We all deal with mood swings from time to time. But living life from one extreme to another while struggling with mental illness is COMPLETLY different. This is my experience with living in the extremes. 
My Experience
TW: Mentions of suicide
Imagine waking up in the morning and feeling okay, then 5 minutes later for no specific reason having a panic attack and wanting to end your life, and after that without even 10 minutes passing you feel on top of the world, everything is completely euphoric and you feel unstoppable. Then about an hour after that, you end up feeling numb and nothing seems to matter. Welcome to my life this very morning.
Life with consistent, extreme mood swings is very exhausting. Some days I scare myself, I try to control or understand my sudden shifts in mood and I know how irrational and unlogical I’m being but at the moment I have no self-control. After the harder days, I often become so mentally and physically tired from all the mood swings that I literally stay in bed for days.
There are times when I fear that the next mood swing will catch me when I least expect it. Honestly, I do live with the constant fear that I will spiral out of control. But with time and help, I’ve learned ways to cope and lessen the intensity of my symptoms.
The “high high low low” effect doesn’t only affect me when it comes to changes in mood. Almost everything in my life is extreme. Whether it comes to my eating habits, my relationships, or my ability to either hyper-fixate on something or not focus at all, I am always going from one extreme to the other.
{Related: https://bewellbyelle.com/eating-disorder-signs/}
BPD Mood Swings
Now, this is not to say that every day the mood swings are so extreme or that every person who struggles with BPD has the same experience. The number of misconceptions and incorrect information out there regarding BPD is truly unreal.
BPD can form due to different factors such as trauma, genetics, or a combination.
Sometimes mood swings with bpd last a day or even a few, other times shifts in mood can happen in seconds,minutes or hours. At times you may go days without any mood swings at all. It really depends.
Dealing with shifts in mood due to borderline personality disorder is not the same as experiencing mood swings due to PMS, or other internal and external factors. Of course, these things can lead to intense, rapid mood swings but living life consistently going from one edge to the other is just is not the same.
We can live so called ”normal lives”, our normal just may be a bit different than yours. Symptoms can be minimized and bpd can go into remission with DBT, medication, and self-work.
The Good Parts
Not to say that the good days don’t exist. We not only have more extreme mood changes our emotional spectrum is also completely different. We feel emotions much more intensely than the “average” person. This is both for the better and for the worst.
When we are sad and angry we often spiral into a very intense emotional outburst.
But we can also love harder than most other people ever will. We are truly on top of the world when happy and are usually very creative and passionate individuals.
Furthermore, our broad emotional spectrum alongside the ability to fit into various social environments can often make us very outgoing and emotionally intelligent.
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