The 6 Strengths Within: Positive Traits in Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD)
- Rachel Dao
- Apr 19
- 4 min read
🧠 1. You Are Deeply Human: Your Empathy Is Superhuman
You have the ability to experience the world in largely brighter colours than the average person. Their emotional experience is rich in the peaks and the troughs and all that is in between. This gives people with BPD the heightened ability to empathize, deeply understanding others' emotional pain due to their own experiences. This makes them highly attuned to others’ suffering, offering comfort through their presence. There is often a uniquely intense appreciation for beauty: People with BPD tend to have a heightened sensitivity to both pain and beauty, finding immense meaning in small gestures or moments, making them deeply connected to love and the world around them. They can often look at something small and feel a range of thoughts and feelings, tying this to emotional concepts or experiences from the past. Folks with BPD are often the emotional philosophers of the world. Their passion for life, interests, and activities can create an exciting and energetic atmosphere. Whether they’re talking about a hobby, an idea, or an event, their energy can draw people in. Interactions can feel real and raw living with BPD.
❤️ 2. You Have a Huge Capacity to Love
Folks with BPD have a huge generosity when giving love, their reservoir of love is massive and it is often distributed to just one or a few close people. When there is past family trauma, it can result in a higher capacity to love in the present, often because they do not have loving families around them to distribute love to - The reason why it hurts so much to lose someone is because there is so much love to give and no one to receive it anymore. They also love hard because they know how much it hurts to not be given love. Hence they try their best to give it out as best they can. Often, the connection that is felt loving someone with BPD is a uniquely euphoric experience because of this. Despite the challenges BPD poses in relationships, individuals with the condition are capable of deep, passionate love. Their intense emotional experiences can make intimacy difficult, but they are capable of being deeply caring and loyal once they feel safe. I always tell my patients, behind every Reddit post seeking advice about their BPD partner, is a person who is usually there because they desperately want to make things work with their partner. When they feel secure in relationships, people with BPD are often fiercely loyal and deeply dedicated. When they learn the skills to create secure attachments, they invest themselves wholeheartedly in their connections, which can create strong, meaningful bonds.
🎨 3. You Are a Creative Soul
Many with BPD channel their emotional pain into art, using creative outlets like music, writing, or visual arts to process their feelings and inspire others, turning their struggles into meaningful expression. Folks with BPD develop this skill exceptionally because there is often no easy way to express how deeply and complexly they feel about something, hence they find creative ways to deliver their emotions. This is deeply helpful as others who may feel big about something can resonate with this art and feel understood in a way that they never have before.
👁️ 4. You Are Emotionally Perceptive
Individuals with BPD are often highly perceptive, able to read facial expressions and detect subtle mood shifts more accurately than others. Their detection of emotional changes are accurate but the meaning they make of the shifted emotion is not always accurate, but when critically thinking about changes in others emotions, it can be one of the most valuable skills in personal and professional contexts.
🌈 5. You Are Playful, Curious and Fun
When folks with BPD have a healthy expression of their impulsivity, they can often make spontaneous decisions and actions. This unpredictability can make their company feel adventurous, as they may be open to trying new things or acting on a whim. Their ability to have deep emotional connection with others makes them great compassionate friends, which allows others to feel safe in engaging in childlike playfulness and curiosity.
💪 6. Your Sensitivity Makes You Incredibly Resilient
Experiencing the world with such sensitivity means that BPD folks feel immense pain. Managing these emotional extremes since young, despite the distress they cause, reveals the strength of their resilience. Having learned to survive difficult, often traumatic experiences, they often become more aware of their capacity to endure hardship and persevere, even when their emotions and circumstances seem overwhelming.
🤝 How Aviiara Health Psychology Can Help
If this resonates with you—or with someone you care about—we're here to help.
At Aviiara Health, our team of compassionate psychologists have a focus on BPD, trauma, and emotional regulation.
We see the whole person behind the diagnosis. We can work with you to create safety, stability, and healing—without losing the depth that makes you you.
Book a consultation today and let’s find a way forward, together.
