It's known that every colour possesses certain connotations, according to 'Empowered by Color' an online psychology article, these are the connotations for each colour.
RED - Positive: Energy, ambition and passion.
Negative: Anger, frustration and sexual passion.
ORANGE - Positive: Social communication and optimism.
Negative: Pessimism and superficiality.
YELLOW - Positive: Intelligent, cheerful and joy.
Negative: Cowardice, impatience and criticism.
GREEN - Positive: Balance and growth.
Negative: Envy and possessiveness.
BLUE - Positive: Positivity and peace.
Negative: Sadness and loneliness.
PURPLE - Positive: Creativity and imagination.
Negative: Immaturity and indecisiveness.
PINK - Positive: Unconditional love and loyalty.
Negative: Dense and girly.
BROWN - Positive: Down-to-earth and realistic.
Negative: Protective and indecisiveness.
GREY - Positive: Compromise (nor black or white).
Negative: Unemotional and detached.
BLACK - Positive: Mysterious and secretive
Negative: Depressed and overwhelmed.
After speaking to my family members about which colours they associate their mental conditions with, it's opened my eyes to the symbolism of each colour and how they can represent different emotions. Before speaking to my mum I always thought of the colour blue as a peaceful and calm shade, however this is the colour she most identifies her depression with, along with black. She represents blue as a sad colours, as having 'the blues' corresponding it with sadness. Some levels of her depression are strongly represented by the colour black, feeling as if she's in a black hole of darkness, not wanting to wake up or start the day, feeling so low that nothing has a point or meaning.
With BPD, I would have associated multiple colours for the borderline multiple personalities this condition possesses. However, after speaking to a family member, he associated the colour grey with BPD more than any other colour. This is because he sees things in two different forms that are the complete opposite of each other, like black and white and his real personality sits in the middle as grey. The way he handles situations is either with 100% and full devotion or no motivation or enthusiasm whatsoever.
After looking at the general representation of colours and how this compares to how people with mental illnesses describe them has changed my outlook on stereotypical colour meanings. It's allowed me to understand their conditions more and hopefully allowed them to be able to describe and understand it more in their heads.