This week’s guest has lived most of her life with Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD), a serious mental disorder marked by a pattern of on-going instability in mood, behaviour, self-image and functioning. BPD is also associated with severe functional impairment and high rates of suicide. Nikki Hayes should have been diagnosed aged fifteen the first time she came in contact with the mental health services with anorexia, or aged nineteen, after an attempted suicide; or aged twenty-eight following a breakdown after her father’s death.

On this week’s podcast she speaks to Sasha and Venetia about her experience of balancing a mental illness in the midst of a difficult bereavement, and how she still is overcoming the death of her father - her closest friend.  Sasha and Venetia also look at some of the strange intricacies surrounding death in Ireland on a cultural level, particularly in relation to masking your grief and why that can often be seen as a sign of strength. They ask the question; “What if I was myself, and told you that I was not okay ?”

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Music by: Nctrnm

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