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back from the borderline

back from the borderline

By: mollie adler
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Summary


I don’t want to talk to your personality; I want to talk to your soul. Imagine if your most painful and debilitating mental health symptoms and self-sabotaging behaviors aren’t evidence of 'disorder' or 'dysfunction', but adaptive strategies that once kept you safe. My goal is to help you shift from asking ‘What’s wrong with me?’ to ‘What happened to me?’


The word ‘borderline’ in this podcast has nothing to do with psychiatric labels. It has everything to do with coming back from the inner psychological brink we all experience.


Everyone has found themselves on the edge, in that liminal space where the old self falls apart and the new Self emerges. Here, we explore what it means to undergo true emotional alchemy: that ancient and primordial process of falling apart, confronting the underworld of our psyche, and falling back together into someone stronger, wiser, and more whole.


Many highly sensitive people who identify with the seemingly never-ending list of diagnostic mental health labels contained within ‘the bible of psychiatry’ (the DSM) share the same underlying sense of being irreparably broken, disconnected from their intuition, and paralyzed by life’s existential questions. I believe the resulting—and perfectly understandable—chronic feelings of emptiness and spiritual starvation are the TRUE causes of our current collective ‘mental health crisis.’


Together, we’ll dive into depth psychology, mythology, human consciousness, critical psychiatry, and the impact of trauma to help you begin the process of emotional alchemy. This exploration will help you get to the root cause of your suffering and free yourself from the toxic shame, limiting beliefs, and mental programming that have kept you locked in the chains of your past.


In an era where mental health and spirituality are too often commercialized, I’m not here as a guru with a quick fix to sell you. I don’t believe anyone is ever truly ‘healed’ or ‘cured.’ There is no return to some mythical state of pre-trauma purity, but rather a continuous spiral of unbecoming, unlearning, and transformation. As a fellow seeker, I will be there in your ear, walking alongside you on your path toward wholeness as a sort of parasocial big sister. That, I can promise.


By integrating the concepts we explore together, you’ll begin to see that anyone—even you—can come back from the borderline.


CRAVING MORE? Visit backfromtheborderline.com to dive into my universe, connect with me, access my Patreon, and discover more about my journey and work. Don’t forget to follow Back from the Borderline so new episodes on Tuesdays and Thursdays automatically drop into your podcast feed.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

mollie adler Hygiene & Healthy Living Personal Development Personal Success Psychology Psychology & Mental Health Spirituality
Episodes
  • The Intelligence of Madness, Part One: Who Gets Called Insane?

    The Intelligence of Madness, Part One: Who Gets Called Insane?
    May 12 2026

    Part One of a two-part series on madness, psychosis, and the thin line between breakdown and revelation.


    Sanity has always come with rules. Speak “correctly.” Show up to work and produce. If you hear a voice, see something other people don’t, or start asking questions that unsettle the people around you, there’s a shift, even if it’s subtle. Concern arrives, then usually a diagnosis. Then the extreme pressure to “return to normal” as quickly as possible.


    In this first installment, I begin with Friedrich Nietzsche’s mental breakdown in the streets of Turin and follow the history of madness through asylums, psychiatry, mysticism, and depth psychology. We look at depersonalization, hearing voices, spiritual emergency, and the long record of human beings crossing into states of consciousness that modern culture has little patience for.


    Much of what we call sanity is actually more like “social fluency.” Knowing when to smile (and when to stay quiet) and how to say “I’m fine” while inside, you’re completely falling apart. Older cultures sometimes treated these states as initiations, while the “modern” West has tught us to treat them as symptoms to suppress.


    This episode asks who gets to define reality, what forms of perception are welcomed in society, and what happens when unusual experiences are completely stripped of meaning and reduced to pathology/disorder/dysfunction.


    Featuring Friedrich Nietzsche, Carl Jung, Michel Foucault, Plato, and cross-cultural perspectives on psychosis, mental illness, and the relationship between madness and genius.


    🜏 CONTINUE THE WORK: If you recognize yourself in something from this episode, don’t leave it unresolved. If you want more depth and the full archive: Join the BFTB Patreon → https://patreon.com/backfromtheborderline


    You’ll get:

    ☆ Weekly bonus episodes

    ☆ Consciousness Stream

    ☆ Archetypal tarot + astrology forecasts

    ☆ Full ad-free archive access


    If you want to actually work through it: Use MOODS → https://app.moods.world/

    MOODS is a private place to take what’s coming up and see it clearly without performing it or involving anyone else. You can try both MOODS and Patreon free for 7 days to see if they’re right for you. If you join Patreon first: You’ll also unlock discounted access to MOODS. See you inside.

    Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
    Show More Show Less
    1 hr
  • Why Your Mind Feels Broken in the Age of Babel

    Why Your Mind Feels Broken in the Age of Babel
    May 5 2026

    Your mind wasn’t built for this much input.

    Every day you’re asked to absorb thousands of opinions, headlines, identities, emotional manipulations, and manufactured realities. You try to stay informed, but most days it just leaves you fragmented and weirdly numb. Then you wonder why you feel anxious as hell and entirely unable to hear yourself think.

    In this episode, I use the ancient story of the Tower of Babel to explain modern mental fragmentation, social media chaos, AI slop, conformity, branding culture, and the slow loss of inner life. Together, we’ll look at why the world feels so much harder to trust and what it takes to hear yourself again without letting the crowd think for you.

    If modern life is making your brain feel broken, Babel may explain why.

    INQUIRY FOR MOODS (OR YOUR JOURNAL):

    Prompt 1: Visualize yourself standing in an open field. In front of you is a pile of factory-made bricks. Beside it is a pile of rough, natural stones. Which one are you reaching for to build your current life? Pick up one stone. Look at it closely and ask: What part of my true self are you waiting to hold?

    Prompt 2: Imagine yourself standing at the top of your Magdala tower, surrounded by clashing languages and digital screens. Slowly turn the volume down until you hear one steady note from your own heart. Ask: What step is this note asking me to take next?

    Prompt 3: Imagine sitting across from your inner Christ, inner Sophia, inner divine feminine, or whatever image of the sacred feels true to you. No words. Just presence. Ask: Without language, how would I show the spark of light I’ve been carrying? And what do I feel from them in return?


    CONTINUE THE WORK: If you recognize yourself in something from this episode, don’t leave it unresolved. If you want more depth and the full archive: Join the BFTB Patreon → https://patreon.com/backfromtheborderline


    You’ll get:

    ☆ Weekly bonus episodes

    ☆ Archetypal tarot + astrology forecasts

    ☆ Full ad-free archive access


    If you want to actually work through it: Use MOODS → https://app.moods.world/


    MOODS is a private place to take what’s coming up and see it clearly without performing it or involving anyone else. You can try both MOODS and Patreon free for 7 days to see if they’re right for you. If you join Patreon first: You’ll also unlock discounted access to MOODS. See you inside.

    Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
    Show More Show Less
    46 mins
  • Stop Healing Your Inner Child and Shed Your Dead Trauma Skin

    Stop Healing Your Inner Child and Shed Your Dead Trauma Skin
    Apr 28 2026

    Many of us are realizing that what we’ve been calling “healing” might be the very thing keeping us from real growth and transformation.


    This episode is a case for letting your inner child die so that you can finally live. We’ll be dismantling some of the concepts around “inner child healing” pushed by modern pop psychology and look at the technical reality of the human spirit. Your history is a like a dead snakeskin, and the only way to the higher branches of the tree of life is to leave the empty husks behind.


    This is the end of the search for external authority. You are the location of the light. Read the maps left behind for you by the ancients , inhabit your true identity, and stop looking back at the shells you’ve already outgrown.


    Are you not holy, too? 🕊️


    WHAT WE EXPLORE:


    Holiness as Wholeness: Reclaiming the etymological root of the word "holy" (whole/hale/health) and exposing the "purity" narrative of modern religion as an institutional trap meant to keep you in spiritual debt.

    The Blackmail Economy: Why having absolutely nothing to hide makes you harder to control and sell to.

    The Chrysalis Theory of Healing: Why your "inner child" is an empty vessel on a lower branch of your tree of life, instead of a permanent resident in your psyche that you need to exert your precious energy negotiating with.

    Intergenerational Shedding: Breaking the cycles of intergenerational trauma by refusing to inhabit the un-shed skins of your own ancestors.


    Inquiry for MOODS (or your journal):


    I recommend taking these prompts to the Oriel or Noesis archetypes inside MOODS.


    1. The Root Inquiry: Identify one automatic reaction or "social mask" I use daily. How is this "leaf" currently blocking me from seeing my own light?
    2. The Transparency Check: Is there a part of my history I am still hiding in the basement out of fear? What would change in my life if I brought this into the light and made it impossible to use as blackmail against me?
    3. The Husk Meditation: Look at my current self-definitions, including my psychiatric labels or trauma stories. Are these the snake, or are they the skin? What happens if I stop trying to "heal" the skin and start inhabiting the life force that has already outgrown it.


    Resources Mentioned

    Beyond Belief: The Secret Gospel of Thomas by Elaine Pagels

    The Gospel of the Beloved Companion: The Complete Gospel of Mary Magdalene by Jehanne de Quillan


    🜏 CONTINUE THE WORK: If you recognize yourself in something from this episode, don’t leave it unresolved. If you want more depth and the full archive: Join the BFTB Patreon → https://patreon.com/backfromtheborderline


    You’ll get:


    ☆ Weekly bonus episodes

    ☆ Archetypal tarot + astrology forecasts

    ☆ Full ad-free archive access


    If you want to actually work through it: Use MOODS → https://app.moods.world/


    MOODS is a private place to take what’s coming up and see it clearly without performing it or involving anyone else. You can try both MOODS and Patreon free for 7 days to see if they’re right for you. If you join Patreon first: You’ll also unlock discounted access to MOODS. See you inside.

    Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
    Show More Show Less
    1 hr and 12 mins
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I waited weeks before deciding to write a review, and even then I decided to be kind and give some constructive feedback on the instagram page instead of hurting the brand. It didn’t work. The problem is it became abundantly clear she just wants to talk, just her. She brings on a multitude of experts in the field yet doesn’t give them the time to say anything and cuts them of most of the time. It’s abundantly clear as time goes by that this is a way to get free therapy for her and if you want to hear a snippet of advise from an expert you will have to compromise and listen to the exact same repeated story of her life beforehand. As a fellow BPD’er I thought long and hard about how to broach the subject as I know how everything can feel like an attack when challenged. My feedback was fair, not attacking in any way and really constructive as it was truly for the benefit of potentially bettering the podcast for the future. I know there are more of us with the view having discussed it with my partner and a friend I had referred it on to so I really just wanted to keep listening. I was met with extreme defensive measures, being gaslit by giving me figures to try to disprove my claims and even going as far as to give anecdotes on the extremely positive things people had said in response to the episodes to try and invalidate or minimalize my view. This is nothing less than narcissistic behaviour. I kept my cool and remained nice, however the conversation was deleted as was I from her page. This is not the way to treat people, fans no less. People want to see you succeed yet your attacks keep them from trying to help. This will likely come as no surprise to the people around you, you just need to start seeing it yourself. You’re clearly bright, but can’t quite seem to put your awareness into actions. And you’re right, there are more podcasts out there, thanks for the tip.

No longer a fan

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I've listened to this for years and have had some really useful information imparted on me. i like the host and find it has validated a lot of experiences ive gone through.

great podcast on the topic of a complex issue

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