. Prepare and predict for the fight.

As a crude personal example in university I chose to study engineering despite the fact that I did basic math and no phys/chem in my HS years, so I was pretty disadvantaged from the get go. The first year was the worst since all the 'basic knowledge' was assumed to be known and taught very quickly. Thing was, our university also scaled our marks based on our cohort, so I managed to get a hold of a couple of past papers from a senior friend, downloaded ebooks instead of buying and really only shared it with a very select few, or otherwise none. (This didn't mean I cheated at all, just meant I knew what kind of topics seemed to be more likely assessable than others). 
The point is, that I try my best to prepare for anything I feel might be a pain in the arse to deal with, even social interactions. I joke you not, I suck at small talk with strangers so much, that usually if I am attending a friendly event via facebook, I look at the attendees profiles, kinda understand what their likes and dislikes are where possible, and slightly slip it in a conversation if need be, like, if they've been on a recent trip to Japan, I may bring up travelling or holidaying in the conversation "hey, yeah damn, I wish I went travelling, somewhere asian would be nice"

It's worked out okay so far I've actually been interning as a salesman for the past half year. So it goes to show that the "chameleon personality" kinda helped, despite the fact that I start to brood a lot and often stress out a lot planning for potential outcomes and stay up late (though I am an engineering student .-.).

So the main point of this post/rant was really just to say that I honestly believe that sometimes a disadvantage can be turned into an advantage. I understand that everyone has a different background, and obviously this isn't a "HEY this worked for me, this will work for you" kind of vibe.

TL;dr "Social Chameleon" turned me into a bat. 