25 Quotes by Kiera Van Gelder

An inner ease spreads inside me. Such is the power of acceptance and understanding from other people, the power of validation.

But what if you simply don’t have a solid self to return to – if the way you are is seen as basically broken? And what if you can’t conceive of “normal” or “healthy” because pain and loneliness are all you remember?

Poisoned by what’s inside us and vulnerable to anything outside us.

For those of us with BPD, entering into a shared experience means passing through the ring of fire that leaves us feeling even more burned – and in this case branded with a label no one would ever choose to wear.

Well, it’s not like I don’t like people; I just find them disturbing and can’t manage their effects on me, positive or negative.

I may have no emotional skin and come undone at the smallest interpersonal upset, but I’d make a great bullfighter or firefighter – anything that gets my adrenaline going and focuses me on a physical target. The motorcycle is all of that and more. When I’m on the bike, it feels like a door opens in my chest and the world rushes in, pure, fresh, and sparkling with clarity. It forces me to approach fear with total awareness and to pull reason mind into the moment of intense reactions.

To live well is the greatest revenge.