Does Mona from Pretty Little Liars have BPD? (+3 Causal factors)
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This detailed blogpost will be explaining if Mona has BPD by looking at the various signs and symptoms of this personality disorder that she displays in ‘Pretty Little Liars.’ Furthermore, we will also be checking out some of the other mental health issues she might have.
Does Mona from Pretty Little Liars have BPD?
Yes, Mona has BPD. In the series ‘Pretty Little Liars’, Mona Vanderwaal is said to have Borderline Personality Disorder, for which she is sent to a psychiatric institution, called Radley. Throughout her story arc, Mona depicts a number of signs of struggling with BPD.
In the series ‘Pretty Little Liars’, Mona is one of the most popular characters and a part of the ‘A’ group who rule Rosewood High School. She, along with other popular girls, torments other schoolmates through cyber-bullying by taking on an anonymous persona.
At the same time, a number of alternate theories have also been tossed out regarding Mona’s mental health status. A few signs of Borderline Personality Disorder that Mona depicts in ‘Pretty Little Liars’ have been shared as follows.
Mona changes her perceptions of others easily
One important sign of Borderline Personality Disorder that Mona Vanderwaal shows in the series ‘Pretty Little Liars’ is her change of perceptions. She often idealizes a persona and puts them on a platform, and almost immediately devalues them.
In the case of Mona, this can be seen in her attitude towards Hanna. Mona considers Hann her everything and her best friend. Mona gives a lot of importance to Hanna and actually shows a high fear of abandonment towards her.
However, this all changes when Hanna starts hanging out with other friends. Mona is clearly unable to digest this and actually openly starts hating her. For Mona, this can be seen as black and white thinking. She either loves Hanna or hates her, and there’s nothing in between.
She openly displays her anger and frustration
Borderline Personality Disorder is often characterized by high levels of anger and frustration. The anger is often expressed in a physical manner and as a result, the person may break things or even hurt others.
For Mona, these anger outbursts can be seen in her cyberbullying as a part of ‘A.’ She uses her cyber-bullying of others as an outlet to her anger, which is as equally destructive as physical violence.
Mona fakes her own death
Suicidal tendencies are also quite common in Borderline Personality Disorder, and are especially manifested when the person has a fear that their favorite person will abandon them soon. This sign is actually not so obvious in Mona.
However, in one instance, Mona actually fakes her own death so as to lead to the arrests of the other members of ‘A.’ This is a truly villainous attempt from Mona as she seeks escape from her own mistakes.
She shows destructive behaviors
Throughout the series of ‘Pretty Little Liars’, Mona shows a lot of destructive behaviors and high impulsivity. This is not only toward herself but even toward others. This is again seen in her cyber-bullying of others.
However, her destructive behaviors are not always shown in her cyber-bullying. Mona has also shown murderous tendencies. She even kills Hanna in a moment of high impulsivity. She has also been killed before, on her own terms.
She has a distorted self-image
Mona certainly struggles with her self-image and is constantly looking for her own identity and questioning herself all the time. She even puts on a number of different hats, playing different roles in her own little game.
According to her mood and her attitude, Mona also frequently changes her appearance by dyeing her hair in different colors changing her sense of style. According to many people who have struggled with Borderline Personality Disorder, this sign rings very true.
Mona Vanderwaal’s mental health issues
In the series ‘Pretty Little Liars’, Mona Vanderwaal depicts a number of psychological issues and is actually diagnosed before being sent to a psychiatric institution for treatment and therapy after being discovered as the main culprit behind the cyberbullying at Rosewood.
In the series, Mona is diagnosed with Borderline Personality Disorder and she definitely depicts a number of signs and symptoms as discussed in the previous section. This BPD in Mona is often blamed for her high levels of impulsivity and recklessness that she demonstrates.
Another diagnosis which has been tossed out in regards to Mona is Antisocial Personality Disorder. Mona definitely shows a number of antisocial tendencies and behaviors throughout her story arc in ‘Pretty Little Liars.’
For instance, she constantly breaks rules and deceives everyone with her stories. At the same time, she shows a lot of remorse and guilt for her actions, which lead many people to feel that this theory does not hold any water.
In the series, Mona Vanderwaal is also diagnosed with Dissociative Identity Disorder or Multiple Personality Disorder. This diagnosis leads to her being institutionalized for her actions at Radley. Her alter-personality is theorized to be the culprit for the cyber-bullying.
Cause of Mona Vanderwaal’s BPD
Mona Vanderwaal is diagnosed with Borderline Personality Disorder in the series. At the same time, she also seems to struggle with a number of mental health issues and has been arm-chair diagnosed with Antisocial Personality Disorder and even Dissociative Identity Disorder.
Mona struggles in her mental health, even after receiving the help that she needs at the psychiatric institution. Her mental health issues are not her fault and a number of causal and contributing factors have been highlighted by fans and critics. Some of these are listed below.
- Her absent father: Mona was raised by a single mother and did not have a father-figure when she was being brought up. Parental absence has often been touted as a leading cause for Borderline Personality Disorder, and even other personality disorders.
- Hanna’s abandonment of her: Mona and Hanna were best friends throughout middle school. In high school, when Hanna decides to become friends with Alison DiLaurentis, Mona finds this as abandonment and is not able to easily accept this.
Hanna definitely did nothing wrong. But her ignoring of Mona and leaning on Alison was never forgotten by Mona. This first traumatic incident was actually the main cause for Mona to pin down Alison as a target to take down.
- Alison’s bullying of Mona: Apart from stealing Hanna away from Mona, Alison was a major bully of those who were not so popular, like Mona herself. Alison continued to taunt Mona for her frizzy hair and her tacky clothes.
Childhood bullying has been found to be an important contributing factor and even a causal factor of a number of mental health issues. In Mona, along with her Borderline Personality Disorder, Alison bullying her leads to even more issues.
Alison going missing turned out to be very fortunate for Mona and she eventually remodeled herself in order to become queen bee of Rosewood. This goes to show the strong negative effects of the bullying that Mona went through, which eventually led her to become a nasty villain.
Conclusion
This detailed blogpost has explained if Mona has BPD by looking at the various signs and symptoms of this personality disorder that she displays in ‘Pretty Little Liars.’ Furthermore, we have also checked out some of the other mental health issues she might have.
If you like this blogpost, please leave your comments and questions in the space below.
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