Introduction: Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) is a severe psychiatric health problem with a reputation of being difficult to deal with and to treat. Significant Others (SOs) of patients with BPD show higher levels of psychological distress compared with the general population. Strengthening the coping strategies of SOs has been shown to play an important role in the recovery of the person with psychiatric health problems. Research around SOs of persons with BPD is, to our knowledge, scarce, especially qualitative research exploring their experiences.

Objective: We believe that if the personnel working in health care and psychiatric care are able to better understand SOs experiences and life situation, it could be an important step toward improved care.

Aim: The aim of this study was to describe SOs experiences of living close to a person with BPD and their experience of encounter with psychiatric care.

Methods: Data were collected by free-text questionnaires and group interviews and were analyzed by qualitative content analysis.

Results and conclusion: The results revealed four categories: a life tiptoeing; powerlessness, guilt, and lifelong grief; feeling left out and abandoned; and lost trust. The first two categories describe the experience of living close to a person with BPD, and the last two categories describe encounter with psychiatric care.

Disclosure of interest: The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.