The painful consequences of personality disorder diagnosis

‘Over 90% of people with this diagnosis who are hospitalised having abusive experiences in their past.’ Photograph: Anna Gowthorpe/PA

Scout Tzofiya Bolton painfully illustrates the neglect and brutality that can arise once mental health difficulties are understood as a “disordered personality” (Nobody could help me with my psychosis. Then I was sent to jail for holding up a shop with a toy gun, 18 January).

The emotionally unstable personality disorder diagnosis that harmed Scout can be easily understood as a label given to survivors of abuse, with more than 90% of people with this diagnosis who are hospitalised having abusive experiences in their past.