Your emotional volume knob seems to be permanently stuck at 11. Relationships feel like all or nothing and abandonment hits like a physical injury. This is for the ones who feel everything like it is turned up to eleven and were somehow blamed for having a volume knob. The hat does not fix abandonment trauma, but it does hold your head through another round of emotional whiplash. It is a soft, stitched refusal to apologize for needing more than crumbs.

This diagnosis describes a long term pattern of intense unstable relationships, rapid shifts in mood, impulsive behavior and chronic fears of abandonment. Symptoms usually begin in adolescence or early adulthood and affect many areas of life. BPD is characterized by instability in relationships, self image and affect along with impulsivity. The description often omits the history of trauma, invalidation and sensitivity that underlies those patterns. Wearing the code this way is a subtle reminder that "too much" emotion is usually rooted in too much hurt.