Donna Rose: 'Borderline Personality Disorder is my superpower'

Donna Rose, the 35-year-old Saracens prop and Wales international, told BBC Sport that "Borderline Personality Disorder is my superpower" as she reflected on a 12-month period in which she represented Wales at last year’s World Cup and helped Saracens lift the Premiership Women’s Rugby title in June. The interview was published by BBC Sport on 21 August 2026.

Seen publicly as a hard-hitting player with a big personality, Rose said few people appreciate the daily struggles she manages off the pitch and described borderline personality disorder (BPD) as a condition that causes unstable moods, behaviours and relationships. "When people hear the words 'borderline personality disorder', they tend to think I've got 10 personalities," she said. "It affects me every day of my life," adding: "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. You wake up and you'll be in your head. You don't want to get out there, you're being told you're worthless and what's the point of getting out of bed."

Rose said she was diagnosed with BPD at 21, after growing up in the traveller community and struggling to fit in at school; she said concentrating at school was a challenge and that she was often seen as "naughty." Her mental health deteriorated to the point where she encountered police involvement and was placed with the mental health crisis team, where she received her 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. I didn't know what it was, I just thought it was a label until I really dived into it. 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."

To manage symptoms Rose takes a daily pill but described rugby as her primary form of treatment. "It gives me the buzz," she said. "There's a lot of adrenaline that's stored inside my head and it helps to bring it out." A latecomer to the sport, she made her international debut in 2021 and has since been capped 42 times, competing at two World Cups and four Six Nations, and has won the Premiership Women's Rugby title with Saracens twice.

Rose said the condition can also enhance her play when channelled correctly. "I say it's my superpower," she said. "I was never very good at catching and passing, but I'm good at getting the ball and smashing through people. It took me a while to learn to control that anger, but now I really use that as my superpower, because it makes me disciplined." She added: "If I've done a rugby session and I'm exhausted, then it kind of does die down a bit because I'm exhausted and the devil on my shoulder is exhausted too."

She described the changing room as one of her more difficult environments and outlined the support structures she used during last year's World Cup, including daily check-ins with team-mates, staff and the doctor. "They are all obviously well aware of what I go through daily, so we'd have daily check-ins," she said. "If I was going to lose my mind, I would just go out for a coffee and talk about it." Rose said fear of abandonment can be a trigger and cited support from Saracens team-mate Marlie Packer and Wales' Carys Phillips, describing how noise in the room can alternately make her feel alone or overwhelmed. "There could be loads of noise [in a changing room], and I would just feel alone, like no one likes me and I could basically be in an empty room," she said. "But on the flip side, sometimes that noise can get a little bit too much. That's when I just quickly get ready and take myself out. My teams are very good at letting me have my five minutes to myself, but they also know when I need an arm round me and they will give me that too."

Rose became a mother in 2025 and said her daughter Margot, born eighteen months ago, has become part of her support network. "On those days where I'm having a really bad day, I come home and walk through the door and just see her smile at me, it just changes me completely," she said. Now "an open book" about living with BPD, Rose said: "The reason I talk about my disorder so openly is because I want to help people around me. I know with a mental health disorder, you feel segregated, on your own and that you cannot be who you want to be. But I want to show everyone that even if you have a mental health disorder, that is not a full stop. You can push to thrive to be who you want to be."