Donna Rose says borderline personality disorder affects her every day, even after helping Saracens lift the Premiership Women's Rugby title in June. The Wales tighthead prop calls rugby her true “medicine,” a sharper line than any standard sports-profile gloss.
Donna Rose and BPD
Rose said she was diagnosed with borderline personality disorder when she was 21 years old. She described it as a mental health condition that causes unstable moods, behaviours and relationships, and said, “It affects me every day of my life.”
“When people hear the words 'borderline personality disorder', they tend to think I've got 10 personalities,” Rose said to Sport. Her own account goes somewhere more precise: “If I feel something, I feel it twice as much as someone else. Something that is so little to someone could be so big to me.”
June and the daily pill
Rose said she takes a daily pill to help control her symptoms. She also said rugby gives her “the buzz,” adding, “There's a lot of adrenaline that's stored inside my head and it helps to bring it out.” That is the practical link she draws between elite sport and symptom management: not escape, but a way of discharging the pressure she says builds in her head.
In June, she was part of the Saracens side that lifted the Premiership Women's Rugby title. Last year, she represented Wales at her second World Cup, which puts her on a public stage that rarely leaves room for private strain.
Wales, pressure and control
Rose said the harder part came before the diagnosis. “I was going through a really draining time in my life where I was just sad, uncomfortable with me, my surroundings,” she said. “I got put into the mental health crisis team, where I was then diagnosed with borderline personality disorder.”
She added, “I didn't know what it was, I just thought it was a label until I really dived into it.” Then she did the work herself: “I knew I had to change my life around, so I did some research on the internet and I started to get an insight into what borderline personality disorder was. I started to learn that triggers were something that sets my brain off to take myself back to a place where I didn't want to be.”
That is why Rose’s story lands beyond a feel-good athlete profile. She is successful in rugby, but she also says she wakes up feeling worthless and has to manage the condition daily. For readers dealing with similar symptoms, the practical next step is the same one Rose points toward: look for support through Action Line and treat the condition as something to manage, not hide.
