Healing the Inner Critic in BPD & CPTSD (Turning Self-Hatred Into Self-Love with Shadow Work)

How we talk and think about ourselves can turn insecurity into joy, doubt into confidence, and shame into self-love. Every human (even those of us with BPD & complex trauma) has unlimited potential. The key to unlocking that potential is learning to love ourselves. BPD & CPTSD cause us to doubt our abilities and self-worth and struggle with a poor self-image for much of our lives. Sometimes to the outsider, we can seem quite successful, giving little indication of the almost constant negative discourse going on inside our own heads. Learning to love and appreciate ourselves is the key to BPD & CPTSD recovery. This episode contains everything you'll need to release yourself from the judgmental prison you've created inside your own mind.

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Below is a breakdown of the subjects covered in today's episode:

• How self-hatred manifests in people with borderline personality disorder (experiences shared from Reddit)

• What is the inner critic? (Discussing how destructive thoughts turn into maladaptive behavior)

• How our inner critical voice affects every aspect of our lives (self-esteem, confidence, work/school, personal relationships)

• Examples of critical inner narratives

• Where does our critical inner voice come from?

• The difference between our inner critic and our conscience

• The iceberg metaphor (diving deeper to discover what is truly underneath the negative self talk?)

• Why it feels like we have two separate parts of us (Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde)

• What happens when we believe everything our inner critic tells us

• Carl Jung - how understanding his work can help us understand the inner critic (what he calls the "shadow")

• Understanding Jungian concepts (personas, unexplored parts of our personalities, suppressed negative traits)

• "The Shadow Self" - parts of us that we push into our subconscious minds

• What is the shadow and how does it develop in childhood?

• The conscious vs. the subconscious mind and how we repress and suppress our emotions

• How our shadow can contribute to splitting episodes

• How can we become more aware of our shadow and spot when we're operating from it? (projection, triggers, patterns)

• Why is the shadow such a controversial subject?

• How to begin practicing shadow work (the basics)

• 4-step process to reprogramming our inner critic

Resources:

BPD Subreddit

Teach Your Inner Critic a New Story | Kari Romeo (TedTalk)

Understanding Our Inner Critic - Esther Perel & Dick Schwartz (YouTube)

Self-love, Borderline Personality Disorder & Mending the Divide Between Two (seemingly) Mutually Exclusive Entities

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