How borderline personality disorder makes it harder to hold down a job

All In The Mind

ABC

Life Sciences, Health & Fitness, Science

4.4 • 785 Ratings

🗓️ 25 October 2025

⏱️ 30 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Extreme emotional turmoil, fears of abandonment, huge amounts of stigma… These factors can make navigating a career when you have borderline personality disorder really tricky. But Rosie and Enya are making it happen.

Today, how to navigate your working life when you have BPD.

We hear from Enya, a listener who works on fishing boats while receiving treatment for her BPD, and Rosie, a teacher and author who decided to disclose her diagnosis with her workplace. How has borderline personality disorder impacted their careers? And what advice does an occupational therapist have for people with BPD entering the workforce?

This episode includes mention of self-harm and suicide. Please take care while listening.

Guests:

Enya

Rosie CappucinoAuthor, Talking about BPD

Dr Suzanne DawsonOccupational TherapistSenior Research Fellow, Caring Futures InstituteFlinders University

Credits:

Presenter/producer: Sana Qadar
Senior producer: James Bullen
Producer: Rose Kerr
Sound engineer: Bethany Stewart

Thanks to freesound.org users digifishmusic and Scott_Snailham.

You can catch up on more episodes of the All in the Mind podcast with journalist and presenter Sana Qadar, exploring the psychology of topics like stress, memory, communication and relationships on the ABC Listen app (Australia) or wherever you get your podcasts.

Support services:

Lifeline 13 11 14

Beyond Blue

Australian BPD Foundation

Transcript

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0:00.0	ABC Listen, Podcasts, Radio, News, Music and more.
0:08.5	Robin Williams here. I've been bringing you the science show for 50 years, somehow.
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0:20.9	Between us, we love all of science, old and new.
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0:27.1	We've got science covered.
0:28.7	To hear us, search for the science show.
0:31.3	Where you'll find both lab notes and science show.
0:33.9	Go check it out.
0:36.0	A heads up, this episode mentions self-harm and suicide. Take care
0:41.5	while listening. I grew up on a sailing catamaran from about the age of four with my parents
0:51.4	and my brother. And I grew up in the,itt Sundays mainly and up in the Torres Strait.
0:57.0	So I was homeschooled for the majority of primary school.
1:00.6	And then we sort of stopped sailing and came into Cairns and went to high school there.
1:05.2	But yeah, right through primary school, it was pretty special.
1:10.1	Before Enya's emotional world was thrown into chaos,
1:14.4	her childhood was unusual and idyllic. Lots of swimming, lots of diving, lots of times on the beach.
1:23.0	Yeah, I come from a loving family. So with my mom being a nurse and my dad being an electrician,
1:29.1	they pick up work as we sailed up and down the coast and they might work for a few months.
1:34.3	And then we go sailing for a few months. Yeah, it sounds magical. What were you like as a kid?
1:39.5	Well, I think it's hard to know because you are in such a small and confined environment.
1:45.8	But I think as I reached my teenage years, I became a little bit difficult.
	...

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