What is Three Little Letters?

Your first question is probably, "What are the letters?" and there are two answers. The potentially obvious acronym is BPD, meaning Borderline Personality Disorder. A diagnosis I received at 17 years old, making me the youngest person in Michigan (at the time) to receive such a diagnosis. Now, before I give you the second answer, Let's talk a little bit about what BPD is. When seeking a BPD diagnosis there are nine characteristics that a psychiatrist will look at. If someone displays seven of nine traits they qualify to be diagnosed with BPD. It's at this point that I should probably mention that I am not a doctor no am I even close to certified to diagnose anyone, I will only be talking about my experience. With that being said, at 17 I displayed nine out of nine traits and was diagnosed with BPD. I was and will always be an overachiever. :)

The second set of Three Little Letters are the ones that saved me, DBT, Dialectical Behavioral Therapy. Founded in the late 1970's early 1980's by Dr. Marsha Linehan, DBT is one of, if not the only, forms of therapy found to help BPD. BPD is not a chemical diagnosis. One is not born with Borderline behaviors, and sometimes if someone with BPD sticks to their DBT and take meds as they should, you can lower the amount of criteria that fit and one day strike the OG Three Little Letters from their files. (I'm not sure how often this happens, but it is possible.)

So those are what Three Little Letters means literally, but what is TLL as a concept? This blog, and the book that'll follow it are a way to de-stigmatize Borderline Personality Disorder. They are a way for me to have a healthy creative outlet. The blog specifically is a way for me to track my progress, as we know it isn't linear.

I appreciate everyone who comes along for this journey, whether you know who I am or you stumbled upon this site from a random Google search. Thanks for being here :)

-Jo