Extract from article on Malignant fantasy and its outcomes; Identity disturbance

[Hazy111]

Thought this was very thought provoking and some might be interested. Those who suffer from addiction. This part primarily about  "substance abuse" and  Identity disturbance that Cluster B can suffer from.

Taken from Clin Psychiatry Neurosci Vol 5 No 1 January 2022

  IDENTITY DISTURBANCE
Cluster B patients suffer from identity disturbance. They are lifelong
disappearing acts, pivoted on an empty schizoid core.
The abuse of substances helps these patients to suspend their existence,
to NOT be themselves for a few hours, especially around other people,
in social and sexual contexts [7]. Because Cluster B patients are
essentially nothing but deadened voids, they feel alive and existent only
when they are NOT themselves, when they are inebriated, intoxicated,
or drugged, when they act out or switch into certain self-states (like the
Borderline's secondary psychopath or the narcissist's grandiose False
Self) [8].
But NOT being oneself becomes a habit and many of them forget how
to BE themselves: being themselves feels so alien, sad, dull, even
vaguely menacing that they avoid it assiduously and for as long as they
can. Gradually, incrementally, this overwhelming need to NOT be
oneself by abusing substances impacts all fields of life: job, career,
relationships, and family included. Another problem is that when
these patients are NOT themselves - when they are drunk, for example
- predators of all types, sexual and emotional, take advantage of them,
gain access to their bodies, minds, and material possessions, use them
contemptuously and then discard the patients [9-10]. These repeated
humiliations, rejections, and exploitation exacerbate the underlying
conditions, induce anxiety and depression, and push the patient
inexorably to harm herself and to escalate even further her attempts to
vanish, further down the road to self-annihilation

[Cat of the Canals]

You know, I often skip right over the substance abuse part of BPD for my mother, despite the fact that she and my dad are habitual daily marijuana users. EnDad embraces it more as part of his identity, so I tend to think "she does it because he does it." But the reality is that she is The Queen and if she didn't approve, she would have put a stop to it years ago. I think she's sneakier about it because of her obsession with appearances. She trots it out around her "bad girl" friends (a phrase she once used in front of me, and I almost died of embarrassment) and hides it when she's around her more hoity-toity friends.

[Hazy111]

When you realise how common "substance abuse" is , then you know how common PD is.

Then there are the PDs that dont abuse.  I know both.  Just being abusive in their dealings with others seems suffice for their supply needs

Also how many entertainers are there,  that " they feel alive and existent only when they are NOT themselves" by playing a part a role.