Over The Borderline: Email Virus

Monday, August 29, 2011

Email Virus

If your Internet crashed today, it is due to the Oxford Dictionary-sized email my mother just sent to my sister and I.

I would repost it here, except I don't want my friends to read it and then have a sudden desire to stick their head in the oven.

To summarize, she took 2,000 words to say:
"You and your sister are being mean to me. I need help and can't do anythig for myself. The way you have helped in the past is not acceptable. I am lucky we didn't blow away in the hurricane. I can't take care of myself. Other kids take care of THEIR parents. I need help with everything. My friend in Australia says you are going to hell for not helping me. I need full-time care. It is your fault if something happens to me. I need help and can't do anything for myself."

For the sake of clarity it should be noted that this "friend in Australia" has never met her or even talked to her in person. In fact, based on the way this "friend" enables her -- I think the "friend" might be several fries short of a Happy Meal too.

By the way... I am not exaggerating the word count. I put it in my text writer and it counted 1,881 words,
As reference: that is about 5-6 pages with normal spacing.

Ugh. I can't even talk about this anymore.
It was so "batshit crazy" (as a woman on the BPD Family Support Forum put it) that I am mentally exhausted and just want a jug of wine and a 14-hour nap.

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From the National Institute of Mental Health website

Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is a serious mental illness characterized by pervasive instability in moods, interpersonal relationships, self-image, and behavior. This instability often disrupts family and work life, long-term planning, and the individual's sense of self-identity. Originally thought to be at the "borderline" of psychosis, people with BPD suffer from a disorder of emotion regulation.

People with BPD often have highly unstable patterns of social relationships. While they can develop intense but stormy attachments, their attitudes towards family, friends, and loved ones may suddenly shift from idealization (great admiration and love) to devaluation (intense anger and dislike). Thus, they may form an immediate attachment and idealize the other person, but when a slight separation or conflict occurs, they switch unexpectedly to the other extreme and angrily accuse the other person of not caring for them at all. Even with family members, individuals with BPD are highly sensitive to rejection, reacting with anger and distress to such mild separations as a vacation, a business trip, or a sudden change in plans. These fears of abandonment seem to be related to difficulties feeling emotionally connected to important persons when they are physically absent, leaving the individual with BPD feeling lost and perhaps worthless. Suicide threats and attempts may occur along with anger at perceived abandonment and disappointments.
People with BPD exhibit other impulsive behaviors, such as excessive spending, binge eating and risky sex. BPD often occurs together with other psychiatric problems, particularly bipolar disorder, depression, anxiety disorders, substance abuse, and other personality disorders.