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 Lindsay Lohan Breaks Down in Court Well, it’s been some time since I have written anything about celebrities with possible borderline personality disorder. Personally, I wish some celeb would just come out and admit that they have the disorder and help others by showing that there’s effective evidence-based treatments for BPD. I guess the stigma is too great and they feel that it would hurt their careers. Of course, for some, their behavior is what is hurting their careers. Today, I am turning again to Lindsay Lohan (click here to see all posts about LiLo). Lately I have been receiving a ton of alerts with news stories that contain LiLo’s name and reference BPD. These are usually in the user comments. I can’t find a single legit magazine or news article that has speculated on BPD and LiLo. Recently, her behavior has accelerated, even as she is facing jail. Here are some recent articles that could indicate that (in combo) LiLo has BPD (remember, this is just speculation at this point):
Lindsay Lohan goes Doctor Shopping
http://entertainment.oneindia.in/hollywood/top-stories/scoop/2010/lilodoes-doctor-shopping-for-prescriptionmeds.html
Washington, July 12 (ANI): Lindsay Lohan apparently obtains her dangerous combination of prescription drugs through “doctor shopping” across the country.
According to a source, Lohan goes to six different doctors for prescriptions.
“When one doctor says no to refilling a prescription, she will go to the next. It’s a whole process to get what she needed, ” TMZ quoted the source as saying.
Lindsay who has prescriptions for- Zoloft (antidepressant), Trazodone (antidepressant), Adderall (stimulant to control ADHD), Nexium (acid reflux) and the extremely powerful painkiller Dilaudid, have doctors both in Los Angeles and New York.
In fact, one of her past rehab facilities still prescribes her meds.
The source even added that, Lohan “would get a large supply every time” she visited a doctor.
Lindsay Lohan and Suicidal Ideation
http://www.hollywoodlife.com/2010/07/14/lindsay-lohan-suicide-watch-kill-herself-jail-90-days/
Lindsay Lohan would rather kill herself than be locked away in jail. The 24-year-old actress is reportedly so upset over the 90 day jail sentence looming over her since July 6, that she’s threatening to take her own life.
“She just kept repeating, ‘I can’t go to jail,’ and, ‘I’ll kill myself first,’” a source tells Star magazine. “She’s mentally unstable and getting worse.”
After Lindsay’s discovered she’d be serving time at the Century Regional Detention Facility in Lynwood, Calif., Star reports she went home and broke everything in sight.
“She ran around breaking mirrors, cutting herself and rambling like a lunatic. She tore her house apart before she finally just broke down,” reveals a source. “Lindsay’s on a 24/7 suicide watch, it’s so bad. She isn’t doing well with this.”
Not only is Lindsay going around saying she wants to kill herself but she’s taking a lethal dose of prescription drugs.
“She has been doctor shopping across the country,” she says. “She is utterly unable to control her use of any mind-altering substance.”
Lindsay Lohan and Self-Injury
http://www.radaronline.com/exclusives/2009/11/exclusive-self-harm-sign-%E2%80%9Cseverely-disturbed-behavior%E2%80%9D
In shocking phone conversations exclusively obtained by RadarOnline.com Lindsay Lohan’s mom, Dina, is heard expressing her concern over her daughter’s self mutilation. And with good reason, as experts in the field tell RadarOnline.com that self harm is often just one factor of greater, underlying emotional issues.
Renown psychotherapist, and author of Cutting: Understanding and Overcoming Self-Mutilation, Dr. Steven Levenkron tells RadarOnline.com that Lindsay’s behavior is a sign of disturbed psychiatric behavior and that it will take time and energy to help her heal. “Whether (a given patient’s) condition is termed being ‘out of touch with reality,’ ‘psychotic,’ or ‘in a diagnosed state,’ the scene constitutes severely disturbed psychiatric behavior,” Levenkron says. “ This is the element that must be present in order to meet the criteria for self-injury. ‘Severely disturbed behavior’ does not mean hopeless, but it does mean that it will take a long time, lots of focused attention, and an intense emotional bond between helper and sufferer in order to repair the damage.”
And Dr. Wendy Lader, PHD, President and Clinical Director of the S.A.F.E ALTERNATIVES program, a nationally recognized treatment approach, professional network and resource base, and an international speaker on self-injury elaborates, telling RadarOnline.com, “The main reason for self injury is to deal with emotional regulation. For whatever reason it helps them to calm down.
“People who self harm have the inability to communicate the depth of their feelings.
Continue reading Lindsay Lohan and possible BPD (more detail this time) →
Here’s a NY Times Article about a man charged with assisted (or encouraging) suicide. He allegedly did so over the Internet. It is one to watch to see if free speech on the Internet will be regulated. I NEVER advocate suicide (obviously). I wonder however how this case (or if) will impact the back-and-forth dialog in chat rooms and online groups, such as ATSTP.
May 13, 2010
Online Talk, Suicides and a Thorny Court Case
The seemingly empathetic nurse struck up conversations over the Internet with people who were pondering suicide. She told them what methods worked best. She told some that it was all right to let go, that they would be better in heaven, and entered into suicide pacts with others.
But the police say the nurse, who sometimes called herself Cami and described herself as a young woman, was actually William F. Melchert-Dinkel, a 47-year-old husband and father from Faribault, Minn., who now stands charged with two counts of aiding suicide.
Mr. Melchert-Dinkel, whose lawyer declined an interview request on his behalf, told investigators that his interest in “death and suicide could be considered an obsession,” court documents say, and that he sought the “thrill of the chase.” While the charges stem from two deaths — one in Britain in 2005 and one in Canada in 2008 — Mr. Melchert-Dinkel, who was indeed a licensed practical nurse, told investigators that he had most likely encouraged dozens of people to kill themselves, court documents said. He said he could not be sure how many had succeeded.
The case, chilling and ghoulish, raises thorny issues in the Internet age, both legal and otherwise. For instance, many states have laws barring assisting suicide, but rarely have cases involved people not in the same room (much less the same country) or the sharing of only words (not guns or pills).
The case also brings up questions about the limits of speech on the Internet: How does one assign levels of culpability to someone who shares thoughts with people who say they are already considering suicide? And for some who counsel against suicide, it points to a growing area for worry, an online world where the most isolated and vulnerable might be touched in a way that they would not have in the past.
Groups that work to prevent suicide compare suicide chat rooms to “pro-ana” sites, Internet sites that portray anorexia as a lifestyle as opposed to a disease. Anti-suicide advocates say that there has been more than one instance recently where a person killed himself on a Webcam as others watched. Papyrus, a charity in Britain that works to stop young people from killing themselves, says it has tracked 39 cases in that country alone where young people committed suicide after visits to “pro-suicide” chat rooms.
It was the untrained, unpaid Internet sleuthing by Celia Blay, a 65-year-old from a tiny community in Britain, that helped lead to charges in April against Mr. Melchert-Dinkel. “He was practically invisible,” she said. “I tried to talk to any police I could, and most of them would have nothing to do with it. The first one I talked to told me, ‘If it bothers you, look the other way.’ And that really bothered me, because by then I was pretty sure people had died.”
About four years ago, Ms. Blay, who describes herself as a “computer illiterate,” became friends online with a young, depressed woman who had entered into a suicide pact. Ms. Blay persuaded her not to proceed, but the incident sent Ms. Blay searching for the other member of the pact. It was someone who called herself Li Dao, another screen name that the police later said Mr. Melchert-Dinkel used.
Making inquiries on a Web site aimed at people talking about suicide, Ms. Blay said she found at least half a dozen people who had similar pacts with Li Dao, a name that popped up on all sorts of suicide Web sites. She and a friend uncovered Mr. Melchert-Dinkel’s name and e-mail address after setting up a sting in which her friend posed as someone preparing for suicide and was, she said, approached by Mr. Melchert-Dinkel.
By then, the police in Minnesota say, Mr. Melchert-Dinkel had already aided the suicide of Mark Drybrough, 32, of Coventry, England. A coroner’s report found that Mr. Drybrough, who was suffering from a psychiatric illness, hanged himself from a ladder in his home in July 2005. His computer showed that he had posted a question in a suicide chat room about how to hang oneself without access to something high to tie a rope to, and that Li Dao — Mr. Melchert-Dinkel, the police say — had offered details on how to use a door.
In March 2008, Nadia Kajouji, 18, disappeared from her college in Ottawa. The Canadian authorities investigating her disappearance searched her laptop and discovered that she had been talking online with a person who used the screen name Cami. In e-mail messages, the authorities say, the pair agreed to a pact in which Ms. Kajouji would jump from a bridge into a river (to avoid, at Cami’s suggestion, the police say, creating a mess) and Cami would hang herself a day later. In April 2008, Ms. Kajouji’s body was found in the Rideau River.
Around the same time, Ms. Blay contacted the St. Paul Police Department through an acquaintance in Minnesota. By then, she said, she had grown frustrated with what she described as the authorities’ unwillingness to study the huge file she had amassed with the stories of 20 to 30 people who had been approached online. Over time, she said, she had tried to tell the story to a police department near her home, a member of parliament and even law enforcement in the United States.
Since at least the 1970s, many states have barred assisted suicide, though criminal charges are rarely filed. Physician-assisted suicide is allowed under certain conditions in Oregon and Washington.
In Minnesota, 12 charges of aiding suicide have been brought since 1994, when the state began keeping track, and about half of those have resulted in convictions. That state’s law, a felony, applies to “whoever intentionally advises, encourages or assists” another in taking his or her own life; convictions carry sentences of up to 15 years in prison.
Barbara Coombs Lee, the president of Compassion and Choices, who has advocated for laws like the one in Oregon, said she found it “perfectly appropriate” that Mr. Melchert-Dinkel faces such charges. “This is so egregious, so clearly wrong, that I’ll be very disappointed if assisted-suicide statutes do not reach this,” she said. “There is a bright line between aid in dying and assisting in suicide like this.”
Still, legal experts suggested that there may be room for challenges. The Minnesota law itself, some suggested, could be seen as too ambiguous or too broad to include protected speech that falls short of actually leading someone to suicide. The deaths occurred in other jurisdictions, posing potential issues, other lawyers said.
Terry A. Watkins, a lawyer for Mr. Melchert-Dinkel, said it was premature to describe what defense he intends to present but made it clear that he had questions about the law itself, as well as the dissection of causes that lead to any suicide. “As a society, we need to be careful when we start putting together laws that prohibit things like ‘encouragement’ without a really clear definition of what in God’s name you’re talking about,” he said.
Mr. Melchert-Dinkel, who is scheduled to be arraigned on May 25 in Rice County District Court, has had his nursing license revoked. He had held it since 1991, despite a record that included repeated discipline for complaints of leaving a nursing home patient unattended, being too rough, sleeping on duty, failing to take vital signs and failing to track a patient’s medications.
But Mr. Watkins said his client was basically a good person. “This is not a monster,” he said.
Shortly after the police interviewed Mr. Melchert-Dinkel last year, he checked into a local emergency room, state records show, saying that he was dealing with an addiction to suicide Internet sites and feeling guilty over advice he had given to people to end their lives.
Nothing to do with BPD, as far as I know, but I found this article interesting…. I bolded the quote about childhood regression. Personally, I think that’s a lot of hooey and can be dangerous.
Coroner: Self-help course led to woman’s suicide
SYDNEY – An Australian coroner said Tuesday that participation in an intense self-help course led a woman to suffer a psychotic breakdown before she stripped naked and leaped to her death from an office window in front of horrified co-workers.
The coroner’s findings come four years after 34-year-old Rebekah Lawrence’s death in Sydney, providing a sense of relief to family members who had long argued the young woman never would have killed herself if not for her participation in a seminar called The Turning Point.
“The evidence is overwhelming that the act of stepping out of a window to her death was the tragic culmination of a developing psychosis that had its origins in a self-development course known as ‘The Turning Point,’” Deputy State Coroner Malcolm MacPherson said as he read his findings.
In Australia, a coroner investigates the circumstances of unusual deaths in court-like proceedings called an inquest and can recommend further action by police or prosecutors if warranted.
MacPherson did not recommend any charges be filed against Turning Point officials. But he did suggest that laws be drafted to require that those offering self-development seminars be qualified and accredited.
“Rebekah’s death isn’t in vain – it’s helped a lot of people who may have come to the same grim end in the future,” Lawrence’s husband, David Booth, said outside court. “I’m not angry, because they didn’t mean to do it. It’s just unqualified people doing damaging things to people’s minds.”
Lawrence’s death on Dec. 20, 2005, came two days after she completed The Turning Point, a four-day seminar run by the Sydney self-development company People Knowhow.
Turning Point officials acknowledged during inquest hearings in August that the course was intense and included the controversial technique of childhood regressive therapy. Such therapy uses hypnotic techniques designed to emotionally regress people to childlike states so they can confront issues from their past.
Lawrence’s behavior changed as the course progressed, and in the hours before her death, grew particularly childlike, to the point where she could no longer dress herself. Over the span of a few days, she began to forget basic things such as her favorite song, tried to command the family dog with her mind and spoke of a fear of death.
On her last day alive, co-workers recall she became increasingly erratic and placed dozens of calls to Turning Point officials. The normally shy and quiet woman then stripped off her clothes, screamed at and shoved her supervisor, burst into song and dove out the window.
An autopsy found no drugs or alcohol in her system, and she had no history of mental illness.
Lawyers for People Knowhow officials argued that Lawrence’s psychotic state and subsequent death were likely caused by an undiagnosed mental condition, worsened by conflicting feelings she had recently had over whether to have children. Her husband did not want children and at 34, Lawrence felt her time to have them was running out – causing her severe emotional trauma, the lawyers said.
But MacPherson rejected that argument, saying there was powerful evidence Lawrence had decided she had time to resolve the issue.
Tom Kent, an attorney for People Knowhow director Geoff Kabealo, said he had not read the coroner’s findings yet. Calls to People Knowhow’s offices went unanswered.
Lawrence had called course officials the night before her death, and she was clearly agitated, talking about her childhood and a disturbing movie she had recently seen about exorcisms, according to evidence in the case file. One official advised her to have a cup of tea and a warm shower and to be kind to herself.
In his findings, MacPherson said officials clearly missed a call for help that night.
“Those persons were simply ill equipped to know that this was a serious situation and Rebekah needed medical – or at least psychological – intervention,” the coroner said.
In Australia, the psychotherapy and counseling industries are self-regulated, with no mandated training or accreditation requirements. Kabealo has a degree in business administration. Turning Point leader Richard Arthur has a degree in computer science.
MacPherson suggested a law be introduced to require that anyone providing therapy or counseling services have a formal qualification from an accredited institution. He also recommended mandatory accreditation for psychotherapists and counselors.
Lawrence’s sister, Kate Lawrence-Haynes, said she hopes the results will help create more awareness about the lack of regulation of the self-help industry.
“Tread carefully – look what is in the courses,” she said. “If they don’t tell you what is in the courses before you attend them – they promise you the world, promise you happiness – then that’s a red flag for them not being genuine. They’re businesses.”
Here is a story I stumbled across about a nurse allegedly encouraging people to commit suicide on the Internet.
Minnesota Nurse Investigated for Allegedly Encouraging Suicide
Police Say William Melchert-Dinkel May Have Had Suicide Fetish
By SARAH NETTER
Oct. 16, 2009—
A Minnesota nurse whose license was revoked by the state is under investigation for allegedly encouraging the suicides of people he met on the Internet.
William Melchert-Dinkel, 47, has not yet been charged, but the case has drawn the attention of the U.S. Attorney’s Office and several Minnesota law enforcement agencies after as many as five people attempted suicide or successfully completed the act.
Melchert-Dinkel’s license was revoked by the Minnesota Board of Nursing in June in light of the police investigation and after years of reprimands and documented infractions. The license had been suspended since February.
According to the nursing board’s public action document, it received a complaint in August 2008 that Melchert-Dinkel was under investigation by the St. Paul, Minn., Police Department for allegedly using fake identifies on the Internet and encourgaing people to kill themselves, sometimes watching the suicides via webcam.
The complainant, according to the document, was the mother of a 32-year-old man who, she said, had hanged himself after corresponding with Melchert-Dinkel online.
In January 2009, Melchert-Dinkel was admitted to a hospital, the admissions survey noting that he was “dealing with addiction to suicide Internet sites,” and, “feeling guilty because of past and present advice to those on the Internet of how to end their lives.”
The nursing assessment also noted that Melchert-Dinkel had a four-year “suicide fetish” and had posed as a 28-year-old woman on the Internet in order to make suicide pacts with others even though he had no intention of following through on his end.
A medical record from that time indicated Melchert-Dinkel was involved with an Ottawa woman who jumped to her death after talking with Melchert-Dinkel online. He reportedly also told individuals that his nursing experience gave him “expert knowledge into the most effective ways to kill yourself.”
Reached by phone, Melchert-Dinkel declined to comment to ABC News about his job or the allegations against him.
“What they said was all nothing new,” he said of the information contained in the Board of Nursing document.
Nurse Questioned in Suicides Has History of Reprimands
Also included in the Board of Nursing document is a lengthy list of on-the-job reprimands and accusations of neglect dating back to 1994 — three years after Melchert-Dinkel got his license — when he was working at a Minneapolis nursing home.
At various times over the past 15 years, Melchert-Dinkel was reported for things such as failing to administer and document patient medications, having “disrespect for cultural differences” and abusing his patients.
Faribault, Minn., Police Capt. Neal Pederson said that police have checked with Melchert-Dinkel’s former employers, including a Faribault nursing home, but there have been no reports of suicides or attempts at those places.
His department has assisted officials from both St. Paul, Minn., and the state Bureau of Criminal Investigation. The issue of what to do with the information against Melchert-Dinkel is problematic on several fronts, he said.
“Part of it has to do with the international [aspect]: Is Canada going to charge him or are we going to charge him,” he said.
The Board of Nursing document indicated another person in England had committed suicide after corresponding with Melchert-Dinkel.
Authorities, Pederson said, are also trying to figure out which specific laws Melchert-Dinkel may have broken. While it is illegal in Minnesota to encourage suicide, there is no such federal law. Because Melchert-Dinkel used the Internet and because of the location of some of the suicides, it is unclear which jurisdiction would take precedence.
Deborah Chevalier, the mother of the 18-year-old Canadian woman who jumped to her death, told ABC’s Austin, Minn., affiliate KAAL, “I want him to be found guilty go to jail, and thereby sending a clear message to Internet predators.”
Study from FDA:
Chantix, Zyban must carry depression warning  FDA warns: Depression and Suicidal Thoughts caused by Chantix FDA to require smoking cessation drugs to warn of mental health risks The Associated Press updated 7:25 p.m. ET, Wed., July 1, 2009
NEW YORK – The Food and Drug Administration will require two smoking-cessation drugs, Chantix and Zyban, to carry the agency’s strongest safety warning over side effects including depression and suicidal thoughts.
The new requirement, called a “Black Box” warning, is based on reports of people experiencing unusual changes in behavior, becoming depressed, or having suicidal thoughts while taking the drugs.
The antidepressant Wellbutrin, which has the same active ingredient as GlaxoSmithKline PLC’s Zyban, already carries such a warning.
The FDA is also requiring an additional study on Chantix and Zyban to determine the extent of the side effects. Pfizer Inc., which makes Chantix, said it is still discussing the potential study design with the FDA. The study could include patients with and without psychiatric conditions to determine the true incidence rate of psychological side effects, Pfizer officials said.
Pfizer had already updated its labeling following the beginning of an FDA investigation into the potential side effects in 2007. That investigation was sparked by several reports of psychiatric problems in patients.
Despite the new, stricter warnings, the FDA said consumers and doctors still have to weigh the benefit versus the risks when taking the drug.
“The risk of serious adverse events while taking these products must be weighed against the significant health benefits of quitting smoking,” said Dr. Janet Woodcock, director of the FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research. “Smoking is the leading cause of preventable disease, disability, and death in the United States and we know these products are effective aids in helping people quit.”
Last fall, the FDA also began looking into scores of patient reports about blackouts and injuries while taking Chantix. The Federal Aviation Administration later banned use of Chantix by pilots and air traffic controllers. The drug’s label also warns that patients may be too impaired to drive or operate heavy machinery.
Chantix was approved in 2006. Sales reached $846 million in 2008.
“The labeling update underscores the important role of health care providers in treating smokers attempting to quit and provides specific information about Chantix and instructions that physicians and patients should follow closely,” said Dr. Briggs W. Morrison, senior vice president of the primary care development group at Pfizer.
Pfizer said it made the revised label warnings in agreement with the FDA and is immediately making the information available to health care providers and patients.
Here is a video put out by PA Gym shooter George Sodini about his emotions… I post this not to provide him with sympathy. He made a horrible choice that will ruin the lives of many. I post it because it illustrates the power of negative emotions on a person’s psyche.
Obviously, my heart goes out to his victims more than to him. I just wonder how many other people are suffering out there in isolation and painful emotions. So many people require emotional skills. IMO most violence, included these horrible mass murders, are caused by painful emotions.
 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
Some Joy Division Stuff:
 Mindy McCready, of whom I have recently written regarding BPD, attempted suicide again…
Newsday.com
Mindy McCready in hospital after another suicide try
BY ROBERT KAHN
December 18, 2008
Anguished country crooner Mindy McCready has been hospitalized after what appears to be her second suicide attempt this year.
McCready, who was treated at a Texas rehab center this summer after an attempt to kill herself, was taken to a Nashville hospital yesterday morning with wounds to her wrists, according to local police officials.
The attempt comes at the end of a tumultuous year for the 33-year-old singer, who went public in April with claims that she was the other woman in an adulterous affair with superstar pitcher Roger Clemens. Clemens has never acknowledged such a relationship took place.
-Click here to see photos of Mindy McCready through the years
Nashville police last night said that McCready, whose legal first name is Malinda, called her assistant, Brent Young, at 7:50 a.m. to say she needed him to come over, because “she had done something bad.” Young arrived at 10:15 a.m. “and discovered that she had cut her wrists and taken several pills.” McCready was taken to Centennial Hospital, according to the report.
McCready’s attorney, Lee Offman, told Newsday last night that he was “still trying to gather details.” A call to Clemens’ agent, Randy Hendricks, was not immediately returned.
As recently as last month, McCready was publicly discussing the alleged affair with Clemens. “Carrying on a relationship with him is not something I’m proud of,” McCready said on the syndicated program “Inside Edition.”
McCready met Clemens at a Florida karaoke bar when she was 15 and he was 28. She has said her attraction to the athlete was instant.
“He treated me like a princess,” she said. McCready says the relationship did not become intimate until several years later. Her mother has said she believes the pair shared a “platonic” friendship.
Clemens has only apologized for “mistakes” in his personal life. Congress this year held hearings on the baseball pitcher’s alleged use of performance-enhancing drugs. Even as she attempted to refocus on her music career, McCready was interviewed by FBI agents for Clemens’ perjury investigation.
McCready suffered what she called a “nervous breakdown” in July and entered into rehab. After her release in September, she told reporters she was excited about recording a new CD.
The singer, who was once engaged to ” Superman” actor Dean Cain, has written a song about the tumultuous past few years in her life, “I’m Still Here.”
A prescription drug problem has landed her in jail twice. She most recently served time for violating probation after a drug arrest. Last month, she told “Inside Edition” she was optimistic about her future. “Redemption is out there for everybody to get, and just watch me. I’m gonna show you how to do it.”
-Click here to see photos of Mindy McCready through the years
Copyright © 2008, Newsday Inc.
 I’m not much of a country music fan, but I have stumbled upon Mindy McCready, who I suspect has BPD (again, I’m not a doctor or have I ever met her so this is an arm-chair analysis). Here are some possible clues:
Suicidal Tendencies
In May 2005, McCready’s ex-boyfriend, Billy McKnight, was arrested and charged with attempted murder after beating and choking McCready. The following July, McCready was found unconscious in a hotel lobby in Indian Rocks Beach, Florida after attempting suicide. She was hospitalized for a drug overdose after washing down a large amount of undisclosed drugs with alcohol. That September, McCready, who was then pregnant with McKnight’s child, attempted suicide for a second time by overdosing on antidepressants.
Substance Abuse
In August 2004, McCready was arrested in Tennessee for using a fake prescription to buy the painkiller OxyContin. Although she initially denied the charge, she pleaded guilty and was fined $4,000, sentenced to three years probation, and ordered to perform 200 hours of community service.
In May 2005, she was stopped by Nashville police for speeding and then arrested and charged with driving under the influence and driving with a suspended license. A jury later found her not guilty on the charges of DUI, but guilty of driving with a suspended license. That July, she was charged in Arizona with identity theft, unlawful use of transportation, unlawful imprisonment, and hindering prosecution.
Difficult Relationships
In May 2005, McCready’s ex-boyfriend, Billy McKnight, was arrested and charged with attempted murder after beating and choking McCready.
Inappropriate Sexual Behavior
In April 2008, the New York Daily News reported on a possible long-term relationship between McCready and baseball star Roger Clemens that began when she was 15 years old.
Clemens’ attorney Rusty Hardin denied the affair and also stated that Clemens would be bringing a defamation suit regarding this false allegation. Clemens’ attorney admitted that a relationship existed, but described McCready as a “close family friend”. He also stated that McCready had traveled on Clemens’ personal jet and that Clemens’ wife was aware of the relationship. However, McCready confirmed the relationship as being sexual in nature.
On November 17, 2008, McCready spoke in more detail to Inside Edition about her affair with Clemens. She stated that their relationship lasted for more than a decade, and that it ended when Clemens refused to leave his wife to marry McCready. However, she denied that she was fifteen years old when it began, saying that they met when she was sixteen and the affair only became sexual “several years later”.
I read this article yesterday on my mobile… how horribly sad:
Fla. teen commits suicide with live Web audience
By RASHA MADKOUR – 1 day ago
MIAMI (AP) — A college student committed suicide by taking a drug overdose in front of a live webcam as some computer users egged him on, others tried to talk him out of it, and another messaged OMG in horror when it became clear it was no joke. Some watchers contacted the Web site to notify police, but by the time officers entered Abraham Biggs’ home — a scene also captured on the Internet — it was too late.
Biggs, a 19-year-old Broward College student who suffered from what his family said was bipolar disorder, or manic depression, lay dead on his bed in his father’s Pembroke Pines house Wednesday afternoon, the camera still running 12 hours after Biggs announced his intentions online around 3 a.m.
It was unclear how many people watched it unfold.
Biggs was not the first person to commit suicide with a webcam rolling. But the drawn-out drama — and the reaction of those watching — was seen as an extreme example of young people’s penchant for sharing intimate details about themselves over the Internet.
Biggs’ family was infuriated that no one acted sooner to save him, neither the viewers nor the Web site that hosted the live video, Justin.tv. The Web site shows a video image, with a space alongside where computer users can instantly post comments.
Only when police arrived did the Web feed stop, “so that’s 12 hours of watching,” said the victim’s sister, Rosalind Bigg. “They got hits, they got viewers, nothing happened for hours.”
She added: “It didn’t have to be.”
An autopsy concluded Biggs died from a combination of opiates and benzodiazepine, which his family said was prescribed for his bipolar disorder.
Biggs announced his plans to kill himself over a Web site for bodybuilders, authorities said. But some users told investigators they did not take him seriously because he had threatened suicide on the site before.
Some members of his virtual audience encouraged him to do it, others tried to talk him out of it, and some discussed whether he was taking a dose big enough to kill himself, said Wendy Crane, an investigator with the Broward County medical examiner’s office.
A computer user who claimed to have watched said that after swallowing some pills, Biggs went to sleep and appeared to be breathing for a few hours while others cracked jokes.
Someone notified the moderator of the bodybuilding site, who traced Biggs’ location and called police, Crane said.
As police entered the room, the audience’s reaction was filled with Internet shorthand: “OMFG,” one wrote, meaning “Oh, my God.” Others, either not knowing what they were seeing, or not caring, wrote “lol,” which means “laughing out loud,” and “hahahah.”
An online video purportedly from Biggs’ webcam shows a gun-wielding officer entering a bedroom, where a man is lying on a bed, his face turned away from the camera. The officer begins to examine him, as the camera lens is covered. Authorities could not immediately verify the authenticity of the video, though it matched their description of what occurred.
Montana Miller, an assistant professor of popular culture at Bowling Green State University in Ohio, said Biggs’ very public suicide was not shocking, given the way teenagers chronicle every facet of their lives on sites like Facebook and MySpace.
“If it’s not recorded or documented then it doesn’t even seem worthwhile,” she said. “For today’s generation it might seem, `What’s the point of doing it if everyone isn’t going to see it?’”
She likened Biggs’ death to other public ways of committing suicide, like jumping off a bridge.
Crane said she knows of a case in which a Florida man shot himself in the head in front of an online audience, though she didn’t know how much viewers saw. In Britain last year, a man hanged himself while chatting online.
In a statement, Justin.tv CEO Michael Seibel said: “We regret that this has occurred and want to respect the privacy of the broadcaster and his family during this time.”
The Web site would not say how many people were watching the broadcast. The site as a whole had 672,000 unique visitors in October, according to Nielsen.
Miami lawyer William Hill said there is probably nothing that could be done legally to those who watched and did not act. As for whether the Web site could be held liable, Hill said there doesn’t seem to be much of a case for negligence.
“There could conceivably be some liability if they knew this was happening and they had some ability to intervene and didn’t take action,” said Hill, who does business litigation and has represented a number of Internet-based clients. But “I think it would be a stretch.”
Condolences poured into Biggs’ MySpace page, where the mostly unsmiling teen is seen posing in a series of pictures with various young women. On the bodybuilding Web site, Biggs used the screen name CandyJunkie. His Justin.tv alias was “feels_like_ecstacy.”
Rosalind Bigg described her brother as an outgoing person who struck up conversations with Starbucks baristas and enjoyed taking his young nieces to Chuck E. Cheese. He was health-conscious and exercised but was not a bodybuilder, she said.
“This is very, very sudden and unexpected for us,” the sister said. “It boggles the mind. We don’t understand.”
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Associated Press Writers Jessica Gresko and Lisa Orkin Emmanuel and the AP News Research Center in New York contributed to this report.
(This version CORRECTS sister’s last name in next-to-last graf.)
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