Anything to Stop the Pain - BPD and Non-BPDs » Anything to Stop the Pain – For Non-Borderlines and Loved Ones of People with BPD

Britney Spears and Mel Gibson

Bon Dobbs — Sat, 24 Jul 2010 17:26:15 +0000

The only reason I posted this here is because Britney Spears actually started my foray into discussing Borderline Personality Disorder and celebrities. I only do it because I would like for some celeb to come out of the closet (or “off the couch”) and just admit that they have the disorder. To me it would go a long way to removing the stigma. The only one who has come close is Megan Fox. She mentioned borderline when referring to herself, but she has not been diagnosed – well, not that we know of. Anyway, old Mel Gibson seems to have some sort of disorder and some people have mentioned borderline. Now we have 2 potential BPD celebs talking with one another. I have to say though, Britney Spears certainly got the right (and skillful) people around her. We have not heard much about her “bad behavior” in years. Good for her!

Britney Spears counselling Mel Gibson

Mel Gibson seems to have found the most unlikely counsellor in his attempt to regain his reputation and it is no other than the troubled pop-star Britney Spears, media reports said.

Gibson’s reputation has been badly damaged following the release of several tape recordings which purportedly feature him hurling abuse and vile threats at ex-girlfriend Oksana Grigorieva during phone calls.

The Toxic singer, 28, has been telling her friends that Mel Gibson, 54, has been pouring his heart out to her — confiding that he fears for his sanity and is convinced he’s destroyed his once-hot career.

The In Touch magazine quoted a friend of Britney as saying that they speak on the phone all the time, usually late at night.

Her friends also say that Britney is just returning the favour because apparently Gibson went out of his way to help her when she went through her own breakdown.

Britney’s friend said that Britney wants people to give him a second chance — just like he gave her one when everyone else turned away.

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Angelina Jolie Tops the List of Searched On Celeb Borderlines

Bon Dobbs — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 17:06:59 +0000

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

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Britney Agrees to Sole Custody for K-Fed

Bon Dobbs — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 17:44:27 +0000

Britney Spears has given up custody of her sons…

Britney Agrees to Sole Custody for K-Fed

Claudia Rosenbaum

Fri Jul 18, 3:47 AM ET

Britney Spears has agreed to hand the parenting reins over to Kevin Federline.

K-Fed’s longtime attorney, Mark Vincent Kaplan, exclusively tells E! News the divorced duo have reached a settlement in their long-gestating custody case.

According to the agreement signed by all parties, Federline gets sole legal and physical custody of sons Sean Preston and Jayden James and Spears will have visitation rights.

“The case has been settled,” Kaplan said. “The court still has to approve it. ” Both parties are due in court Friday morning.

The case had been set to go to trial next month but all had been hoping to settle up beforehand.

“As of this evening there is a fully executed deal memo…All the issues that would have been addressed at trial have been settled,” Kaplan told E! News. “Can’t speak to the exact terms of the deal, [but the] orders in place…will stay in place.”

Although this is theoretically good news for Federline, Kaplan maintains it isn’t exactly what his client had in mind.

“Kevins was not [out] to get custody. Kevin’s goal was to set up some kind of template so the mother of his children can coparent,” Kaplan said.

“He said, ‘I need to have Britney to be involved in the coparenting of the kids, but I need there to be a structure.’ ”

But this is the structure he got, and “Kevin is absolutely delighted,” Kaplan continued.

“Nobody could have anticipated the terms of events that have occurred…This was a two-year journey that will be halted at a point that is good for these children. Custody is always modifiable. If there is a final order, it means there is nothing to try.”

Spears has been enjoying monitored visits with her boys since late February after temporarily losing any on-hand-mommying privileges following a stretch of noticeably erratic behavior on her part and two brief hospital stays.

Federline’s camp has credited the influence of Spears’ father, Jamie, who was appointed a coconservator of his daughter’s estate Feb. 1, for helping to get the 26-year-old popster back on track.

A court commissioner is scheduled to review whether to make the conservatorship permanent at the end of this month. If the arrangement were to end, what then happens to Spears’ current deal?

“While I can’t tell you the terms, the order does anticipate what happens if the conservatorship is ended,” Kaplan told E! News. “The devil is always in the details, and this is a very detailed deal memo.

“Nobody can predict what the future will bring, but to the extent possible, I think we have really anticipated how to proceed.”

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Britney not fit to go to court

Bon Dobbs — Fri, 30 May 2008 16:08:41 +0000

CNN reports:

Attorney: Spears not fit enough to take part in probate case

* Story Highlights
* Britney Spears’ attorney says the pop star is not ready to participate in court
* Lawyer told court Thursday that Spears’ medical condition is “fluid”
* Spears’ probate case scheduled to go to trial July 31

LOS ANGELES, California (AP) — Britney Spears is not yet fit to participate in court proceedings in her conservatorship case, her lawyer told a Los Angeles Superior Court commissioner Thursday.

Samuel Ingham, Spears’ court-appointed attorney, and attorneys for the pop star’s father and conservator, James Spears, spent 90 minutes in Commissioner Reva Goetz’ chambers.

Ingham told the court afterward that Spears’ medical condition is “fluid” because her treatment is changing.

Spears’ probate case is scheduled to go to trial July 31, but Ingham said it could be “harmful” for her to participate. Goetz agreed and said Spears’ diagnosis is not complete.

The 26-year-old singer and her estate have been under the conservatorship of her father for four months.

I’d say that’s code for “she’s acting nutty again.” They probably don’t want to release that she’s got BPD. “Some form of bipolar” is likely to come up again. I mean, come on… she started this whole thing in January. How long does it take a team of doctors to diagnose her? Hmm?

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Stats and Search Engine Terms

Bon Dobbs — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 19:17:15 +0000

Fun with ATSTP stats! I decided to create a stat graph of search terms that found my blog in the last 30 days. I wanted to do it all time, but in the last 30 days I’ve sort of “frozen” my categories a bit. I started blogging about celebrities with possible Borderline Personality Disorder when Britney started her meltdown, so until this year I had stayed away from that subject. What I found was that (unfortunately) many people on the Internet are fascinated with the lives (and mental states) of celebs. When I launched my first article on a celeb (Britney Spears) with possible BPD, my blog accesses/hits jumped through the roof. So, over to the right you can find a graph of a categorized (by me) version of my stats by percentage for the last 30 days.

As you can see, searches on celebrities with BPD (such as “Britney BPD, ” “celebrities bpd, ” “heather mills borderline, ” “angelina jolie BPD,” “famous bordrelines,” etc.) represent 60% of the search engine terms that hit my blog. Sad, but true.

Lying and liars represent 9% of the remaining 40%. So, of the remaining non-celeb searches, those looking for help with lying or liars and BPD equal 21% of the remaining total.

Pain or pain relief and BPD represents 17% of the non-celeb searches.

If you combine Coping skills and DBT, those represent about 21% of the total.

I find it interesting what people are looking for regarding BPD. It’s too bad that most are seeking information on celebs. Of course, I have started catering to that crowd – why? Because I must to get traffic. I hope that those people will stick around and read more about the disorder – instead of just looking for gossip.

I also hope to make this an on-going analysis…

No related posts.

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Update on Britney Spears and Borderline Personality Disorder

Bon Dobbs — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 01:39:50 +0000

An ex-member of my Google email list sent me a message telling me that the media is reporting that K-Fed’s attorneys are saying that Britney Spears has “some sort of bipolar disorder.” Some sort? Sounds like Bipolar II or Borderline to me. Recently, one publication told the media to “stop diagnosing her!” OK, well… at my daughter’s therapist last Monday, Time magazine mentioned Borderline in a sidebar called ” What’s wrong with Britney?” (or something like that). More updates soon…

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Does Britney Spears have Borderline Personality Disorder?

Bon Dobbs — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 21:26:59 +0000

It was widely reported in the press after Britney Spear’s “breakdown” and stand-off with the police over the return of her children that she has “a bipolar disorder.” See this excerpt from TMZ.com:

TMZ reported that Spears’ friends “have known for a while that Britney has a very serious mental condition — likely a bipolar disorder that is now in the red zone.”

I think the language here is quite important. Borderline Personality Disorder is so maligned that not a single celebrity has come out and stated that they have the disorder. Bipolar disorder, on the other hand, is not considered just the result of “bad behavior” – it is considered biological in nature – and therefore many celebrities have come out and admitted they have bipolar disorder. Bipolar is an Axis I disorder, BPD an Axis II.

Unfortunately, this distinction is a fallacy. Experts are considering changing the name of BPD to Emotional Regulation Disorder (or emotional dysregulation disorder) and making it Axis I. Why? Because clearly a large part of BPD is biological.

One of the main differences between bipolar and BPD is the length of the mood swings. In the case of Bipolar Disorder the length of the manic and depressive episodes (and mixed episodes) usually lasts days or weeks, if not longer. There is the case of Bipolar II in which a person may experience hypomania – which is possibly why the media has reported Britney to have “a” bipolar disorder, rather than just “bipolar disorder” (although some of the media has removed the “a” from in front of the reported disorder). Substance abuse and suicide are both common with Bipolar Disorder and it effects about one half to 1 and one half of a percent of the population.

Borderline Personality Disorder is actually more common than bipolar disorder – some estimates say that it is up to 5% of women and about 2% of the population at large. It is characterized by wildly swinging emotions – not moods. Although many want to classify it as a subclass of mood disorders (like Cyclothymia), it is more a dysregulation of the emotional system. Emotions are immediate and the behaviors, impulsiveness, rage, “moods”, etc. only last for HOURS, not days or weeks. The DSM-IV says this about BPD:

Affective instability due to a marked reactivity of mood (e.g., intense episodic dysphoria, irritability, or anxiety usually lasting a few hours and only rarely more than a few days).

Substance abuse is so common with BPD sufferers that most estimates say it is co-morbid in over 75%. Also, self-destructive impulses are common (like cutting, over-eating, eating disorders, shopping, shoplifting, sexual deviance or inappropriateness) with BPD. As are suicidal gestures and thoughts, but these are usually impulsive. Impulsivity is a major problem with BPD and here is what the DSM-IV says about that:

Impulsivity in at least two areas that are potentially self-damaging (e.g., spending, sex, substance abuse, reckless driving, binge eating).

While I am not a doctor and not knowledgeable enough to diagnose Britney, I suspect that she may have BPD (or bipolar II) and, if she does have BPD, I would hope that she could be the first celebrity to come out and say so. It’s not her fault. It’s not just “bad behavior”. It is a serious mental illness and should be taken care of immediately. What I don’t understand is why she doesn’t get herself a “helper” to aid her in the regulation of her obviously dysregulated and impulsive behavior.

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Celebrities with Borderline Personality Disorder (possibly, not for sure)

Bon Dobbs — Sat, 05 Jan 2008 20:47:48 +0000

Here are my top-five candidates for celebrities with Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD). Remember I am not a doctor and this is a “arm chair” analysis of the documented behaviors of each of these celebrities. Others considered for the list were: Kurt Cobain, Princess Di, Heather Mills, Christina Ricci, Elizabeth Wurtzel, Pete Doherty, Winona Ryder, Mindy McCready and OJ Simpson. But here are my top five BPD celebrities (from least to most likely to have the disorder) and some links to illustrative articles on the web… drum roll please….

5. Angelina Jolie (if you want a more detailed analysis of Angeline Jolie go here )

4. Courtney Love (to see all of the posts on Courtney Love go here)

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3. Lindsey Lohan (Here is some more info on Lindsay Lohan go here)

2. Britney Spears (more on Britney try this link )

1. Amy Winehouse (for more on Amy Winehouse try this)

Think someone in your life that has Borderline Personality Disorder? Buy the book that has helped hundreds of people like yourself. When Hope is Not Enough: a how-to guide for living with and loving someone with Borderline Personality Disorder really is a how-to, step-by-step for loved ones of people with BPD to communicate more effectively.

When Hope is Not Enough
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Anything to Stop the Pain - BPD and Non-BPDs » Anything to Stop the Pain – For Non-Borderlines and Loved Ones of People with BPD

Britney Spears and Mel Gibson

Britney Spears counselling Mel Gibson

Angelina Jolie Tops the List of Searched On Celeb Borderlines

Britney Agrees to Sole Custody for K-Fed

Britney Agrees to Sole Custody for K-Fed

Britney not fit to go to court

Stats and Search Engine Terms

Update on Britney Spears and Borderline Personality Disorder

Does Britney Spears have Borderline Personality Disorder?

Celebrities with Borderline Personality Disorder (possibly, not for sure)

5. Angelina Jolie (if you want a more detailed analysis of Angeline Jolie go here)

4. Courtney Love (to see all of the posts on Courtney Love go here)

3. Lindsey Lohan (Here is some more info on Lindsay Lohan go here)

2. Britney Spears (more on Britney try this link)

1. Amy Winehouse (for more on Amy Winehouse try this)

5. Angelina Jolie (if you want a more detailed analysis of Angeline Jolie go here )

2. Britney Spears (more on Britney try this link )