NUTS began one day when a bpd list serve owner contacted 4 of us parents in the list for family members of people with bpd about emailing each other because we were all not getting what we needed from this list which was mainly significant others. The first members of NUTS were Gail, Mary, Bonnie, Ken and myself...we all got together April 8, 1996. Gail and I are still members "the really old old-timers." Bonnie (from Toronto) and I have become dear email and telephone friends and have visited in person a few times...her adopted daughter (Bonnie is now raising her two children) has been diagnosed with fetal alcohol syndrome which is similar to bpd in behavior but different in regards to help from therapy, meds, or routine (part of the brain is destroyed rather than just not functioning correctly). Mary and I email each other each year with updates (she had one of the more severe cases of BPD with her daughter) she and her daughter (now a mother) are building a limited relationship while accepting that their lifestyles are totally different and separate, Ken was a lurker but remained with NUTS for over a year. More and more parents emailed us to join in the conversation until we finally decided to become a group and give ourselves a name. So now you know how NUTS began many years ago...and since then thousands of parents have passed through...some leaving because they just didn't have the time, a few left because they no longer had their peanuts in their lives, and most leaving because things were improving and they found a direction through all the sharing in NUTS. I still find the fact that the internet can bring together all of us on a daily basis amazing!
To all of our NUTS members, I thank you, without your love and support, many of us would be alone with this bpd monster and because of all of you, we will always have a place to go when we need a shoulder, need some answers or just need to vent to someone who understands!
