My name is Annalea and I have Borderline Personality Disorder. My story with this mental illness starts in my teenage years (though my family has said that I have struggled with something from an early age).  I was in high school and was having trouble with lots of anxiety in school. I had trouble keeping friends at school. Things got so bad with my anxiety and moods that I had to drop out of school and get my GED. I had trouble with extreme mood swings that would last for a couple hours. I went to a psychiatrists and they diagnosed me with Bipolar disorder when I was 15. I was put on medicine and started therapy. When the medicine I was on was not working, I would be put on more. When I was 18 I also got diagnosed with Borderline personality disorder. My grandmother always thought that the diagnosis of Bipolar did not fit me. 

Over the past 10 years I have struggled greatly with extreme moods, anxiety, and unstable relationships. I have been in and out of the hospital more times than I can count. I have probably been on every Antipsychotic out there. In December of 2019 I was in the hospital and I saw this new Doctor. He believed that the diagnosis of Bipolar disorder was wrong and that I suffered with Borderline personality disorder only. At the time I was on several Antipsychotics that were last resort medicines. None of them helped, they only made me worse and I had very bad side effects from them. The new Doctor took me off all of those medicines. I am doing so much better off of them. I still struggle greatly with borderline personality disorder. I am learning more about the disorder and actively participating in getting better.