Tears of freedom, now the bidding war begins

Karen Kissane October 05, 2011

THE family of the murdered girl was bereft; the family of the alleged murderer jubilant.

Amanda Knox

After judges in the Italian hill town of Perugia declared convicted murderer Amanda Knox not guilty on appeal, her sister Deanna said outside court: “We’re thankful that Amanda’s nightmare is over. She has suffered four years for a crime she didn’t commit.”

Ms Knox, 24, was flying home to Seattle last night, where she is expected to receive offers for multimillion-dollar book and movie deals about her ordeal.

TV networks are already bidding for her first interview.

Ms Knox’s mother and other relatives were seen at Rome’s Leonardo da Vinci Airport, where Ms Knox joined them on a flight to London before boarding a connection to the United States.

But for the family of the woman she was accused of murdering, 21-year-old Meredith Kercher, there was no joy in the legal decision that overturned Ms Knox’s conviction and 26-year jail sentence.

They said in a statement: “We respect the decision of the judges but we do not understand how the decision of the first trial could be so radically overturned. We still trust the Italian justice system and hope that the truth will eventually emerge.”
The prosecutor Giuliano Mignini vowed an appeal to Italy’s highest criminal court.

“Let’s wait and we will see who was right. The first court or the appeal court,” Mr Mignini said.

“This trial was done under unacceptable media pressure. The decision was almost already announced; this is not normal.” If the highest court overturns the acquittal, prosecutors could request Ms Knox’s extradition to finish her sentence.

At an earlier media conference Ms Kercher’s sister Stephanie said the “brutal murder” was being overlooked: “Meredith has been hugely forgotten.” Her brother Lyle said: “It is very hard to find forgiveness at this time. Four years is a very long time but on the other hand it is still raw.”

Judges also acquitted Ms Knox’s alleged partner in crime, her Italian former boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito. The two had been convicted of raping and murdering Ms Kercher, an English exchange student, in the bedroom of a cottage the two women shared in Perugia in 2007.

The case sparked lurid language and an almost lascivious fascination inside and outside Italy’s justice system.

Judges have yet to give their reasoning but it is thought they relied on experts who testified the original investigation had been botched, with more than 50 errors in the handling of DNA evidence. The two judges, sitting with a six-person jury, were not swayed by the venomous language of the lawyer who had painted Ms Knox as a she-devil for initially falsely blaming her employer, bar owner Patrick Lumumba, for killing Ms Kercher. Mr Lumumba was arrested and jailed for two weeks after Ms Knox claimed she had heard him enter Ms Kercher’s room and then clapped her hands over her ears to muffle screams.

Mr Lumumba’s lawyer told the court: “The woman you see before you today is charming [and] angel faced … [but] she was a diabolical, demonic she-devil. She was muddy on the outside and dirty on the inside. She has two souls, the clean one you see before you, and the other.” He also claimed: “She is borderline. She likes alcohol, drugs and she likes wild, hot sex.”

Borderline personality is a serious psychiatric disorder involving severe mood swings, chaotic personal relationships and sometimes dissociation.

Police had become suspicious early on because of reportedly strange behaviour by Ms Knox, who had allegedly performed cartwheels and splits while waiting to be questioned and who had gone shopping for a g-string the day after the killing, where she was heard promising her boyfriend wild sex.

She was found to have lied about Mr Lumumba. Judges this week sentenced her to three years’ jail for slandering him. She was freed because she has already served four years jail, although she must also pay him €22,000 ($30,600) in damages.

Ms Knox said she lied only after being bullied and cuffed by police, who questioned her without a lawyer present. Ms Knox’s parents reportedly mortgaged their homes to pay her legal fees.

Mobile phone records suggested that she and her boyfriend had been near the scene at the time of the killing and turned off their phones for three hours around the time Ms Kercher is thought to have died.

Prosecutors at one point suggested the killing was the result of an attempted sex game and that Ms Kercher had been raped and killed for refusing to play. But this theory did not fit with the fact that the courts also convicted an Ivory Coast drifter, Rudy Guede, of the killing after DNA samples at the scene were matched to him. Ms Knox barely knew Mr Guede and Mr Sollecito had not met him.

Ms Knox’s father, Curt, said after her conviction “the attacks on Amanda’s character … overshadowed the lack of evidence in the case against her”.

Ms Knox thanked those “who shared my suffering and helped me survive with hope”, in a letter to a foundation that seeks to promote ties between Italy and the US and which has always championed her cause.

Her supporters in the US, where she is expected to take part in a $US1 million ($1.03 million) interview, greeted her acquittal with delight. In Seattle, supporters holding vigil hugged, wept and cheered.
They were not alone. Ms Knox, who had been rushed sobbing from the courtroom by guards, was returned to jail to be formally released. “There was a huge cheer … an ovation from every cell,” one of her supporters, the Italian MP Rocco Girlanda, told journalists. “Everyone was shouting ‘libera, libera!’ [free, free!] It was like being in a football stadium and was something I will never forget. Amanda saluted the other prisoners with a timid wave – she didn’t really know how to react.”

Related posts:

1. Casey Anthony: Borderline Personality Disorder, a Psychopath or What?

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Two of the potential issues Anthony could suffer from are border personality disorder and psychopathology, the experts said. The main thing these issues have in common is a total lack of empathy, according to LeslieBeth Wish, a psychologist and licensed social worker in Sarasota, Fla.

“They can turn a person into a non-person,” Wish said. “Borderline personalities have more emotional regulation problem and often use lying to get away from something and not ever feeling like they’re responsible.”

Those two potential issues were the ones that I identified and opined on the other day. The second paragraph above is why I believe that Casey Anthony probably doesn’t have BPD. The reasons for the lies are not impulsive and reactive, as they seem to be most often in BPD. People with BPD are much more likely to “bullshit” (as a term of art not vulgarity) than to actually lie with proactive intent. They can make up some elaborate stories about themselves, typically to make their world a safer and more livable place when others think better of them. Still, most often BPD lies are to get through a painful moment. Very often as the lies collapse, they will admit everything and ask forgiveness. Casey did NOT do this. She maintained her lies even after the police were aware they were lies. In fact, she started lying to her parents LONG BEFORE Caylee went missing.  She lied (by omission) about her pregnancy. She lied about having a job at Universal Studios BEFORE the cops got involved.

As for psychopathy…. I presented the guidelines of Hare’s PCL-R on the other page. Let’s look at them again and see which of these seem to match Casey Anthony, based on what we know from the press:

PCL-R items

The following findings are for research purposes only, and are not used in clinical diagnosis. These items cover the affective, interpersonal, and behavioral features. Each item is rated on a score from zero to two. The sum total determines the extent of a person’s psychopathy.

Factor 1

Aggressive narcissism – Hard to say for Casey Anthony. We don’t really know enough. We do know that, when in jail, she got angry about what this situation was doing to HER!

Glibness/superficial charm – Yes.

Grandiose sense of self-worth – Again hard to say. This is one factor that really separates BPD from the narcissism spectrum. People with BPD have a lot of shame and generally hate themselves.

Pathological lying – YES, YES, YES.

Cunning/manipulative – I’d have to say yes.

Lack of remorse or guilt – Again, I think we need to say yes here.

Emotionally shallow – Hard to say.

Callous/lack of empathy – Could be. Hard to say.

Failure to accept responsibility for own actions – Yes. It’s never her fault.

Factor 2

Socially deviant lifestyle – Party girl. One night stands.

Need for stimulation/proneness to boredom – Probably, but who knows.

Parasitic lifestyle – Yes. She was living off her parents and then off friends while pretending to have a job. Actually, it is interesting to note that she was telling her mother she had a job long before Caylee disappeared.

Poor behavioral control – Probably. Again, one night stands.

Promiscuous sexual behavior – Yes.

Lack of realistic, long-term goals – Yes.

Impulsiveness – Yes.

Irresponsibility – Yes.

Juvenile delinquency – well, some form of delinquency. She stole checks from her friend and passed them.

Early behavioral problems – unknown.

Revocation of conditional release – we’ll see.

Traits not correlated with either factor

Many short-term marital relationships – no, but many short-term boyfriends

Criminal versatility – it depends. She stole and possibly caused the death of her daughter. They couldn’t prove it in court to the satisfaction of the jury, but we may never know.

Ok, onto the article:

‘Dr. Judy’ Doubts Casey Anthony’s Penchant for Lying Can Be Cured

By CHRISTINA NG
July 19, 2011

Casey Anthony’s lawyers have said that Anthony has suffered “trauma” and will need counseling now that she is a free woman, but experts aren’t sure Anthony can be helped.

“It would be exceptionally difficult for anybody to treat her. There is no magic pill that’s a truth serum for a person who’s a pathological liar,” said Dr. Judy Kuriansky a psychologist from Columbia University, but better known from her radio show as Dr. Judy.

Kuriansky believes that Anthony likely feels that she has been rewarded for her lying with her acquittal and release from jail.

“Why would she want to go to therapy when she basically got what she wanted? There’s no motivation for her to seek help,” Kuriansky said. “If she had been sent to jail, maybe she would want to see somebody because her style didn’t work, but it did.”

Anthony, 25, is in hiding after being released from a Florida jail following her acquittal on murder charges for the death of her 2-year-old daughter Caylee. She has received death threats and as she left jail protesters changed “Caylee, Caylee.”

Casey Anthony Therapy Will Be ‘Challenge’

Anthony’s criminal lawyer Jose Baez has said, “It is my hope that Casey Anthony can receive the counselling and treatment she needs to move forward with the rest of her life.”

Her civil attorney Charles Greene was quoted as saying Anthony was “emotionally unstable” following the trauma of her daughter’s death and the grueling trial.

Psychologists interviewed by ABCNews.com agree that the desire to change is the key to successful treatment for pathological liars, which some believe Anthony may be.

While acquitted of murder, she was convicted on four counts of lying to police. One of her lies was that Caylee was kidnapped by a fictional nanny named Zanny. Zanny was one of a dozen bogus characters that Casey had created. She also lied about working at Universal Studios.

None of the psychologists who spoke with ABCNews.com have treated Casey Anthony, but spoke from observations and personal experience.

Two of the potential issues Anthony could suffer from are border personality disorder and psychopathology, the experts said. The main thing these issues have in common is a total lack of empathy, according to LeslieBeth Wish, a psychologist and licensed social worker in Sarasota, Fla.

“They can turn a person into a non-person,” Wish said. “Borderline personalities have more emotional regulation problem and often use lying to get away from something and not ever feeling like they’re responsible.”

Wish explains that for people who suffer from these problems, separate lies can quickly become entire narratives that the teller can even come to believe as true.

“A lie begets a lie and it’s easy to get trapped in telling lies to protect other lies,” Wish said. “Does she believe her lies? She might, but more than likely she believes that she’s good enough to make you believe her lies.”

While Kuriansky emphasizes that she cannot make a diagnosis on a patient she has not seen, she does believe that Anthony has a personality disorder. Her personality disorder could have “narcissistic features with particular attention to pathological lying.”

The symptoms of this problem include volatile moods, extremely manipulative personalities, a lack of empathy of others and a strongly defensive nature, she said.

“I believe there is something that can be done for people like this,” said Tony Ferretti, a psychologist in Melbourne, Fla. “The behavior has been learned and can be unlearned. A person is not born a liar.”

The problem with Anthony, Ferretti believes, is that she does not appear to have the motivation or desire to change her behavior.

“It’s kind of like an addict, until they acknowledge that they have a problem or desire or motivation to change, nothing is going to chnge,” Ferretti said.

Casey Anthony Therapy Will Be ‘Formidable Challenge’ to a Therapist

Wish said the problem generally develops in early childhood and can come from a lack nurturing and stability, especially from parents.

Casey Anthony’s murder trial tore apart the Anthony family with lurid accusations that her father and brother molested her and that her father had a mistress. George Anthony denied those accusations. Casey Anthony’s relationship with her mother was also portrayed as strained, with several witnesses saying that the two argued a lot and were often at odds.

Psychologists agree that all of this could contribute to Casey Anthony’s penchant for lying.

Kuriansky believes that Anthony might be able to benefit from supportive counseling, but this would be a formidable challenge for a counselor or therapist who would need to be on guard about believing anything Anthony said.

“It’s really hard to treat,” Wish said. “You can’t say it’s impossible, but it’s very difficult.”

“These are people that cannot withstand very much self-examination, but you can work on emotional regulation and helping them understand and see [things] differently,” Wish said. “It’s a very small rope of balancing emotions and thinking.”

All three psychologists agree that it mainly comes down to what the person in question wants. If they want help, they can be successful, but if they do not, it is virtually impossible to help them.

Casey Anthony is a free woman and her next step is up to her, and perhaps her lawyers, but Wish believes, “She still needs something. She can’t just be tossed out there.”

Related posts:

1. Amy Winehouse is back in the news again
2. ABC News Reports: Ignored Psych Patient Dies on Hospital Floor
3. Experts Argue that BPD should be an Axis I disorder

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Casey Anthony Acquitted

A few weeks ago I posted an article entitled Casey Anthony: Borderline Personality Disorder, a Psychopath or What? This “analysis” garnered a lot of attention (or at least a lot of traffic) for me. I found that yesterday was the busiest day on my blog ever with over 400 views of that article alone (usually I get about 600 daily views of my blog so this was unusual). Of course anyone that has followed the Casey Anthony trial knows why – she was acquitted of first degree murder and aggravated child abuse, but was convicted of four misdemeanor charges of making false statements to the police.

I watched about half of the trial. I followed it as closely as possible and read about Ms. Anthony’s lies, watched the jail videos, read about her partying, watched her interviews, etc. The issue I see here is two-fold. Firstly, it is not a crime to lie (except to officials, which she did and was convicted of; or to the court, which she did not, since she didn’t testify), nor is it a crime to party with your friends. While the behavior is odd and curious (why would one do that if your child is missing?), it is not criminal. What the state was attempting to prove in this case was first-degree capital murder, without physical evidence, DNA, witnesses or a cause of death. A very high standard and hard hill to climb. Not too surprising that she was acquitted. I think (as do many others) that the state of Florida should have charged her with lesser crimes (homicide or manslaughter for example). It seemed to me from the beginning that Caylee’s death was probably a horrible accident or an impulsive action (like doping the child too much) that Casey thought she could distance herself from by lying and avoiding. Unfortunately, she has now learned that lies (even if she didn’t do it or it was an accident, we’ll probably never know unless someone with knowledge of what happens starts to talk) have paid off. In fact, if it WAS an accident and she had come forward at the beginning and said “I messed up, I’m sorry” she would have probably received a more severe punishment than she will now receive. (Of course I have trouble believing the George Anthony angle because Casey has a history of telling lies to get herself off the hook.) She is not a felon at this point. All that being said, I believe that this case is one in which our justice system was shown to work, but justice was not done for the child.

Which brings me to my second point about this case… It is not a crime to be mentally ill, no matter if you have Borderline Personality Disorder, PTSD from abuse or you’re a psychopath. You can’t be thrown in jail or executed just because you’re sick in the head. You can only be thrown in jail or executed based on what you do and what evidence shows you’ve done and what a jury of your peers (or a judge in some cases) believes, beyond a reasonable doubt, you have done. Criminal behavior and mental illness are not synonymous. Actions and feelings are not the same. Someone who has aggressive feelings towards others and never acts upon them, they’re innocent of any crime. As for Casey Anthony, even her defense team said that her lies were an indication that she needed help. Those lies were reflective of a deeper psychological disturbance. What it may be, we’ll probably never know, nor should we.

Still, I believe that Casey Anthony will be unable to stay on the right side of the law for long. She’ll not likely kill anyone but, based on her pattern of behavior, she is impulsive and believes that she can talk her way out of just about anything. Unfortunately, this time she was able to talk her way out of any involvement in her daughter’s death – murder or accident.

When Hope is Not Enough
Get the Non-BPD book that is designed for
staying and working on the relationship

Without Conscience: The Disturbing World of the Psychopaths Among Us

The Psychopath Test: A Journey Through the Madness Industry

The Psychopath: Emotion and the Brain

Handbook of Psychopathy

The Mask of Sanity (Mosby medical library)

Related posts:

1. Mentalization and BPD
2. Anti-social Personality Disorder mistaken for BPD – when people get it wrong
3. Ok, Bon, what’s wrong with boundaries?

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Diane Schuler’s Story Is One Of Isolation, Denial, And Rage
Anna North

One of the saddest news stories of the summer just got sadder — the husband of Diane Schuler, whose wrong-way drunk-driving crash killed her and seven others, tells New York Magazine he still believes his wife was essentially perfect.

New York’s Steve Fishman tells a depressing tale of denial and rage. On one side is the bereaved Schuler, struggling to go on after the death of his wife and daughter, and on the other is the Bastardi family, two of whose members were killed when Diane Schuler’s Winstar struck their TrailBlazer. Mike Bastardi lost his father, Michael Sr., and his brother Guy, and is angry at the whole Schuler family for what he sees as their role in the accident. He says, “They make like it was not even their fault. I think they knew she was drunk and stoned.” Bastardi’s wife Jeanne is even harsher. She says, “Not even a second have I felt sorry for Danny. This becomes a man you can’t hate enough.”

Part of the reason the Bastardis are so angry with Schuler is that he won’t own up to his wife’s guilt. After the crash, he said at a press conference, “She did not drink. She is not an alcoholic. My heart is rested every night. Something medically had to have happened.” He’s stuck to this story ever since, hiring a private investigator and a lawyer who speculated that a small stroke or abscess might have caused her to suddenly lose judgment and down ten shots of vodka before getting behind the wheel. Not only was his wife not an addict, he says, she was nearly flawless. Though he spoke to the investigator about “ups and downs” in his marriage,” he told Fishman, “There were never any downs. Up for twelve years.” He says they were “perfect” for each other, she was an “outstanding” mom, and, tellingly, “She never complained. I do; she doesn’t.”

Diane Schuler’s friends also portray her as keeping her feelings — especially negative ones — to herself. One says, “I’ve never seen her mad or angry,” another, “she infrequently talked about personal feelings.” She never talked about her parents’ divorce, and refused to speak to her mother — some friends even thought her mother was dead. When Fishman asked Danny “how well he really knew” his wife, Danny answered, “She’d talk to me if things came up.” His examples: “The house needs painting, the gutters need to be cleaned.”

To hear Fishman tell it, the Schulers’ story seemed like a long, drawn-out, and bloody example of the consequences of secrets in a marriage. Did Diane Schuler feel pressured to be the perfect mom — Danny mentions her expertise with birthday cards and holiday decorations — and thus keep her substance problems to herself? Did she feel she couldn’t confide in her husband because their work schedules meant they were rarely home at the same time? Did her parents’ divorce make her feel she couldn’t rock the boat in her own marriage? Why didn’t her friends know more about her troubles? Probably these questions will never be answered, but if there’s a tragic flaw in the whole Schuler saga, it’s isolation.

Despite her supposedly close-knit family, Diane Schuler apparently kept herself hidden from everyone. This led not only to her death and the deaths of seven others — it also plunged her husband into denial and the surviving Bastardi’s into fruitless anger. They won’t be satisfied until he admits guilt; he won’t be satisfied until he proves his wife was blameless. It’s hard to know how much of this cycle of despair was caused by Diane Schuler’s own particular pathology, and how much by an American idea of marriage that often positions the spouse as sole confidant even when, as was the case with the Schulers, that spouse may be physically unavailable. Only one thing is clear: if Schuler had felt able to open up about her own life, she might have avoided destroying countless others.

Related posts:

1. Mindfulness and Acceptance
2. Emotional Validation with Honesty
3. Ask Bon: How do I balance validating somebody’s feelings with protecting myself or my children from emotional abuse?

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Casey Anthony BPD or Psychopath or What?

A few days ago I got an email from a member of the ATSTP list asking me what I thought about the possibility of Casey Anthony, who is currently on trial for the murder of her 2 year old daughter (Caylee Anthony), having Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD). In 2008, I was following the case with interest. I have followed it a bit during the trial. I am not a doctor or a mental health professional, yet I have met a LOT of people with BPD (both men and women) and members of their families. I’ve looked at Casey Anthony’s behavior and compared it with the behavior of people that I know with BPD. I pretty much come to the conclusion that Casey Anthony doesn’t have borderline personality disorder. It seems to be more likely that she’s a psychopath. It seems that some criminal profilers agree…

http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/36551199/ns/today-today_people/t/do-letters-show-casey-anthony-psychopath/

Pat Brown, a criminal profiler, told TODAY’s Meredith Vieira that in her opinion, Anthony is a psychopath who is trying to get potential jurors to feel sorry for her. The letters are the way she does it, Brown said.

“This will prove she’s a new woman. After all, she’s found God,” Brown said, adding that juries will frequently sympathize with a woman who claims she was abused and mistreated but now has found the light.

“A lot of time women go to court, juries start feeling sorry for them,” Brown said. “It’s manipulation.”

Brown called the letters “a wonderful window into how a psychopath thinks.”

Here is some information about psychopathy:

In his 1941 book, Mask of Sanity, Hervey M. Cleckley introduced 16 behavioral characteristics of a psychopath:

• Superficial charm and good “intelligence”
• Absence of delusions and other signs of irrational thinking
• Absence of nervousness or psychoneurotic manifestations
• Unreliability
• Untruthfulness and insincerity
• Lack of remorse and shame
• Inadequately motivated antisocial behavior
• Poor judgment and failure to learn by experience
• Pathologic egocentricity and incapacity for love
• General poverty in major affective reactions
• Specific loss of insight
• Unresponsiveness in general interpersonal relations
• Fantastic and uninviting behavior with drink and sometimes without
• Suicide threats rarely carried out
• Sex life impersonal, trivial, and poorly integrated
• Failure to follow any life plan.

And here is some information from the Hare checklist:

PCL-R items

The following findings are for research purposes only, and are not used in clinical diagnosis. These items cover the affective, interpersonal, and behavioral features. Each item is rated on a score from zero to two. The sum total determines the extent of a person’s psychopathy.

Factor 1

Aggressive narcissism

Glibness/superficial charm

Grandiose sense of self-worth

Pathological lying

Cunning/manipulative

Lack of remorse or guilt

Emotionally shallow

Callous/lack of empathy

Failure to accept responsibility for own actions

Factor 2

Socially deviant lifestyle

Need for stimulation/proneness to boredom

Parasitic lifestyle

Poor behavioral control

Promiscuous sexual behavior

Lack of realistic, long-term goals

Impulsiveness

Irresponsibility

Juvenile delinquency

Early behavioral problems

Revocation of conditional release

Traits not correlated with either factor

Many short-term marital relationships

Criminal versatility

One thing we can say about Casey Anthony is that she is a compulsive liar. Here is one story about her continued insistence that she dropped her daughter off a the nanny’s even after the police were aware that it was a lie:

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/06/02/us-crime-anthony-idUSTRE75162O20110602

Accused child killer Casey Anthony insisted that her daughter Caylee was kidnapped by a nanny, even after admitting to detectives that everything else she had told them was a lie, according to a taped interview played for jurors Thursday.

“I dropped her off at the (nanny’s) apartment,” Casey told detectives on July 16, 2008 in a tense exchange about her 2-year-old daughter.

“No you didn’t,” a detective responded.

“That’s exactly where I dropped her off,” Casey said.

“No you didn’t. And who did you drop her off with?” the detective asked.

“I dropped her off with Zenaida,” Casey said.

“No you didn’t,” the detective said.

By then, Detective Yuri Melich testified, he knew the apartment identified by Casey had been vacant for months and no one named Zenaida Fernandez-Gonzalez had ever lived in the apartment complex. Many other details provided by Casey about Caylee’s disappearance had not panned out, he said.

And here is some information from ABC News about Casey Anthony’s “top ten lies”:

http://abcnews.go.com/US/casey-anthony-top-ten-lies/story?id=13742643

• Casey Anthony told police that she spoke to her daughter Caylee on July 15, 2008, the day Caylee was reported missing. She told police Caylee said, “Hi, mommy” and told her a story about her shoes and a book she was reading. “She was excited to talk to me,” Casey Anthony told police. Caylee was already dead.
• She said she had a job as an event planner at Universal Studios. She even led police to a building on the Universal lot and down a hallway until she finally turned to them and admitted she didn’t work there.
• She claimed the babysitter was a former girlfriend of Jeffrey Hopkins, and that Hopkins was also a one time boyfriend of hers. She told her mother, Cindy Casey, that Hopkins had a toddler named Zachary. She had a picture of a man and a boy on her cell phone identified as Hopkins and filed under “boyfriend,” her mother told the court. Hopkins testified that he attended middle school with Anthony. Hopkins said he has no child and never met anyone named Zenaida Fernandez-Gonzalez.
• Casey Anthony described how Zenaida Fernandez-Gonzalez lived in one neighborhood for several months and then moved to another location. Her story of the babysitter’s move was complete with a description of the apartment’s interior.
• She claimed her friend and co-worker at Universal Studios was named Juliette Lewis. Casey and her mother, Cindy, went to help Lewis with a fundraiser, but after waiting for about 90 minutes, Lewis didn’t show up, Cindy Casey testified. Universal had said that no one named Juliette Lewis worked there.
• Casey Anthony told her mother that the father of Caylee was a man named Eric Baker. She later called home frantically to tell her mother that Eric Baker had been killed in a car crash. Anthony even told detectives she had Baker’s obituary to prove Caylee’s father was dead. It’s never been confirmed Baker is the father of Caylee and it’s still unclear the paternity of Caylee.
• Hopkins’ mother was named Jules and she had cancer. Cindy Anthony even baked a cake for a Christmas season meeting with Hopkins and his mother, but the meeting was cancelled at the last minute.
• Casey Anthony told her mother that she was in Jacksonville and was going to stay longer to attend Jules’ wedding. She was actually staying at the home of her boyfriend Tony Lazzarro and another friend’s apartment in Orlando.
• Casey Anthony told her mother at different times during the month that the girl was missing that Caylee was at Disney World, was at Sea World, was at Universal Studios. Caylee was already dead.
• “I don’t know where she is and that is the God’s honest truth,” Casey Anthony told police on July 16, 2008.

It seems if anyone doesn’t know the “God’s honest truth” is Casey Anthony. Guess we’ll see what happens in her trial.

Here’s my book about BPD:

When Hope is Not Enough
Get the Non-BPD book that is designed for
staying and working on the relationship

Here are some good books about psychopaths:

Without Conscience: The Disturbing World of the Psychopaths Among Us

The Psychopath Test: A Journey Through the Madness Industry

The Psychopath: Emotion and the Brain

Handbook of Psychopathy

The Mask of Sanity (Mosby medical library)

Related posts:

1. Update on Britney Spears and Borderline Personality Disorder
2. Understanding Borderline Personality Disorder from WHYY
3. BPD Myth Busting: 7 common myths about Borderline Personality Disorder

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Sautner disagreed with the recommendation Wednesday, saying she didn’t think Lohan had a substance abuse problem.

“She has other problems, which she self-medicates,” the judge said.

I wonder what those “other problems” are? Perhaps you can check here for more information on the behavior of Lindsay Lohan.

Here’s the full text of the article:

Lindsay Lohan says she’s glad theft case resolved

LOS ANGELES – A lawyer entered a no contest plea Wednesday for Lindsay Lohan in the theft of a necklace, setting the stage for a summer of confinement, counseling and community service.

Defense attorney Shawn Holley made the plea for the actress, who did not appear in court in the misdemeanor case involving a $2,500 necklace taken from an upscale shop in the Venice area of Los Angeles.

Lohan, 24, did not acknowledge guilt through the plea, but the court will log the case as a conviction.

She said later in the day in a written statement that she was glad to put the case behind her and has already started her 300 hours of community service at a shelter for women.

“I hope to be able to fulfill my obligation without any press attention,” Lohan said. “I think the media spotlight should be on issues such as homelessness and domestic violence instead of on me.”

Lohan did not have to attend the hearing because she was facing a misdemeanor charge.

Superior Court Judge Stephanie Sautner ordered Lohan to serve a 120-day jail sentence and remain on probation in a 2007 drunken driving case while she completes a total of 480 hours of community service and undergoes psychological counseling.

Along with the women’s shelter, she will do 120 hours of community service at the coroner’s office, with the remainder to be decided.

The judge ordered the additional counseling after reviewing a probation report that showed Lohan tested positive for alcohol in February, a little more than a month after she was released from rehab.

The report also said authorities found evidence the actress had been drinking in December while receiving treatment at the Betty Ford Center.

Lohan had been sent to Betty Ford for three months of treatment last year after failing a drug screen. The report indicated she had tested positive for cocaine and amphetamines during the court-mandated drug test in September.

A rehab worker at the center accused Lohan of pushing her during a confrontation over curfew in December. Lohan was not charged in the case, but police investigated claims she and some companions from rehab were drinking.

“The police report also noted that interviews with restaurant employees, hotel employees, and nightclub employees support the statements that (Lohan) drank alcohol on the night of the disturbance,” the probation report states.

Holley did not return an email message seeking comment on the probation report.

A probation officer stated in the report that despite the tests, Lohan appeared to be making progress with her treatment and should receive continued substance abuse counseling.

Sautner disagreed with the recommendation Wednesday, saying she didn’t think Lohan had a substance abuse problem.

“She has other problems, which she self-medicates,” the judge said.

In addition to counseling, community service and jail sentence, Lohan will have to complete an anti-shoplifting class.

The “Mean Girls” star was expected to serve only a fraction of the jail time due to jail overcrowding. She might be eligible for house arrest, but that decision won’t be made until Lohan reports for jail on or before June 17.

If she is given house arrest, the judge said she cannot work on her community service at the same time.

“She is neither requesting nor receiving special treatment,” Holley said after the hearing.

Sheriff’s spokesman Steve Whitmore agreed, saying Lohan has been treated the same as other nonviolent offenders.

Lohan has been cast to play the wife of John Gotti Jr. in a biopic of the infamous mob family titled “Gotti: Three Generations.” The film is scheduled to film later this year in New York, and several factors could keep Lohan’s case from interfering with work on the film.

Lohan’s lack of a serious criminal record, and the misdemeanor status of her other cases, have resulted in three jails stints that ranged from 84 minutes to a few hours.

Her longest stay was 14 days after another judge sentenced her to three months in jail. The reduced time behind bars was due to jail overcrowding and state-mandated credits for time-served.

Lohan was released after a few hours on April 22 because her attorney indicated she would appeal the four-month jail sentence for her probation violation. She dropped the appeal as part of Wednesday’s plea.

The theft of the necklace came roughly three weeks after Lohan was released from Betty Ford, and while she was still on probation for the drunken driving case.

Despite living nearby, authorities said Lohan never tried to return the necklace until it was reported stolen and police obtained a search warrant. Her assistant delivered the necklace to detectives before the warrant could be served.

—

Anthony McCartney can be reached at http://twitter.com/celebritydocket

By ANTHONY McCARTNEY AP Entertainment Writer
2011-05-11T21:16:39+0000 GMT

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Q. Dear Dr. Heller

Do a large percentage of BPD individuals have difficulty with impulsiveness which involves shoplifting? Can you comment on this form of self-injurious behavior.

Also I understand Klonopin is not to be given to individuals who have difficulty with impulsiveness, Please advise on this medication.

Someone in deep legal trouble that has just learned there is a name for the cause of all this pain.

A. Shoplifting has long been known to be one of the self-destructive, impulsive behaviors borderlines do to make dysphoria – anxiety, rage, depression, despair – go away. It’s similar to reckless driving, binge eating, binge shopping, etc. It’s not common, but it does happen.

Xanax – alprazolam – has been shown to worsen behavioral dyscontrol, which means there may be an increased risk of self-destructive behaviors. Klonopin is a very similar medication, and while I haven’t seen studies on it in this regard, it is logical to assume it will make BPD self destructive symptoms worse.

As you can see, Dr. Heller does indicate that shoplifting is an impulsive behavior and can be used to make the dysphoria of BPD go away. In addition, he goes on to indicate that benzos (particularly Xanax) can worsen self-destructive and impulsive behaviors. I have seen that effect with my own eyes. Xanax definitely decreases impulse control and increases behavioral dyscontrol. When mixed with alcohol, the effects can be even more dramatic. So, I thought I’d go out and try to discern if Lindsay Lohan is taking Xanax or other medications that would have these effects. Sure enough, there have been reports that Ms. Lohan is taking Xanax (along with Paxil and Adderall). The combination of poor impulse control (which is a feature of BPD, although it is also a feature of other disorders) and the Xanax could indeed lead to a self-control issue such as shoplifting. Here is a CNN report about Lindsay’s latest legal troubles regarding the alleged shoplifting of a $2,500 necklace. The question that immediately arises (at least for most people) is why? Why would she shoplift when she can afford to buy the product? Again, see above for possible explanation (Xanax + poor impulse control = try to make dysphoria go away). This whole incident reminded me of Winoa Ryder’s shoplifting case. In addition to her shoplifting, she also has apparently been taking Xanax.

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Getting Someone to Psychiatric Treatment Can Be Difficult and Inconclusive
By A. G. SULZBERGER and BENEDICT CAREY

TUCSON —What are you supposed to do with someone like Jared L. Loughner?

That question is as difficult to answer today as it was in the years and months and days leading up to the shooting here that left 6 dead and 13 wounded.

Millions of Americans have wondered about a troubled loved one, friend or co-worker, fearing not so much an act of violence, but — far more likely — self-inflicted harm, landing in the streets, in jail or on suicide watch. But those in a position to help often struggle with how to distinguish ominous behavior from the merely odd, the red flags from the red herrings.

In Mr. Loughner’s case there is no evidence that he ever received a formal diagnosis of mental illness, let alone treatment. Yet many psychiatrists say that the warning sings of a descent into psychosis were there for months, and perhaps far longer.

Moving a person who is resistant into treatment is an emotional, sometimes exhausting process that in the end may not lead to real changes in behavior. Mental health resources are scarce in most states, laws make it difficult to commit an adult involuntarily, and even after receiving treatment, patients frequently stop taking their medication or seeing a therapist, believing that they are no longer ill.

The Virginia Tech gunman was committed involuntarily before killing 32 people in a 2007 rampage.

With Mr. Loughner, dozens of people apparently saw warning signs: the classmates who listened as his dogmatic language grew more detached from reality. The police officers who nervously advised that he could not return to college without a medical note stating that he was not dangerous. His father, who chased him into the desert hours before the attack as Mr. Loughner carried a black bag full of ammunition.

“This isn’t an isolated incident,” said Daniel J. Ranieri, president of La Frontera Center, a nonprofit group that provides mental health services. “There are lots of people who are operating on the fringes who I would describe as pretty combustible. And most of them aren’t known to the mental health system.”

Dr. Jack McClellan, an adult and child psychiatrist at the University of Washington, said he advises people who are worried that someone is struggling with a mental disorder to watch for three things — a sudden change in personality, in thought processes, or in daily living. “This is not about whether someone is acting bizarrely; many people, especially young people, experiment with all sorts of strange beliefs and counterculture ideas,” Dr. McLellan said. “We’re talking about a real change. Is this the same person you knew three months ago?”

Those who have watched the mental unraveling of a loved one say that recognizing the signs is only the first step in an emotional, often confusing, process. About half of people with mental illnesses do not receive treatment, experts estimate, in part because many of them do not recognize that they even have an illness.

Pushing such a person into treatment is legally difficult in most states, especially when he or she is an adult — and the attempt itself can shatter the trust between a troubled soul and the one who is most desperate to help. Others, though, later express gratitude.

“If the reason is love, don’t worry if they’ll be mad at you,” said Robbie Alvarez, 28, who received a diagnosis of schizophrenia after being involuntarily committed when his increasingly erratic behavior led to a suicide attempt. At the time, he said, he was living in Phoenix with his parents, who he was convinced were trying to kill him. In Arizona it is easier to obtain an involuntary commitment than in many states because anyone can request an evaluation if they observe behavior that suggests a person may present a danger or is severely disabled (often state laws require some evidence of imminent danger to self or others).

But there are also questions about whether the system can accommodate an influx of new patients. Arizona’s mental health system has been badly strained by recent budget cuts that left those without Medicaid stripped of most of their services, including counseling and residential treatment, though eligibility remains for emergency services like involuntary commitment. And the state is trying to change eligibility requirements for Medicaid, which would potentially reduce financing further and leave more with limited services.

Still, people who have been through the experience argue that it is better to act sooner rather than later. “It’s not easy to know when we could or should intervene but I would rather err on the side of safety than not,” said H. Clarke Romans, executive director of the local chapter of the National Alliance on Mental Illness, an advocacy group, who had a son with schizophrenia.

The collective failure to move Mr. Loughner into treatment, either voluntarily or not, will never be fully understood, because those who knew the young man presumably wrestled separately and privately about whether to take action. But the inaction has certainly provoked second-guessing. Sheriff Clarence Dupnik of Pima County told CNN last Wednesday that Mr. Loughner’s parents were as shocked as everyone else. “It’s been very, very devastating for them,” he said. “They had absolutely no way to predict this kind of behavior.”

Linda Rosenberg, president of the National Council for Community Behavioral Healthcare, said, “The failure here is that we ignored someone for a long time who was clearly in tremendous distress.” Ms. Rosenberg, whose group is a nonprofit agency leading a campaign to teach people how to recognize and respond to signs of mental illness, added, “He wasn’t someone who could ask for help because his thinking was affected, and as a community no one said, let’s stop and make sure he gets help.”

At the University of Arizona, where a nursing student killed three instructors on campus eight years ago before killing himself, feelings of sadness and anger initially mixed with some guilt as the university examined the missed warning signs.

The overhauled process for addressing concerns is now more responsive, even if there are sometimes false alarms, said Melissa M. Vito, vice president for student affairs. “I guess I’d rather explain why I called someone’s parents than why I didn’t do something,” she said.

Many others feel the same way.

Four years ago Susan Junck watched her 18-year-old son return from community college to their Phoenix home one afternoon and, after preparing a snack, repeatedly call the police to accuse his mother of poisoning him. She assumed it was an isolated outburst, maybe connected to his marijuana use. In the coming months, though, her son’s behavior grew more alarming, culminating in an arrest for assaulting his girlfriend, who was at the center of a number of his conspiracy theories.

“I knew something was wrong but I literally just did not understand what,” Ms. Junck, 49, said in a recent interview. “It probably took a year before I realized my son has a mental illness. This isn’t drug related, this isn’t bad behavior, this isn’t teenage stuff. This is a serious mental illness.”

Fearful and desperate, she brought her son to an urgent psychiatric center and — after a five-hour wait — agreed to sign paperwork to have him involuntarily committed as a danger to himself or others. Her son screamed for her help as he was carried off. He was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia and remains in a residential treatment facility.

This week Erin Adams Goldman, a suicide prevention specialist with a mental health nonprofit organization in Tucson, is teaching the first local installment of a course that is being promoted around the country called mental health first aid, which instructs participants how to recognize and respond to the signs of mental illness.

A central tenet is that if a person has suspicions about mental illness it is better to open the conversation, either by approaching the individual directly, someone else who knows the person well or by asking for a professional evaluation.

“There is so much fear and mystery around mental illness that people are not even aware of how to recognize it and what to do about it,” Ms. Goldman said. “But we get a feeling when something is not right. And what we teach is to follow your gut and take some action.”

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Poisoned Love

I thought it was interesting that she was going to commit suicide with the pills and then impulsively used them to poison the man.

Stockton woman drugged boyfriend’s booze
Dec 14 2010 by Gareth Lightfoot, Evening Gazette

A VULNERABLE woman who spiked her older boyfriend’s drink with a potentially lethal dose of 16 sleeping tablets has been spared prison.

Lyndsey Cook poisoned her partner’s beer with 800g of amitriptylene, which is used as a sleeping tablet, at a mutual friend’s Stockton home after a day’s heavy drinking.

She later admitted slipping him the pills wanting to sever contact with him as he was “doing her head in”, Teesside Crown Court heard.

Prosecutor Anthony Dunne said her boyfriend Phillip Ross, 34, collapsed shortly after drinking a very fizzy can of lager on March 6.

Cook called the ambulance and Mr Ross was treated in hospital on the assumption of an opiate overdose.

The truth emerged the next day as 20-year-old Cook confessed to her church support worker then to police as she handed herself in.

Cook, of Grange Road, Stockton, said she stole the drugs from her gran to take them herself, but impulsively put them into Mr Ross’s drink.

With no previous convictions, she admitted a charge of administering poison or a noxious substance “with intent to injure, aggrieve or annoy”.

A forensic scientist said the dose was “of severe toxicity”, leaving amounts of the drug in Mr Ross’s bloodstream two days later.

A lower amount had been known to kill, the court was told yesterday.

Graham Brown, defending, said Cook was vulnerable, disadvantaged, severely emotionally damaged and of low intelligence with a borderline personality disorder.

He said it was an unplanned, “spur-of-the-moment act of stupidity” when she was depressed and thinking of using the tablets to kill herself.

He talked of a background of an “abusive relationship” with Mr Ross “from a time and an age when such a relationship was not appropriate”.

Now Cook had the support of people who had given her a controlled environment and her life had moved on.

Judge George Moorhouse said the crime justified an eight-month custodial sentence, but suspended it for two years with supervision.

He told Cook: “I accept that this was not a premeditated offence and I accept that you stole these pills from your grandma with the intention of taking your own life.

“You’ve had at times a horrible life through no fault of your own,” he added, expressing the hope that she could get her life back to normal with support.

Read More http://www.gazettelive.co.uk/news/teesside-news/2010/12/14/woman-drugged-boyfriend-s-booze-84229-27822538/#ixzz18Ib1n2I1

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Why would Bethany Storro douse herself in acid? Experts try to explain

When news broke Thursday that a Vancouver woman admitted dousing herself with powerful acid, causing severe facial burns, one question reverberated:

Why would anyone do such a thing?

Friday, a leading researcher in the field of self-harm discounted theories that Bethany Storro, 28, was crying for attention, trying to manipulate others or attempting suicide.

“The biggest reason people do this,” said Kim L. Gratz, “is because it makes them feel better in the moment … It can really distract people from all the emotional pain that they’re feeling.”

Gratz, director of personality disorders research at University of Mississippi, is co-author of books on self-harm and borderline personality disorder. Before she was contacted by The Oregonian, Gratz hadn’t heard about Storro, 28, who told police an assailant threw acid in her face near Vancouver’sEsther Short Park on Aug. 30. Storro described the attack in detail, sending police searching for an African American woman in her 20s or 30s. A couple days later, before a crowd of reporters at Legacy Emanuel’s Oregon Burn Center, Storro said, “I have no enemies … I don’t get it.”
No one is sure how many people mutilate themselves each year; those who do typically hide it.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention put the number of emergency room visits for self-inflicted injury at 594,000 in 2006, the most recent data available. But the vast majority of people who intentionally hurt themselves don’t seek treatment, Gratz said, either because they don’t need medical attention or because they’ve become good at treating themselves.

“Our best estimate in adult populations,” she said, “is probably 4 percent … with much higher rates among adolescents and young adults.” Large-scale studies of college students around the world put rates of self-harm at 17 percent to 40 percent, she said. Incidence among females and males appears comparable.

The most common form of self-harm, or self-mutilation, as it’s also called, is by cutting; those who engage in the behavior frequently slice their arms, then wear long sleeves to hide the injuries.

Dr. Thomas Dodson said such patients describe a state in which they don’t feel any emotions. “They cut on themselves,” he said, “because they can’t tolerate a state of not feeling anything. It becomes habitual and relieves tension that they have.”

Dodson, a Southwest Portland psychiatrist, chairs the public information and education committee for the Oregon Psychiatric Association.

Beyond cutting, the list of self-harm behaviors is as long as it is gruesome, from burning to sticking the skin with needles, punching one’s self to banging the head or another body part repeatedly against hard surfaces. Use of acid, apparently, is rare.

The most typical diagnosis among self-harmers is borderline personality disorder, Gratz said. But the behavior also is associated with eating disorders, substance-use disorders, depression and anxiety.

If Storro has a diagnosed illness, it has not been publicly disclosed.

Self-harm is not a suicide try. Yet those who mutilate themselves are fragile, Gratz said, and are at higher risk of suicide than the general population.

Gratz has no idea what might have triggered Storro to hurt herself, but life transitions, always increase stress, she said. Storro recently divorced and moved from Idaho to Vancouver to live with her parents. She had just started a new job at Safeway.

The best treatment for self-harm, Gratz said, was developed by University of Washington’s Marsha M. Linehan, a psychology professor. Called dialectical behavior therapy, it involves a year of intensive psychotherapy, plus weekly group sessions in which patients learn to regulate emotions, tolerate distress, be more mindful of and negotiate relationships better. DBT, for short, includes telephone coaching, so therapists can help patients whenever a problem arises, and a consultation team offering peer support for the therapists themselves.

The method is the treatment of choice for borderline personality disorder.

At Portland Dialectical Behavior Therapy Program on Southwest Macadam Avenue, Tracy Jendritza, a psychologist on staff, estimated that half the clinic’s patients have engaged in self harm.

“People get so dysregulated emotionally that there’s something about self harm that actually calms people down,” Jendritza said. “Initially they feel better but in the long term it makes things worse.”

Self harm, Gratz said, frequently goes hand in hand with shame and feeling alone. She figures that Storro has landed in that deep well.

“My guess is that she’s experiencing incredible shame” since police learned the truth about the attack. “It’s so public … I’m sure she’s in a much more intense state of distress” than she was before applying the acid that burned the skin off her beautiful face.

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Doctor: Anna Nicole Smith medication ‘overkill’

By LINDA DEUTSCH (AP) – 3 days ago

LOS ANGELES — A hospital psychiatrist testified Friday that medication given to Anna Nicole Smith by a doctor now on trial was “overkill” for the kind of pain she was describing.

Dr. Nathalie Maullin said she believed Smith had “a borderline personality disorder” and was addicted to prescription medications.

Maullin said she was on staff at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in April 2006 when Smith was brought in pregnant and in withdrawal from anti-anxiety drug Xanax and the pain killer Methadone. The celebrity model told her she had gone “cold turkey,” discontinuing her medications all at once because she was concerned for the welfare of her expected baby.

By doing that, Maullin said, she had actually endangered the baby and herself. The doctor said she quickly resumed her medication with Methadone and began weaning her off Xanax, both of which had been prescribed by Dr. Sandeep Kapoor, a defendant in the drug conspiracy case.

“My thoughts were these were very hard core medications to be giving for the kind of pain she was demonstrating,” said Maullin. “She was on medication that seemed like overkill for the type of pain she was in.”

She said it was difficult to get a medical history from Smith because she was “putting on a show” and was deferring questions to her lawyer-boyfriend, Howard K. Stern, who was with her at all times.

Kapoor, Stern and Dr. Khristine Eroshevich have pleaded not guilty to conspiring to provide excessive opiates and sedatives to Smith. They are also charged with prescribing drugs to an addict, but are not charged with causing her 2007 overdose death.

Maullin said Stern told her Smith had been suffering from back pain for five years. She said the former Playboy model also complained of pain in her upper back and arm.

Another doctor who testified earlier this week said Smith suffered from chronic pain syndrome all over her body.

Maullin said she conferred with Kapoor by phone, gave him her plan for weaning Smith off Xanax and any drugs known as benzodiazopines which can be addictive. She said he agreed and told her he would leave the prescribing of Methadone to her.

“Did you see any pain that needed treatment with opiates?” asked the prosecutor.

“No,” Maullin said.

The problem was that Smith showed no enthusiasm for the plan, the doctor said.

“It was like pulling teeth to get some response from her,” she said. “She was compliant but not really interested. She was not wholehearted.”

Five days after Smith checked in to the hospital, Maullin said she received a page at midnight from a nurse that said Smith’s eyes had rolled back in her head.

That sounded like a drug reaction and a one-time dose of Benadryl was prescribed, Maullin said. However, the next day, she received another call saying Smith was having hallucinations.

“The nurse said that she was flossing her teeth with no floss and was out of it,” Maullin said. “This was a radical change.”

Under questioning by Deputy District Attorney David Barkhurst, Maullin said she did not consider this an emergency and she tended to other patients before going to see Smith five hours later.

“In psychiatry, we are used to seeing patients do strange things,” she said.

Upon her arrival, Stern told Maullin that Smith “was generally acting goofy.” Smith was angry and made no eye contact but seemed lucid, Maullin said.

The psychiatrist said she suggested that Smith go into an inpatient facility that deals with addicts. But Smith wasn’t interested and told Stern she wanted to leave the hospital.

Maullin said she informed Kapoor and he said he would go to her house.

“I thought that was unusual,” she said. “Physicians generally see patients in the office or the hospital. There was no reason she could not leave her home to come to see him. Just in terms of proper boundaries with patients, you see them in your office.

“She needed to participate in her care,” Maullin said. “It’s not a home delivery service.”

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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.

“They can’t talk about their emotions. And they want to do something quick to deal with their frustration or anger. Cutting works immediately. As soon as they split the skin there is a release.

“The problem is that most people don’t just self harm by cutting. Many have eating disorders too.

“Its all about control. They have non over the way they are feeling but they can control their body image. It’s a dangerous combination.

“Some people describe the feeling as euphoric. But I think they are confusing that for release of tension.

“The way to help these people is to make them recognize that when they have an impulse to hurt themselves, it’s a clue that they don’t want to feel something.

“They need to focus on what it is they don’t want to deal with and try to attack it in a different way.

“Some people do manage to stop by themselves but others go their whole lives cutting or harming themselves.

“I encourage anyone going through this to be assessed.”

Lindsay Lohan and Emotional Regulation
http://www.torontosun.com/entertainment/celebrities/2010/07/13/14694551.html

Defence attorney Stuart V. Goldberg has spoken of his worries for Lindsay Lohan, insisting the jailbound actress lacks “awareness” of the “urgency” of her dire situation.

Goldberg was contacted by the Mean Girls star after her lawyer Shawn Chapman Holley attempted to resign last week, and held a six-hour meeting with Lohan, her mom and teen sister Ali in Hollywood to discuss her case.

The legal eagle, who ultimately turned down the case, admits the Lohans “didn’t seem to understand the urgency and gravity” of the situation, prompting Goldberg’s fears for the actress.

He tells People.com, “My impression of Lindsay is that she’s a fragile lost child – a sleeping beauty with her head in the sand. I found her not fully forewarned of the consequence of her actions.

“I’m concerned that she’s not disciplined or tethered enough to the reality of adult consequences. She doesn’t seem to have the awareness of what’s going to befall her.”

Goldberg asked Lohan if she might hurt herself, which moved the star to begin “sobbing quietly.” He adds: “She was genuinely in pain.”

He advised Lohan to move out of the “toxic environment” of Los Angeles but she seemed to refute the suggestion: “She was like Teflon to that comment. It just slid right off her. She seemed to have some inner deep sadness that that was her fate.

“My real worry for her is not just the jail time but my fear is that she’s overly susceptible to a probation system that’s set up for her to fail.”

The 24 year old was sentenced to 90 days in jail last week after Judge Marsha Revel ruled she had broken the terms of her probation from a 2007 DUI arrest by failing to attend court-ordered alcohol education classes.

Lohan’s lawyer Holley has been banned from quitting until papers for a replacement are filed in court.

Lindsay Lohan and Substance Abuse
http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1643621/20100714/lohan_lindsay.jhtml

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/la-ca-lindsay-lohan-20100704,0,4835943.story

Lindsay Lohan and Blaming Others
http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/38127652/ns/today-entertainment/

LOS ANGELES — Lindsay Lohan had a message written on her middle fingernails while in court on Tuesday — and it was far from a note of contrition.

The 24-year-old actress — who was sentenced to 90 days in jail for violating her probation — had “f— u” written across her middle fingernail on both of her hands.

As previously reported on AccessHollywood.com, Lohan must turn herself into the court by July 20. She will then be held in Century Regional Detention Facility in Lynwood, Calif., where she will be in seclusion.

Steve Whitmore, a spokesperson for the Sheriff’s Department, told Access Hollywood on Tuesday that general, non-violent females are eligible to serve just 25 percent of their sentence — which in Lohan’s case would amount to around 22 days.

Clearly, the woman is in a lot of emotional pain, unable to regulate her feelings and behaviors and in need of someone to help her. Unfortunately, first, she has to admit she has an issue and seek help.

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May 13, 2010

Online Talk, Suicides and a Thorny Court Case

By MONICA DAVEY

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.

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Marriage and BPD

http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/breakingnews/metro/view/20100401-261988/Are-personality-disorders-enough-bases-to-nullify-marriage

Are personality disorders enough bases to nullify marriage?

By Tetch Torres
INQUIRER.net

Posted date: April 01, 2010

MANILA, Philippines—Being a “mama’s boy,” immature, or self indulgent, are not grave enough causes to allow the annulment of marriage, the Supreme Court said.

Jordan and Jeanice Paz met on November 1996, became a couple on May 10, 1997 and got married two months later. She gave birth to a son in 1998 but left Jordan a year later after a big fight.

She filed a petition for declaration of nullity of marriage against Jordan in 1999 accusing her husband of being psychologically incapable of assuming the essential obligations of marriage.

Jeanice said her husband had a tendency to lie about his whereabouts, had the habit of hanging a great deal of time with his friends. Since Jordan worked in their family business, he opted to stay home and tinker with his playstation. She said Jordan even asked her to lie to his brother about his whereabouts. She added that after giving birth to their son, her husband demanded from his mother a steady supply of milk and diapers. She added that he subjected her to verbal lashing and even threatened to hit her with a golf club.

Psychologist Cristina Gates testified that Jordan has a “borderline personality disorder” due to his impulsive behavior, delinquency and instability and with no indication of reformation, his disorder was grave and incorrigible.

Jordan argued that even his wife was also immature, childish and was emotionally unable to cope with the struggles of maintaining a married life. He also questioned Gates’ findings saying she did not interview him.

The Pasig City Regional Trial Court Branch 69 in 2003 nullified the marriage of Jordan and Jeanice based on the findings of Gates which was also affirmed by the Court of Appeals in 2004.

But the high court reversed the findings of both courts as it pointed out that for a marriage to be annulled, the psychological disorder must be “confined to the most serious cases of personality disorders clearly demonstrative of an utter insensitivity or inability to give meaning and significance to the marriage.”

“Moreover, contrary to the ruling of the trial court, Jordan’s alleged psychological incapacity was not shown to be so grave and so permanent as to deprive him of the awareness of the duties and responsibilities of the matrimonial bond. At best, Jeanice’s allegations showed that Jordan was irresponsible, insensitive, or emotionally immature. The incidents cited by Jeanice do not show that Jordan suffered from grave psychological maladies that paralyzed Jordan from complying with the essential obligations of marriage.”

“What the law requires to render a marriage void on the ground of psychological incapacity is downright incapacity, not refusal or neglect or difficulty, much less ill will,” the high court said.

The high court added that all people may have certain quirks that can be attributed to isolated characteristics associated with certain personality disorders but that is not enough to invalidate a marriage.

©Copyright 2001-2010 INQUIRER.net, An Inquirer Company

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There is a diagnosable condition known as a personality disorder. According to the American Psychiatric Association personality disorder typically rears its ugly head in late adolescence but, in rarer instances, childhood. It’s subjective, but a person with borderline personality disorder, should exhibit three or more of the following:

1. Failure to conform to lawful social norms – repeatedly performing acts that are grounds for arrest;

2. Deceitfulness – repeated lying, use of aliases, or conning others for personal profit or pleasure;

3. Impulsivity or failure to plan ahead;

4. Irritability and aggressiveness – repeated physical fights or assaults;

5. Reckless disregard for safety of self or others;

6. Consistent irresponsibility – repeated failure to sustain consistent work behaviour or honour financial obligations;

7. Lack of remorse – being indifferent to or rationalising having hurt, mistreated, or stolen from another.

I’m no psychologist but if you ticked too many of those boxes for yourself or a loved one, with a GP’s referral you can see a qualified psychologist for free in Australia. One referral entitles any Medicare cardholder to 12 free consultations and 12 group sessions.

No, you’re not psychologist all right. The criteria to which she is referring is the criteria for Anti-social Personality disorder, not Borderline Personality Disorder. I think before you post something about which you know next to nothing about, at least get it fact-checked.There’s already enough stigma around BPD without having people attribute ASPD criteria to it as well.

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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.

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Mental Health Coverage Expanded by Rescue Package (Update2)
By Aliza Marcus

Oct. 3 (Bloomberg) — Health insurers that provide mental- health benefits will be barred from providing less coverage than they do for other medical services under the $700 billion financial-markets rescue package approved by Congress.

The plan was backed by a 263-171 vote in the House of Representatives today and signed by President George W. Bush. The package incorporates a measure requiring so-called mental health parity for health plans enrolling more than 50 employees.

“Aren’t we all pleased across America that this legislation includes the mental health parity act?” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a California Democrat, said in a speech before the vote.

The mental-health measure was among provisions added to the financial rescue package to win support after the House initially rejected the bailout legislation. The Senate, which supported the expansion of mental health coverage benefits in tax legislation passed last month, approved the revised financial rescue plan on Oct. 1.

“It seemed like it was getting lost after the bailout issue arose, but now with this bill it’s just happened,” said Steve Vetzner, spokesman for the Mental Health America advocacy group in Alexandria, Virginia. “This has been a long struggle and long fight.”

The act is intended to eliminate what supporters call unequal access to care from insurers that set higher co-payments and other limitations on services such as mental health counseling compared with physical ailments.

$3.4 Billion

The House and Senate previously disagreed about how to cover the cost to the federal government of the expanded benefit, estimated at $3.4 billion over five years by the Congressional Budget Office in 2007.

The estimate is related to tax revenue that would be lost because employers would pay more for health insurance premiums, to cover the expanded benefits, instead of turning over some of this money as taxable wages to employees.

Health insurers and businesses worked with Congress on the measure, which built up wide support from stakeholders in the health-care field, said Aetna Inc. Chief Executive Officer Ronald Williams in a statement on Business Wire.

“They had a deal for a long time,” said Kim Monk, an analyst at Capital Alpha Partners, in Washington, in a telephone interview. “The challenge was how to off-set the cost,”

Employers will now be looking for well-managed mental health networks to help them reduce costs associated with implementing the legislation, Monk said. “Not all insurers have this, so they may have to beef it up.”

To contact the reporter on this story: Aliza Marcus in Washington at amarcus8@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: October 3, 2008 15:26 EDT

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October 1, 2008

Editorial

Oh So Close to Mental Health Parity

Congress is within a whisker of passing a sound and fair-minded bill to require that group health insurance coverage for mental illness and substance abuse be provided on the same terms as coverage for physical illnesses. It would be a shame if the legislation, which caps more than a decade of struggle to achieve mental health parity in insurance coverage, were allowed to die while Congressional energies are focused on the all-consuming economic crisis.

The bill would not require employers or health plans to cover mental illness or drug or alcohol abuse. But if they do, the treatment limits and financial requirements could be no more restrictive than those that apply to medical or surgical benefits. A 1996 law had required parity in setting annual and lifetime spending limits, but insurers found ways to circumvent it. The new bill closes loopholes by requiring parity in deductibles, co-payments and out-of-pocket expenses — and in setting treatment limitations, such as the maximum number of doctor visits and days of coverage allowed.

The bill is endorsed by President Bush, business groups, insurance companies, the medical community and mental health advocates. Both the House, in a stand-alone bill, and the Senate, as part of a broader tax relief bill, have approved it by large margins. But it requires a final shove because the measure is snarled in a broader legislative struggle over how to pay for tax revenues that would be reduced by this measure and others. Is there a statesman who can push this worthy parity legislation through to final passage before adjournment?

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Comedian Andy Dick arrested in drug, sexual battery case in Murrieta
From the Associated Press

Andy Dick, 42, was arrested today on suspicion of drug use and sexual battery in Murrieta.
The former ‘NewsRadio’ star allegedly fondled a teen and pulled down her tank top outside a restaurant. Police say they found marijuana and Xanax in his possession.
By David Kelly, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
July 17, 2008
Actor and comedian Andy Dick, who has a history of run-ins with the law, was arrested early Wednesday outside a Murrieta restaurant on suspicion of sexual battery and drug possession.

Police said Dick, who was heavily intoxicated, grabbed and fondled the breast of a 17-year-old girl before pulling her top down in the parking lot of the Buffalo Wild Wings Grill & Bar about 1:15 in the morning.

“The victim was traumatized by this,” said Lt. Dennis Vrooman, spokesman for the Murrieta Police Department.

Police later found one gram of marijuana and one Xanax anti-anxiety pill in Dick’s pocket. He was arrested and later released on $5,000 bail.

It was the latest in a string of encounters that Dick, 42, has had with authorities. The former star of the comedy series “NewsRadio” was cited last year in Columbus, Ohio, for urinating in public. He was kicked off the set of “Jimmy Kimmel Live” for repeatedly touching fellow guest Ivanka Trump. In 1999 he drove his car into a telephone pole and was charged with possession of cocaine and marijuana.

Calls to his manager were not returned.

Vrooman said police had already warned Dick about his intoxication before he went to the restaurant. Officers had encountered the comedian while responding to an altercation at the Corner Pocket Sports Cafe in Murrieta about 9 p.m. Tuesday. They told him to leave or face possible arrest on public intoxication charges. He left with five or six friends.

Dick, who listed his address as Woodland Hills, told officers he was in town to attend the funeral of a friend’s father.

Later that night, Dick and his entourage arrived at the Buffalo Wild Wings and began drinking, police said. He was recognized by several patrons, including the alleged victim, who approached him.

Vrooman said the girl, who is from Murrieta, tried to talk to Dick but backed off when she realized how intoxicated he was.

Sara Lidman, one of the restaurant managers, would say only that Dick was in the bar with friends.

Police said that when Dick left he spotted the girl and her friend in the parking lot and shouted, “There are the girls!”

“He groped her breast with his right hand, then pulled down her top,” Vrooman said.

The teen’s friend called police.

When they arrived, they found Dick in the front seat of a Honda pickup truck heading toward a nearby Sam’s Club parking lot.

Officers stopped the truck and forced all the men inside to line up so the girl could identify the man who allegedly groped her. She pointed to Dick.

A search of his pockets turned up the Xanax and marijuana. He did not have a prescription for the Xanax, police said.

Vrooman said Dick was belligerent at first and then answered officers’ questions.

On Saturday, Dick was spotted at Pepe’s Mexican Restaurant and Cantina in Canyon Lake in Riverside County.

“My understanding was that he was drinking soda water and was not drunk,” said Pepe’s owner Marty Gibson. “There was no altercation that I heard of.”

Dick was arrested on suspicion of sexual battery, possession of a controlled substance and possession of marijuana, and he may yet be charged with public intoxication, Vrooman said.

He is scheduled to be arraigned Aug. 12 in Murrieta.

david.kelly@latimes.com

Times staff writer Harriet Ryan contributed to this report.

The video.

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Ignored Psych Patient Dies on Hospital Floor

Video Shows Death in NYC Hospital Already Faces a Lawsuit for ‘Squalid’ Psych Care

By DAVID SCHOETZ

July 1, 2008—

Even pared down to a few minutes, the hour-long surveillance video is disturbing.

At 5:32 a.m. June 19, a woman in a hospital gown in the waiting area of the psychiatric emergency room of a New York City hospital topples first to her knees before collapsing on her face.

A full hour passes. Other people stream in and out of the waiting room, including hospital security guards. The woman writes something on the ground before going completely still. Finally, someone takes notice and alerts the staff. But by then, at 6:36 a.m., the woman is already dead.

The woman, 49-year-old Esmin Green, died on the floor of the waiting room at the Kings County Hospital Center Psychiatric Emergency Department. Her exact cause of death has not been released.

The native of Jamaica, who had been waiting for a bed when she collapsed, had been involuntarily admitted the previous day for “agitation and psychosis,” according to the City Health and Hospital Corp., which acknowledged June 20 that Green had been left unattended on the ground for an hour.

Alan Aviles, the president of the Health and Hospital Corp., had already announced that six hospital employees, including staff members who oversee patient care and security, face disciplinary action for their lack of response. Two of the employees were fired, while four unionized staff members must go through termination proceedings.

The hospital, in the Brooklyn borough of New York City, may have a much bigger problem on its hands. In May, Kings County Hospital was targeted in a federal lawsuit by three organizations that described hospital conditions as “inhumane.” Attorneys for the plaintiff released the footage of Green’s death Monday night to illustrate in brutal detail some of the allegations made in the suit.

The Mental Hygiene Legal Service, New York Civil Liberties Union and Kirland & Ellis LLP filed the lawsuit after an investigation at the hospital “showed that Kings County psychiatric facilities are overcrowded and often dangerously unsanitary and that patients — including children and the physically disabled — are routinely ignored and abused,” according to the groups’ May 3 release announcing the suit.

The groups claim that alleged mistreatment of patients at the hospital is a violation of the federal Americans With Disabilities Act as well as several New York State provisions that guarantee the delivery of mental health services in a safe and sanitary manner.

Aviles is named as one of the lead defendants in the 36-page suit, which specifically cites five patients, all with some type of disability, who allege “abusive and neglectful” treatment at Kings County.

One patient, L.D., claimed that she was laughed at when she asked to call her family and was placed in a bed with soiled sheets. Another patient, identified as J.P., said that she had to sleep sitting up in a wheelchair after she got up in the night to use the bathroom and returned to find another patient in her bed.

The New York Daily News reported that in addition to the neglect in Green’s case, staff members entered false information into her medical chart during the hour in which she lay on the ground to cover up the lack of treatment.

At 6 a.m. on the morning of her death, according to the Daily News, Green’s medical chart reportedly listed the patient as “awake, up and about, went to the bathroom.” Green had been in the same spot on the ground for more than a half-hour. At 6:08 a.m., she stopped moving, according to the footage. But her chart described her at 6:20 a.m. as “sitting quietly in the waiting room.” In reality, she may have already been dead.

Ana Marengo, a spokeswoman for the Health and Hospital Corp., would not address the exact entries in Green’s medical chart, but did say, “There appears to be some discrepancies” that have been forwarded, along with the entire case, to various New York City investigative departments.

“It is clear that some of our employees failed to act based on our compassionate standards of care,” administrators wrote in a statement last night that followed the video’s release.

Hospital administrators outlined a series of improvements already made to the Kings County psychiatric program, including the addition of staff and expanding space to cope with overcrowding. They pledged a series of improvements, including the appointment of an “interim administrator” who will report directly to Aviles, and a guarantee that patients in the psychiatric emergency unit will be checked on every 15 minutes.

In June, USA Today reported that nearly 80 percent of hospitals said that mentally ill patients sometimes wait up to four hours or more for emergency care, citing a study by the American College of Emergency Physicians that surveyed 328 emergency medical directors.

Physicians blamed the delayed care on shrinking budgets that have prompted many hospitals to either consolidate mental health services or shut them down completely. Since 2000, the number of psychiatric beds has dropped 12 percent, according to the medical organization’s statistics.

Copyright © 2008 ABC News Internet Ventures

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Magistrate Tells Man to Kill Himself

(WXYZ) – Court officials in Novi say a magistrate “could have chosen better words” when she told a man convicted of drunk driving and other offenses that he should commit suicide by jumping to his death or slitting his wrists in a bathtub.

52nd District Court Magistrate Judith Holtz made the shocking statements during a hearing on April 10 as she was sentencing 20-year-old Michael Robert Dickey on a charge of Minor in Possession of alcohol. Dickey had two prior convictions for drunk driving and, according to the court, “had failed to comply with his bond conditions to remain drug and alcohol free.”

According to court transcripts obtained by WXYZ, Dickey admitted to Holtz that he’d “made a lot of mistakes” — and that’s when she unleashed from the bench.

“I don’t mean to be offensive, but you have two Operating While Intoxicated convictions and then you blow a .223 and you’re still not twenty one?, Holtz said.

“Here is my suggestion to you, Mr. Dickey, climb up on the roof of your house and jump off; either that or get in a bathtub filled with hot water and slash your wrists; then you will be dead; it will be cheaper; it will be faster and in the long run it will be less painful to anybody who cares about you, because that’s where you’re headed now, and the best part of it is you won’t take somebody else with you.

“Who do you think you are? You don’t have the right to go out there and endanger innocent people and you know it. And you have had two convictions for drunk driving and you’re not twenty one and you still drink.”

Holtz is a veteran magistrate who joined the court in 1992 after practicing law for 18 years. She declined to talk with WXYZ about the tirade, but 52nd District Court officials offered an explanation late Monday.

“The words chosen by the Court’s magistrate to convey the seriousness and severity of the defendant’s actions and crime could have been better chosen,” the court said in a statement. “The magistrate was attempting to convey, through an analogy, that the defendant’s actions and past behavior has continually put the community at risk.”

The court’s statement to WXYZ also sought to prove Dickey remains a risk to the community. “It should also be noted that Mr. Dickey, at a probation appointment on May 12, 2008, tested positive for cocaine, marijuana and amphetamines in a urine screen.” Dickey has been sent to a rehab program.

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Woman indicted in fatal MySpace hoax on girl

By Dan Whitcomb2 hours, 11 minutes ago

A 49-year-old Missouri mother accused of using a fake MySpace persona to “torment, harass, humiliate and embarrass” a 13-year-old girl who hanged herself was indicted on Thursday on federal charges.

Lori Drew, accused of helping dupe 13-year-old Megan Meier into believing she was chatting with a teenage boy, was indicted on conspiracy and other charges by a U.S. District Court jury in Los Angeles.

Meier’s suicide in October of 2006 made worldwide headlines and prompted calls for social networking sites like MySpace to crack down on cyber-bullying.

“Any adult who uses the Internet to bully or harass another person, particularly a young teenage girl, needs to realize that their actions can have serious consequences,” U.S. Attorney Thomas O’Brien said in announcing the indictment.

Meier for several weeks had what she thought was an online relationship with the fictional 16-year-old boy, “Josh Evans,” when in fact she was exchanging messages with Drew and others.

Drew, 49, is the mother of a teenage girl who had a falling out with Meier.

Meier hanged herself in the closet of her bedroom in a St. Louis suburb on October 15, 2006, after “Evans” told her he did not want to be friends with her anymore and that “the world would be a better place without you.”

Prosecutors say Drew and others created the fake persona using the picture of an unwitting teenage boy.

A former employee of Drew, 19-year-old Ashley Grills, told ABC’s “Good Morning America” in an interview that she set up the fake MySpace account because Drew wanted to find out what Meier was saying about her daughter.

After Meier killed herself, Drew had the hoax MySpace account deleted and told an unnamed juvenile who knew about it that she should “keep her mouth shut,” according to the indictment.

It said “defendant Drew and the co-conspirators used the information obtained over the MySpace computer system to torment, harass, humiliate and embarrass the juvenile MySpace member.”

Drew, who faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in federal prison if she is convicted on all of the charges, was expected to surrender to authorities in Missouri.

(Editing by Vicki Allen)

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http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080425/ap_on_en_mu/people_winehouse

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April 2, 2008

By a vote of 417-0, the House of Representatives on April 1 passed H.Res. 1005, urging recognition of Borderline Personality Disorder.

Here is the text of the bill:

HRES 1005 EH

H. Res. 1005

InH. RES. 1005
Supporting the goals and ideals of Borderline Personality Awareness Month.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
February 27, 2008

Mr. TOM DAVIS of Virginia (for himself and Mr. VAN HOLLEN) submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform
RESOLUTION Supporting the House of Representatives, U. S.,

April 1, 2008.

Whereas borderline personality disorder (BPD) affects the regulation of emotion and afflicts approximately 2 percent of the general population;

Whereas BPD is a leading cause of suicide, as an estimated 10 percent of individuals with this disorder take their own lives;

Whereas BPD usually manifests itself in adolescence and early adulthood;

Whereas symptoms of BPD include self-injury; rage; substance abuse; destructive impulsiveness; a pattern of unstable emotions, self-image, and relationships; and may result in suicide;

Whereas BPD is inheritable and is exacerbated by environmental factors;

Whereas official recognition of BPD is relatively new, and diagnosing it is often impeded by lack of awareness and frequent co-occurrence with other conditions, such as depression, bipolar disorder, substance abuse, anxiety, and eating disorders;

Whereas despite its prevalence, enormous public health costs, and the devastating toll it takes on individuals, families, and communities, BPD only recently has begun to command the attention it requires;

Whereas it is essential to increase awareness of BPD among people suffering from this disorder, their families, mental health professionals, and the general public by promoting education, research, funding, early detection, and effective treatments; and

Whereas the National Education Alliance for Borderline Personality Disorder and the National Alliance on Mental Illness have requested that Congress designate May as Borderline Personality Disorder Awareness Month as a means of educating our Nation about this disorder, the needs of those suffering from it, and its consequences: Now, therefore, be it

Resolved, That the House of Representatives supports the goals and ideals of Borderline Personality Disorder Awareness Month.

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But I regret to have to say I cannot say the same about the wife’s evidence. Having watched and listened to her give evidence, having studied the documents, and having given in her favour every allowance for the enormous strain she must have been under (and in conducting her own case) I am driven to the conclusion that much of her evidence, both written and oral, was not just inconsistent and inaccurate but also less than candid. Overall she was a less than impressive witness.
….

The proposed Amended Petition alleged a number of matters against the wife of verbal abuse, extreme jealousy, false accusations of violence, and that throughout the marriage the wife had shown a consistent inability to tell the truth.
….

I assume for the purpose of this judgment only that in those interviews the wife lost her cool completely, went right over the top, and behaved in an erratic, out of control, and vengeful manner.

Ouch! OK, I took them out of context, but still – ouch!

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