Same here, I used to meet 9 of the criteria but managed to get rid of the SH and drug abuse with hard work and therapy.
No, because its curable and other MI are not curable and require life-long maintenance on psychotropic drugs. Plus there are positive attributes borderlines have that are not found in "sane" people. Personally I think BPD is not as bad as the other mental health conditions I suffer/suffered from.
I think so, one thing I've been learning about lately is duality, which is a hard concept for me to integrate into my world. But I've made the first steps in acknowledging that it exists.