I’m a PhD student in a science field, and it seems like everybody I know is talking about how important work-life balance is while still spending 90% of their waking hours working. As someone with BPD I have the opposite problem - I can’t get work done because I’m too strongly affected by whatever is going on in my personal life. 

Beyond that, I take every bit of constructive feedback about my work extremely personally, so sometimes I have trouble staying composed and professional in meetings and presentations. I’ve had to take a lot of time off of work for treatment, and I have such frequent crisis episodes that I’m not sure I’m even going to make it through my PhD program at all. 

Overall I feel like I’m too emotional and irrational to be a scientist. How do you maintain a healthy work-life balance when everything is personal?