Beyond Boundaries Buy the new eBook from Bon. "Beyond Boundaries" is the culmination of five years of research, practice and hard work. It's $18.00 at Google Checkout.
When Hope is Not Enough Buy "When Hope is Not Enough" eBook from Google Checkout (and save $0.50!):
But I Love You Buy "But I Love You" eBook from Google Checkout:
A free eBook – 4X4 for Nons
|
I was disturbed to read this column in which Caroline Hutchinson of (apparently) “Mix FM” (some sort of radio station) said this about a story in which a boy was bullyed at a disco in Sydney. What I find troubling about her post about the incident is this… She says:
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.
Here is a video put out by PA Gym shooter George Sodini about his emotions… I post this not to provide him with sympathy. He made a horrible choice that will ruin the lives of many. I post it because it illustrates the power of negative emotions on a person’s psyche.
Obviously, my heart goes out to his victims more than to him. I just wonder how many other people are suffering out there in isolation and painful emotions. So many people require emotional skills. IMO most violence, included these horrible mass murders, are caused by painful emotions.
While this article is not specifically about BPD, there is some mutilation in it (not self, but of a boyfriend), so it may be triggering to some. Here is long article on it and here is a link to a shorter article with pictures (be warned!).
‘Blackburn woman tattooed lover with Stanley knife’
8:50am Saturday 31st January 2009
A WOMAN used a Stanley knife to carve her name on the shoulder of her lover while he was asleep, a court heard.
Dominique Fisher, 22, of Blackburn, has gone on trial accused of unlawfully wounding Wayne Robinson, with whom she had a drink-and-drug fueled four-day fling after meeting in a nightclub.
As well as her name on his right shoulder, Fisher carved a star on his back and ‘body art’ on his left arm.
Mr Robinson said he woke up covered in blood to find himself cut, with Fisher ‘snoring her head off’ next to him.
Fisher had told him: “I’m a tattooist. I thought you’d like it”, the court heard.
But Fisher denies the charge and has told the jury she carried out the carvings with Mr Fisher’s consent.
The court heard the two had met by chance in the Syndicate nightclub in Blackpool on June 12 then spent a night together in a room at the Cliffs hotel where cocaine was taken before going their separate ways in the morning.
The next day there was further contact between them and Mr Robinson travelled by taxi from his home in Fleetwood to her Blackburn flat.
Steven Wild, prosecuting, said the man stayed with her for two nights and the pair drunk alcohol and took valium, not prescribed to either of them.
He told the court: “What the Crown say happened is that around 2.30am on the Sunday morning Mr Robinson woke and found he was covered in blood.
“He found a design carved into his left arm and the name Dominique into his right shoulder and a star carved into his back.”
Mr Robinson, 24, told the jury at Preston Crown Court that they took around 30 valium tablets between them that weekend.
He said “I watched a bit of telly, laid on the bed, drinking vodka, chatting. That is basically all I can remember.”
He woke up the first morning and she said they had had sex.
Mr Robinson said he presumed that on the Saturday he took more valium.
His last recollection was being “laid on the bed”.
Mr Robinson discovered the tattoos in the early hours of Sunday.
“I had been cut up, there was blood and Dominique was snoring her head off. I had slashes, cuts on my arms and back.”
He refuted defence claims that he had consented to the tattoos, that he had asked her to do it and had mopped up the blood. “I was comatose”, he added.
Mr Robinson’s wounds went onto heal, but has been left with visible scarring, the court heard.
In her evidence, Fisher, who the court was told was a woman of good character, said they sat chatting about the seven tattoos she had then.
She said he asked her to put ‘a tribal one’ on him. She told the jury she had never done it before and did not have a clue how to go about it.
Fisher, of Roebuck Close, in the Galligreaves area, said: “He was asking me questions like had I got anything sterile.
“I said I had Stanley blades because I had been decorating.
“He wanted to put his name into me and I said no. We were both awake, knew what we were doing and talking about.
“He was sat on the end of the bed, baring his arm. Both of us wiped the blood away.
“I was asking him did it hurt. He said ‘no, carry on’.”
It took a few hours to write the name Dominique and then the tribal tattoo.
Fisher said she could not remember doing the star on his back.
She later added in evidence: “I’m sorry for what I have done”.
The trial continues on Monday.
I am posting this story because in this case the victim of the issue is the person with BPD. Her care giver is charged with neglect of the patient:
Article published Dec 5, 2008
Innocent plea entered by caregiver in case where woman died
By Thatcher Moats Times Argus Staff
BARRE – Julie Davis is accused of doing too little too late to help a vulnerable adult who died while in her care last summer.
Davis, 47, of Calais pleaded innocent in Vermont District Court in Barre Thursday to neglect of a vulnerable adult by a caregiver, which carries a potential penalty of 15 years in prison and a $10,000 fine.
Davis was the caregiver responsible for Jean Lemire when Lemire, 45, died last August of hypothermia after being removed from Davis’ Calais home.
Lemire’s core body temperature was 82 degrees when she arrived at Central Vermont Medical Center, and she had multiple bruises, lacerations and a broken rib, court records state. When rescue workers found Lemire, she was soaking wet and had significant bruising on her face and chest, according to Jay Copping of the East Calais rescue squad. Lemire had been eating mud and grass, and Copping told police that he extracted muddy water and grass from Lemire as he attempted to force a tube down her throat.
The court records paint a picture of Lemire as a difficult person to handle, who become more so in the days leading up to her death. Her worsened condition may have been triggered by news of the death of her nephew, who family members said she was close to. Lemire was also scheduled to be moved from Davis’ residence, according to the affidavit, which also may have caused anxiety.
Davis told investigators that Lemire was a self-mutilator who would punch herself in the face and slam her face into the walls. Davis said that in the five days before she died, Lemire refused to sleep and often ran into the woods naked. She also ran over to a neighbors’ house without her clothes on a few days before her death.
On the day of Lemire’s death, Davis said Lemire had been given her morning dose of medication and then spent the majority of the day outside.
However, Davis didn’t call 911 until Lemire collapsed and stopped breathing. Davis had been trying to get Lemire to eat and drink Gatorade, she told investigators, and she performed CPR on Lemire until rescue workers arrived.
Shirley Cichonowicz, a sister and guardian of Lemire, told police that at the hospital the family decided to take Lemire off life support. Lemire died that Aug. 9 at about 10 p.m., according to court records.
Thursday’s proceeding in Vermont District Court in Barre was brief, and Davis was released on conditions. About 15 of Lemire’s family members were in the courthouse, and they filed out of the courtroom after the arraignment but declined to comment.
In an interview with police, Davis’ supervisor and Lemire’s case manager, Karen Daley-Regan, said that Lemire should have been placed in a crisis home based on her behavior in the days before her death.
Daley-Regan said that Lemire’s behavior before her death was uncharacteristic. But she also said that Lemire was known to take her clothes off and had an eating disorder, two of the things that lead to the woman’s death.
On Aug. 5, Daley-Regan prepared a monthly log that indicated no irregular issues with Lemire or Davis, court records state.
But the next day Davis reported that Lemire had gone to a neighbor’s home naked.
Daley-Regan then told Davis that she needed to have her eyes on Lemire at all times, but Daley-Regan did not do a home visit.
Daley-Regan told police that on Aug. 7 she checked in with Davis, who did not say there was an emergency.
Daley-Regan told police that had she known what was going on at the Davis residence, she would have intervened.
Davis told investigators that she tried to communicate what was going on when she talked to Daley-Regan, but also admitted she did not try hard enough. Davis also told police that she knows she should have done more to help Lemire, according to court records.
Communication was not Davis’ strength, according to a former colleague who was the case manager for one of Davis’ previous clients.
Troy Busconi, of the Vermont Crisis Intervention Network at Upper Valley Services, was the case manager for Shawn Leary, whom Davis cared for at one time.
Busconi told police that Davis lacked communication skills, and said he heard about a seizure that Leary had had only long after the incident. And when Davis asked for help, she would “not communicate it directly,” Busconi told investigators.
Davis had a limited skill set, but did the best she could, Busconi told police.
Last May, Adult Protective Services received a complaint that a caregiver was being abusive to her client in a local drugstore. The complainant, Lisa Sargent, took down the license plate number on the vehicle, which was registered to Doug Ballou, who lived with Davis in Calais.
Sargent also told police that the caregiver was referring to the client as “Jean.”
Another caregiver told police that he witnessed Davis scream at Lemire to get her to do things.
It also appears that Lemire was not the first client to die while in the care of Davis. The affidavit is not entirely clear on how much responsibility Davis may have had for the death of a man named Doug Lafrance, who, according to court records, died of pneumonia. But he was in her care when he died, according to the affidavit.
Police pointed out that in the two deaths, Davis did not call 911 until it was too late.
Lemire had been a client of Lincoln Street Inc., a non-profit agency based in Springfield, dedicated to caring for people with developmental disabilities, for 24 years. She was diagnosed with borderline personality disorder, according to the affidavit, and also suffered from anorexia, bulimia, seizure disorder and other conditions.
Lemire required daily doses of a handful of mood stabilizing and anti-depressant drugs.
Davis, who has been a homecare provider for 11 years, began caring for Lemire late last March.
Joan Senecal, the commissioner of the state Department of Aging and Disability, could not be reached for comment yesterday. Cheryl Thrall, the executive director at Lincoln Street declined to comment.
I stumbled across this article today about the trial of a man who allegedly killed his ex-girlfriend…. I thought some of the wording was interesting. I have marked up this article to show what I found interesting about it.
Ventura murder trial opens
By Raul Hernandez
Originally published 12:01 a.m., November 20, 2008
Updated 01:00 p.m., November 19, 2008
A Ventura woman tried break free from her killer’s grip but was stabbed more than 130 times in a deadly attack, a prosecutor told a jury today in the murder trial of 24-year-old Uriel Cruz.
Prosecutor Rebecca Day told jurors that the 2007 death of Barbarita Yvonne Luna, 25, was premeditated murder and that her alleged killer, Cruz, had been lying in wait.
“She was using her hands to push him away, but she couldn’t get out of his grasp,” Day said in her opening statement to the Ventura County Superior Court jury.
The prosecutor said Cruz and Luna were romantically involved until she broke off their relationship, and she refused his numerous requests to get back together.
Cruz is accused of stabbing Luna to death in a car in the parking lot of the Target store on Main Street in Ventura on May 11, 2007. Authorities say he drove away and was arrested later the same day by Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies in Calabasas after his relatives urged him to turn himself in.
Today, the jury saw photographs taken by Los Angeles County deputies. One showed Cruz standing next to his car with blood on his clothes and face. Other photos showed the victim’s lifeless and bloody body, slumped in the passenger side of the car.
Cruz’s lawyer, Josie Banuelos of the county Public Defender’s Office, said he never intended to kill Luna.
In her opening statement to the jury, Banuelos said Cruz has a borderline personality disorder and a history of cutting himself to relieve his mental pain. Banuelos said he bought the knife to mutilate himself and had no intention of killing Luna.
“That knife was for him because he was going to go see Ms. Luna. He was afraid he might be hearing something he didn’t want to hear, and he could cut himself to relieve the pain,” Banuelos said.
She said every interview Cruz had with detectives indicates that he told them: “I didn’t intend to kill her. Why would I kill the woman I love?”
Day pointed out to jurors that Cruz isn’t using the insanity defense in his trial.
 Well, I haven’t written anything EVER about Andy Dick… but I read an article today that puts him high on the celebrity BPD meter… I also watch the YouTube clip of him being thrown off of Jimmy Kimmel’s show. Here is the article and the clip:
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.
 Here’s an article from CNN about guns in homes:
More than half firearm deaths are suicides
- Recent Supreme Court ruling on guns focused on protection from home invasion
- Suicides accounted for 55 percent of nearly 31,000 firearm deaths in 2005 in U.S.
- More gun-related suicides than homicides and accidents in 20 of last 25 years
- Research shows if gun in home, higher likelihood of suicide or homicide in home
ATLANTA, Georgia, (AP) — The Supreme Court’s landmark ruling on gun ownership last week focused on citizens’ ability to defend themselves from intruders in their homes. But research shows that surprisingly often, gun owners use the weapons on themselves.
Suicides accounted for 55 percent of the nation’s nearly 31,000 firearm deaths in 2005, the most recent year for which statistics are available from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
There was nothing unique about that year — gun-related suicides have outnumbered firearm homicides and accidents for 20 of the last 25 years. In 2005, homicides accounted for 40 percent of gun deaths. Accidents accounted for 3 percent. The remaining 2 percent included legal killings, such as when police do the shooting, and cases that involve undetermined intent.
Public-health researchers have concluded that in homes where guns are present, the likelihood that someone in the home will die from suicide or homicide is much greater.
Studies have also shown that homes in which a suicide occurred were three to five times more likely to have a gun present than households that did not experience a suicide, even after accounting for other risk factors.
In a 5-4 decision, the high court on Thursday struck down a handgun ban enacted in the District of Columbia in 1976 and rejected requirements that firearms have trigger locks or be kept disassembled. The ruling left intact the district’s licensing restrictions for gun owners.
One public-health study found that suicide and homicide rates in the district dropped after the ban was adopted. The district has allowed shotguns and rifles to be kept in homes if they are registered, kept unloaded and taken apart or equipped with trigger locks.
The American Public Health Association, the American Association of Suicidology and two other groups filed a legal brief supporting the district’s ban. The brief challenged arguments that if a gun is not available, suicidal people will just kill themselves using other means.
More than 90 percent of suicide attempts using guns are successful, while the success rate for jumping from high places was 34 percent. The success rate for drug overdose was 2 percent, the brief said, citing studies.
“Other methods are not as lethal,” said Jon Vernick, co-director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Policy and Research in Baltimore.
The high court’s majority opinion made no mention of suicide. But in a dissenting opinion, Justice Stephen Breyer used the word 14 times in voicing concern about the impact of striking down the handgun ban.
“If a resident has a handgun in the home that he can use for self-defense, then he has a handgun in the home that he can use to commit suicide or engage in acts of domestic violence,” Breyer wrote.
Researchers in other fields have raised questions about the public-health findings on guns.
Gary Kleck, a researcher at Florida State University’s College of Criminology and Criminal Justice, estimates there are more than 1 million incidents each year in which firearms are used to prevent an actual or threatened criminal attack.
Public-health experts have said the telephone survey methodology Kleck used likely resulted in an overestimate. iReport.com: Watch William Bernstein share his views on gun ownership
Both sides agree there has been a significant decline in the last decade in public-health research into gun violence.
The CDC traditionally was a primary funder of research on guns and gun-related injuries, allocating more than $2.1 million a year to such projects in the mid-1990s.
But the agency cut back research on the subject after Congress in 1996 ordered that none of the CDC’s appropriations be used to promote gun control.
Vernick said the Supreme Court decision underscores the need for further study into what will happen to suicide and homicide rates in the district when the handgun ban is lifted.
Today, the CDC budgets less than $900,000 for firearm-related projects, and most of it is spent to track statistics. The agency no longer funds gun-related policy analysis.
Now, consider that a person with BPD is 400 times more likely to commit suicide than the general public. And consider that:
Nearly 3/4 of borderlines attempt suicide or display self-mutilating behaviors like cutting themselves with razors or burning themselves. Only about 10% of suicide attempts are successful.
If only 10% of suicides are successful and 75% attempt suicide, what do you think the successful suicide rate for BPD would be if they all had access to a gun? Suicide attempts in BPD are usually impulsive. They are not usually a “call for help” or manipulative. A lot of non-BPs think that they are, but typically the suicide is not thought out. The BP just wants to end the huge amount of pain that they are in. They will use whatever method is at hand (i.e. take all the pills in the cabinent). If a handgun is at hand and loaded, suicide is much more likely to occur.
If you look at Kurt Cobain (who MAY have had BPD), he tried to commit suicide with pills at one point (that we know of) and drug overdose is not very effective. When he got a hold of his shotgun, the deed was done. From the above CNN article:
More than 90 percent of suicide attempts using guns are successful, while the success rate for jumping from high places was 34 percent. The success rate for drug overdose was 2 percent, the brief said, citing studies.
So, gun suicides are 90% sucessful, drug overdose 2%. Please don’t keep a loaded gun around someone with BPD.
From MSNBC story about NIU Shooter:
Troubled mind
The discoveries added to the puzzle surrounding Kazmierczak.
While friends, family, educators and investigators remain baffled and shocked at the gunman’s acts, a closer look reveals that Kazmierczak’s friendly exterior masked a troubled mind.
University Police Chief Donald Grady said, without giving details, that Kazmierczak, 27, had become erratic in the past two weeks after he had stopped taking his medication.
A former employee at a Chicago psychiatric treatment center said Kazmierczak’s parents placed him there after high school. She said he used to cut himself, and had resisted taking his medications.
The Virginia Tech shootings made me want to say a thing or two. There was immediate a lot of talk about gun control and of the shooter’s ability to buy guns and ammunition despite having been found by a court to be a danger to himself and others. I think that the pundits should discuss the real issue here and it is not gun control. While it may still be a good idea to have stricter gun laws, it is not the gun that did the killing; it was Cho himself that used the guns as a tool of murder.
The true problem was that Cho was mentally ill and did not seek treatment for his mental illness. I am not going to postulate as to what actual diagnosis that Cho had (I am not qualified to do so) – I will suggest that his true problem was probably emotional. He was unable to control his anger and rage. I would also like to point out that he carried around shame and self-hatred. When inner shame is left untreated, it often leaks out as anger and rage. It is extremely difficult for a person with inner shame to take ownership of that shame. Instead, it bubbles underneath the surface and comes out as anger toward those that have wronged them. I suspect this was Cho’s real problem. He was humiliated throughout his life and, quite possibly, had a biological pre-disposition to emotional dysregulation. The combination of these two factors – biological and environmental – adds up to self-hatred, shame and a persecution complex. I am not suggesting that all people with this sort of make-up and history are dangerous or would take that rage out on other people. In fact, many people with those issues end up taking their inner rage out of themselves – through suicide or risky behaviors. It seems to me that Cho couldn’t handle his shame or his intense emotions, so he acted to take revenge on other people. In doing so, he handled his emotions poorly (obviously). He probably also believed that shame to be true; meaning, he hated himself and thought other’s teasing and bullying was deserved. In pointing out the feeling that he believed to be true (that he was a bad, worthless person), he took revenge on all other people, regardless of whether they participated in his belittling.
The point of this post is to say that what we really need in this country is better and more assessable mental health care. We need to teach people, adults as well as children, about the functions of emotions and the skills that can be utilized to handle those emotions. We educate people about academic subjects everyday, but do very little to teach self-regulatory skills for emotional states. For some people, these emotional regulation skills are the very ones that can save their lives (and, in Cho’s case, the lives of others).
|
