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An article “clarifying” the latest Courtney Love custody decision…
Courtney Love in wake of losing custody of Frances Bean: ‘terrible influences, pure evil’
By Vicki Hyman/The Star-Ledger
December 15, 2009, 10:29AM
 Courtney and Frances Bean Courtney Love has left a string of only occasionally coherent messages on her Facebook page in the wake of a Los Angeles court decision to give temporary custody of Frances Bean Cobain to the girl’s paternal grandmother: “cruelty to children and people too young to understand that under that rock isnt gold its only,.,,,,, utah on steroids” and “terrible influences, pure evil. and a poor baby caught inside a trap”.
That clears things up.
Love’s lawyer tells People that Frances Bean, Love’s daughter with dead rock icon Kurt Cobain, wanted to live with her grandmother, and the judge’s decision should not be taken as confirmation that Love has had a drug relapse.
“Courtney’s been clean for years and is perfectly fine,” Keith A. Fink says. “Frances is 17 and a strong-willed child, and this is a decision she made on her own. No matter what, Courtney loves her daughter more than anything in the world.”
Frances Bean has reportedly always been close with her grandmother, who had custody during a particularly messy period (and that’s saying something) of Love’s life in 2003 and 2004.
 Megan Fox and BPD A little while ago, I wrote a piece on Megan Fox and her statements in an interview that she was considering the possibility that she had a “borderline” personality. I got several reactions that she probably didn’t know what she was talking about or that she was merely emulating/reflecting her “heroine” – Marilyn Monroe. (Fox has a tattoo of Marilyn Monroe on the right forearm).
I read the interview with Fox in “Rolling Stone” this month and found that, if she was being honest in the interview, there is a distinct possibility that she does have BPD. Here are some of the salient points…
In “When Hope is Not Enough,” I point to three features of BPD that I think are common to all people with the disorder. They are: emotional dysregulation, shame and impulsivity. So, let’s start there:
Emotional Dysregulation
Fox: “…But it doesn’t mean I don’t struggle. I am very vulnerable. But I can be aggressive, hurtful, domineering and selfish, too. I’m emotionally unpredictable and all over the place. I’m a control freak. My temper is ridiculously bad. I’ve destroyed my house.”
As a child she had, “panic attacks that manifested themselves as violent, rageful temper tantrums. Like I didn’t know how to control myself or what to do.”
 When Hope is Not EnoughGet the Non-BP book that has helped hundreds! Shame
Fox: “I’m really insecure about everything. Like what those reporters said about the movie, all I could think was, ‘They’re mocking me… I have a sick feeling of being mocked all the time. I have a lot of self-loathing.”
Impulsivity
Fox: “I go batshit. I’ve had to say to Brian (her boyfriend), ‘You have to go and stop talking to me, because I’m going to kill you. I’m going to stab you with something. Please leave.’ I’d never own a gun for that reason. I wouldn’t shoot to kill. But I’d shoot him in the leg, for sure.”
More evidence…
As a child, she started seeing a therapist because of her real “emotional problems,” but it didn’t seem to help.
She is sensitive about the environment. She can’t sleep with someone touching her. She requires a “cocoon” of pillows to make her feel safe. She can’t sleep in the quiet and dark. She doesn’t like to look in the mirror. She admits to drawing blood during sex, but doesn’t elaborate. She admits to self-injury, but doesn’t elaborate. She hints at an eating disorder, but doesn’t elaborate. She is a “bi-sexual.”
And more. If half of the things in the interview are honest and true, I think Megan Fox may have leaped over my other “celebs with possible BPD (but not for sure)” list.
 Megan Fox has BPD? Sure, she’s the hottest thing right now… Yet Megan Fox admits in a recent interview that there’s something wrong with her mentally…
‘I could end up like that because I constantly struggle with the idea that I think I’m a borderline personality – or that I have bouts of mild schizophrenia. I definitely have some kind of mental problem and I haven’t pinpointed what it is,” she aired to the mag.
Could she be the first celebrity to “come out of the closet” and admitting to having BPD? It would be nice for the BPD community if she did. Most of the celebs say they have “bipolar disorder” (or depression) if they have mental problems. I can’t think of a single one that has said they have borderline personality disorder.
It’s been a while since I wrote a post about a celebrity with possible BPD. To see past posts about celebrities with BPD (possible but not for sure) click here. I saw a picture a few days ago of Courtney Love. Geez, someone give the girl a pound cake and make sure she eats it. While Courtney herself says it’s the financial stress, it sure looks a lot like an eating disorder. Here is an article about it…
Yikes! Skinny Courtney Love looks anorexic; weight loss sparks concern over frail framed star
DAILY NEWS STAFF
Updated Wednesday, June 24th 2009, 1:22 PM
What happened to Courtney Love?
The former Hole singer, visiting a midtown NYC bank Monday, shocked onlookers with a scary-skinny frame that suggests the star’s yo-yo dieting may be out of hand once again.
Love, clad in tight grey pants and a sleeveless tunic, was a shadow of the curvaceous star who once walked the red carpet for movies like “The People vs. Larry Flynt.”
She began dieting in 2006 to lose the weight she put on after kicking her drug addiction, losing 52 pounds on a regimen of protein shakes, fish and vegetables, according to London’s Daily Mail.
Love joked onstage about an “eating disorder” during a 2007 performance — but later insisted she was only kidding.
The 44-year-old widow of Nirvana singer Kurt Cobain is currently being sued by American Express over alleged unpaid credit.
OK, so Courtney rings in on the following BPDish symptoms:  Courtney Love's a Skeleton
- Eating Disorder
- Self-Injury
- Substance Abuse
- Conflicted Relationships
- Inappropriate Anger
- Paranoia
- Shame
I haven’t written anything about either Nadya Suleman or Kate Gosselin in my blog, because I really don’t know that much about either of them. However, recently I have been watching each of them a bit and trying to figure out what the heck is up with them. Each has a multitude of children, conceived by in-vitro. Each seems to desire public approval/affection. I am not suggesting either of them has Borderline personality Disorder (BPD), because I don’t know enough about either to suggest that that condition (of which I write about in this blog) is even suspected in either. I have seen others suggest a variety of conditions for each of them including BPD (and NPD), but I just don’t know.
The reason I am posting this message though is because both of them seem to have a craving for affection, attachment and love. It appears to me that each had all these children such that they could be unconditionally loved by as many people as possible. I wonder what happened in their childhood (or if anything happened) that would drive this strong desire to have as many children as they have had.
OK readers, now is the time to revisit Lindsay (I think I was spelling her first name wrong for a while there) Lohan and possible BPD. She has all of the classic signs of the disorder. I was struck by this quote:
“Sam and Lindsay are speaking,” the source tells PEOPLE. “But Sam has begged Lindsay to get help.”
“Lindsay, despite appearances, is insecure and has relied on Samantha and their relationship to build her up,” explains the pal. “Lindsay barely sleeps, which explains a lot of her behavior. She’s exhausted. She can’t even sit down for a minute without pacing around the room. It’s really sad.”
Sam is begging Lindsay to get help? For what? Well, perhaps we know. Looking at Lindsay’s case, I can’t help but see Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD). She is erractic, emotional and sexually confused. She has all the classic signs of an untreated person with BPD. I hope she gets help – and I hope that, if she is diagnosed with BPD, she would come out publically and say so – to reduce the stigma of the disorder.
 Lindsay Lohan and BPD?
Alrighty then! I did an analysis of the keyword searches that reached the ATSTP blog. Unfortunately, the readers are searching on celebrity-related BPD searches more and more. People trying to figure out which celebrity has BPD (or self-harms) represented a whopping 68% of my total searches in the past 30 days of those search strings that occurred 5 times or more. It is too cumbersome for me to do analysis of more than those (there were 3800+ of those and 5800+ of all search strings). Of the celebrity-related searches, I created a little graph (below). As you can see, Angelina Jolie wins the “borderline bonanza” with 18%+ of the searches, followed by Britney Spears and Kurt Cobain. Others* include Pete Doherty, Hitler, Courtney Love and Heather Mills. The runners-up were Amy Winehouse and Princess Diana. General means there was no name mentioned, just “celebrity BPD” or something like that.
 Celebrity Searches on ATSTP |
When Hope is Not EnoughGet the Non-BP book that has helped hundreds!
Duh! Anyway, here is an article from Wired about celebrities and mental illness:
 Celebrities’ bad behavior is rooted in mental illness, according to “Dr. Drew” Pinsky, who is best known as the host of Celebrity Rehab and Loveline — a nationally syndicated radio show that invites listeners to call in with questions about sex and drugs.
In his latest book, The Mirror Effect (on bookstore shelves Tuesday), he spells out a theory that stars are predisposed to narcissistic personality disorder long before they become famous. Their dysfunctional behavior is rewarded by Hollywood and portrayed as normal by the press.
“As reporting on celebrity behavior becomes even more ruthless and mean-spirited, I am struck by this disconnect between how a
celebrity’s behavior is portrayed in the media, and the very real problems that underlie their actions,” wrote Pinsky.
He argues that the media fails to acknowledge that celebrities are mentally ill when holding them up as role models, so everyday people have begun to emulate their unhealthy behavior.
In 2006, Pinsky and his co-author Mark Young published the first systematic study of celebrity psychology in the Journal of Research in Personality. The new book explains that research and how it fits into the larger context of our culture, which they argue has been soiled by shameless producers, agents and paparazzi.
The first three chapters read like a history textbook, recapping famous celebrity mishaps and an era when those unfortunate episodes were carefully hidden from the public. It gives readers a glimpse of just how conservative Pinsky really is. He seems to prefer the good old days when movie studios were able to keep Rock Hudson in the closet.
The celebrity doctor is not a fan of MySpace or Facebook either, because they allow people to seek attention by acting out like celebrities — posting provocative pictures and personal stories about irresponsible behavior.
“Without appropriate monitoring, these social networking platforms are subject to abuse by those who are most vulnerable to the endless feedback loop they create,” wrote Pinsky. “This is known as an urge/compulsion/reinforcement cycle, and it’s very similar to what happens to those who crave drugs or other addictive substances.”
After that rather stiff introduction, the book becomes a psychology lesson with celebrities as examples.
Pinsky seems fond of interpreting behavior in the light of evolution, and gave this explanation for the asinine stunts performed by Johnny Knoxville and Steve-O on the show Jackass.
“Some have speculated that such acting out may be deeply rooted in our genes, as a way to display genetic prowess and adaptability,” wrote Pinsky. “In this theory, males (in particular) who survive dangerous stunts are displaying their biological capacity to survive in adversity.”
In their 2006 study, Pinsky and Young found that celebrities from reality television score the highest on the Narcissistic Personality Inventory. Pinsky is convinced that the producers of those shows carefully select contestants with psychological problems, because they will bring extra drama to each show.
“Having served as a consultant to several reality shows, I know what the producers are looking for in contestants,” wrote Pinsky. “The standards regarding mental health are extremely fluid.”
 Rarely do you find an individual artist who expresses his/her emotions and pain as clearly as did Ian Curits. He was the lead singer and song writer for the band Joy Division. In May of 1980, two days before their first U.S. tour, Curtis hung himself in his kitchen. Joy Division reformed as New Order and had a major impact on dance/rock music. But Joy Division was an amazing band. Curtis’ lyrics read like a suicide note. He had epilepsy and the medication he was taking for it supposedly depressed him. The lyrics on their two albums (Unknown Pleasures and Closer) are fought with pain, shame and depression. Two years ago there was a bio-pic about Curits (“Control”) and a documentary about Joy Division. Again, rarely do you find someone who expresses his pain in such clear terms. Here is a sampling of Curtis’ lyrics:
Isolation
Mother I tried please belief me
I’m doing the best that I can
I’m ashamed of the things I’ve been put through
I’m ashamed of the person I am
Isolation, isolation, isolation
New Dawn Fades
Different colours, different shades
Over each mistakes were made
I took the blame
Directionless so plain to see
A loaded gun won’t set you free
So you say
Passover
Forgive and forget’s what they teach
Or pass through the desserts and wastelands once more
And watch as they drop by the beach
This is the crisis I knew had to come
Destroying the balance I’d kept
Turning around to the next set of lives
Wondering what will come next.
Atmosphere
Your confusion
My illusion
Worn like a mask of self-hate
Confronts and then dies
Don’t walk away
Alrighty then… this has little to do with my subject (BPD), but I stumbled across a picture on wikipedia yesterday of Jim Carroll. I was writing a post on the ATSTP List about tough love. I will follow up here more on the tough love idea shortly, but I wanted to show how boundaries can be used in tough love, and about how those boundaries are for YOU, not for your loved one. In other words you have to enforce those boundaries for yourself. Boundaries are choices about what YOU will and will not do for/with/about your life and your loved ones. The best example of tough love that I could think of was a scene from “The Basketball Diaries” (the movie) which is based on the book by the same name by Carroll. I found the scene on YouTube here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WktborljI_o
The actual scene starts at 5:35 and be careful there are some pretty graphic things before the 5:35 mark. The scene involves Carroll’s (played by Leonardo DiCaprio) mother not giving him money for drugs. Carroll is a heroin addict at the time. It’s worth seeing just to see tough love in action. If you watch you will see that the tough love is tough on both of them and, more importantly, the mother chooses to use her boundary (“I will not give my son money for drugs”), rather than try and control HIS behavior, which many people think boundaries and tough love are all about.
Anyway, I started looking into Carroll on wikipedia and stumbled across this picture of Carroll taken last year (ok, he’s only 57 in the photo).
Here is another photo taken of him in 2000 (when he was 50).
I mean, Jeez, what happened to him? Some have speculated heroin again, but it looks like meth or AIDS to me. Here’s a blog post about Carroll’s reading from last year. It’s just so sad.
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