Ability to handle stress?

Those of you with BPD, can you handle even a moderate amount of stress? I feel like I have a very low tolerance for stress. I end up either getting angry, panicked, scatter brained, or sometimes just want to rock in my chair because I feel overwhelmed by the flurry of thoughts rushing through my brain.

I'm extremely bad under stress. I had a phase last year where I was extremely stressed even by non-PD standards and it was not fun at all. I just freak out at the smallest things like not finding my keys for a minute...

Nah, I just turn into this giant stress ball at the slightest sign of anything stressful

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Yes, I have difficulty with this too. I can take certain kinds of stress much better than other people (emergencies, logistical issues) and I handle stress well when others are depending on me.

But... small stressors like being late or having someone angry with me? I go right into suicidal ideation and sometimes it sets me back for a day or more.

It takes a lot of stress at work to break me and then I just need to remove myself from the situation and meditate for five minutes otherwise I become a sobbing mess in the bathroom and feel trapped in there terrified of the world.

Outside of work I seem to be made of lesser stuff. I don't know, if you could chart out my ability to handle x amount of stress it'd be almost like a wave I think. Little amounts of stress can freak me out, moderate levels I can deal with, and then higher levels of stress is random. Sometimes I flourish under all the pressure and then other times I just break.

I'm generally just all over the place. I never know when something will set me off. It's quite annoying actually xD

bpdation wrote:Yes, I have difficulty with this too. I can take certain kinds of stress much better than other people (emergencies, logistical issues) and I handle stress well when others are depending on me.

But... small stressors like being late or having someone angry with me? I go right into suicidal ideation and sometimes it sets me back for a day or more.

hey, that's funny - I'm the same. I've always thought its some sort of PTSD mechanism where when something is really amiss I just go into "pure functioning" mode, whereas small stress doesn't warrant that...

i'm the same way, I can mostly stay cool in a crisis or under large stressors, but small stress things (especially when it's lots of them at once) sends me off the deep end.