Ten Things I Hate About Me

Hi. I hope you're ok.
My name's Joe, and I have one job, every day: don't kill myself.
I live with a complex mental illness called Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD).
15% of people with BPD die by suicide, and 40% try.
I'm already in the 40%. My job is to keep out of the 15%.
In this book I want to try and explain what life is like when you have a brain that is essentially trying to murder you every day. It's a collection of the funny, sad and shocking stuff that has happened to me along the way.
Writing this book has been the hardest thing I've ever done. It had to be dragged into the world, with my condition telling me that every single word, sentence and chapter was terrible and would make strangers walk up to me in the street and punch me in the face.
But I had run out of options. I'd done everything I 'd been told to do and I still thought about killing myself every day. So I wrote this book to save my life.
But if there is even the smallest chance that me telling you how I live with me helps you live with you; if it opens up a space for someone, somewhere to be more honest about their mental illness, it will have been worth it.
Please don't kill yourself.
Love Joe xx