LL PD

-- (Ramon de Merde, PhD@Sorbonne.edu), October 19, 2001

Answers

There are three clusters of PDs:

· Cluster A - odd or eccentric, thought perhaps to be the forme fruste of psychotic disorders (paranoid, schizoid, schizotypal) · Cluster B - dramatic or erratic (histrionic, borderline, antisocial, narcissistic) · Cluster C - anxious, fearful, “neurotic border” (dependent, obsessive-compulsive, avoidant)

-- (Ramon de Merde, PhD@Sorbonne.edu), October 19, 2001.

Is this a poll?

-- (ivote@forB.com), October 19, 2001.

We should care about this.....exactly why?

-- (yawn@we.bored), October 19, 2001.

Well cin you should care very much so. it is important to understand that I can and am very able to do harm verbally as you are.

-- (thanks@to.Ramon), October 19, 2001.

huh? did i miss something?

-- (cin@cin.cin), October 19, 2001.

LMAO...

rollin' on the floor...

The Dog

-- The Dog (dogdesert@hotmail.com), October 19, 2001.

Oh loony person, you can only verbally harm those who allow themselves to shive a git

And I, personally, DON'T

I don't think anyone here really cares. Sorry to burst your bubble. But I do think it's nice that you can amuse yourself so. You really should charge yourself admission.

-- (me@myself.i), October 19, 2001.

Ditto what cin said.

-- (Mayme @I. Logsdon (1881-1967)), October 19, 2001.

Mayme, good to see ya! Remember that hot time at Grant Park? C'est magnifique!

-- (Ramon@Sorbonne.edu), October 19, 2001.

You are dreaming again, mon ami.

-- (Mayme @I. Logsdon (1881-1967)), October 19, 2001.

Mais oui, le reve c'est jooocy. Ooo la la!

-- (Ramon@Le.Louvre), October 19, 2001.

The early years-1965, the waffle incident

Laura, age eleven, wakes up, makes her bed, looks around her room to make sure everything is in its place, and heads into the kitchen to make herself breakfast. She peers into the freezer, removes the container of frozen waffles, and counts six waffles. Thinking to herself, "I'll have three waffles this morning and three tomorrow morning," Laura toasts her three waffles and sits down to eat.

Moments later, her mother and five-year old brother, Adam, enter the kitchen, and the mother asks Adam what he'd like to eat for breakfast. Adam responds, "Waffles," and the mother reaches into the freezer for the waffles. Laura, who has been listening intently, explodes.

"He can't have the frozen waffles!" Laura screams, her face suddenly reddening.

"Why not?" asks the mother, her voice and pulse rising, at a loss for an explanation of Laura's behavior.

"I was going to have those waffles tomorrow morning!" Laura screams, jumping out of her chair.

"I'm not telling your brother he can't have waffles!" the mother yells back.

"He can't have them!" screams Laura, now face-to-face with her mother.

The mother, wary of the physical and verbal aggression of which her daughter is capable during these moments, desperately asks Adam if there's something else he would consider eating.

"I want waffles," whimpers Adam, cowering behind his mother.

Laura, her frustration and agitation at a peak, pushes her mother out of the way, seizes the container of frozen waffles, then slams the freezer door shut, pushes over a kitchen chair, grabs her plate of toasted waffles, and stalks to her room. Her brother and mother begin to cry.

Laura’s family members have endured literally thousands of such episodes. In many instances, the episodes are more prolonged and intense, and involve more physical or verbal aggression than the one described above (when Laura was eight, she kicked out the front windshield of the family car). Mental health professionals have told Laura’s parents she has something called oppositional-defiant disorder. For the parents, however, a simple label doesn’t begin to explain the upheaval, turmoil, and trauma that Laura’s outbursts cause. Her siblings and mother are scared of her. Her extreme volatility and inflexibility require constant vigilance and enormous energy from her mother and father, thereby lessening the attention the parents wish they could devote to Laura’s brother and sister. Her parents frequently argue over the best way to handle her behavior, but agree about the severe strains Laura places on their marriage. Although she is above average in intelligence, Laura has no close friends; children who initially befriend her eventually find her rigid personality difficult to tolerate.

Over the years, Laura’s parents have sought help from countless mental health professionals, most of whom advised them to set firmer limits and be more consistent in managing Laura’s behavior, and instructed them on how to implement formal behavior management strategies. When such strategies failed to work, Laura was medicated with innumerable combinations of drugs, without dramatic effect. After eight years of medicine, advice, sticker charts, time-outs, and reward programs, Laura has changed little since her parents first noticed there was something "different" about her when she was a toddler.

"Most people can’t imagine how humiliating it is to be scared of your own daughter," Laura’s mother once said. "People who don’t have a child like Laura don’t have a clue about what it’s like to live like this. Believe me, this is not what I envisioned when I dreamed of having children. This is a nightmare."

"You can’t imagine the embarrassment of having Laura ‘lose it’ around people who don’t know her," her mother continued. "I feel like telling them, ‘I have two kids at home who don’t act like this -- I really am a good parent!’"

"I know people are thinking, ‘What wimpy parents she must have...what that kid really needs is a good thrashing.’ Believe me, we’ve tried everything with her. But nobody’s been able to tell us how to help her...no one’s really been able to tell us what’s the matter with her!"

"I hate what I’ve become. I used to think of myself as a kind, patient, sympathetic person. But Laura has caused me to act in ways I never thought I was capable of. I’m emotionally spent. I can’t keep living like this."

"I know a lot of other parents who have pretty difficult children...you know, kids who are hyperactive or having trouble paying attention. I would give my left arm for a kid who was just hyperactive or having trouble paying attention! Laura is in a completely different league! It makes me feel very alone."

-- (Ramon@left.bank), October 20, 2001.

Wow. You must have spent more than a little time replacing my name with the other one. On a Friday night, too!

Your obsession with me is bordering on psychotic.

I'm flattered, but bored.

-- (Mayme @I. Logsdon (1881-1967)), October 20, 2001.

You have seen nothing yet. I do not do attacks on my character well.

-- (LadyLogic2000@yahoo.com), October 20, 2001.

What character? You have no character except a wicked disturbed one.

-- (rockon@rock.it), October 21, 2001.

Have you ever had a lucid thought in your life, Bardou?

I quit using my handle over a week ago in the "The name "LadyLogic" is retired as of right now." thread. I never changed my mind, and I never will.

Now, are you ready to discuss your character? How's that family you love so much? (chuckle)

-- (Mary @Edwards. Walker), October 21, 2001.

I just changed my mind.

-- (LadyLogic2000@yahoo.con), October 22, 2001.