Misdiagnosis of BPD: The stigmatization on mental illness and its effects on treatment on its patients in the metropolitan Puerto Rico (original) (raw)

It was the year 2009, where all the anguish I had kept inside was coming out and it was directed at myself. Tired of the emotional pain I asked for helped and I was diagnosed as depressed, given a pill and was sent on my merry way. But the pill just made me feel worse and the therapy was doing nothing to me so I stopped taking the meds and finished the assigned therapy sessions. As years went by my emotional storm did not diminish, instead it became stronger and I had no way to controlled it, it came to the point where I thought my life would be this miserable forever. I went to other psychologist, but it ended the same with a label of Depression and a failed therapy. It was not until the end of 2014 where I got an answer as to why the treatment for depression wasn't helping me. I did not have depression I had Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD). A disorder that causes unstable moods, behavior, and relationships, people who suffer from BPD are known to have problems regulating emotions and thoughts as well as display impulsive and reckless behavior (National Institute of Mental Health [NIMH], nd). It is because of my experience during the years after a misdiagnosis that I strive to find out more about the misdiagnosis of BPD and answer the question: How does a misdiagnosis of BPD affect myself as a mental health patient in Puerto Rico? I write this auto-ethnography with the motive to let the readers know that mental health is a serious illness and that according to a study Puerto Ricans are an especially vulnerable group, with an alarming prevalence of mental illness estimated in a 36%, the highest among the Latino communities (Alegria, et al. 2007). At the same time I want to help change the image people have of mental illness given that the media shows this illness as something that is trending and they present the actions one takes as the disorder and not an effect of the illness. And lastly the media uses triggering words and images to cause sensation and not to inform. These can me seen in a publication by the newspaper El Vocero (Orozco Velázquez, 2016). Throughout this writing I will be using a psychological framework modified to an anthropological use. This writing will be restricted to Puerto Rico in specific the metropolitan area, given that here is where all my sources live and work. At the same time, the writing will use me as its focus given that I am using the writing style of an autoethnography. Methodology and Theoretical Framework: This work took place in my house as well as my psychologist's office for around three months. During this time I had many chats with my collaborator Domingo, he gave me a perspective as a doctor and as someone that lives and associate with people that have