Casey is the inspiration of this autobiographical tale. A love story involving a person with Borderline Personality Disorder (or BPD). Ordinary people living extraordinary lives. A strong family support group is needed to care for people with serious mental illnesses. This story is a true romance story which includes a tale of family and difficult life choices. For those of you unaware about Borderline Personality Disorder it is diagnosed by five of the nine prerequisites from the DSM-IV-TR. BPD is manifested by a pervasive pattern of instability of interpersonal relationships, self-image, and affects, and marked impulsivity beginning by early adulthood and present in a variety of contexts including 1. Frantic efforts to avoid real or imagined abandonment. 2. A pattern of unstable and intense interpersonal relationships characterized by alternating between extremes of idealization and devaluation. This is called "splitting" 3. Identity disturbance: markedly and persistently unstable self-image or sense of self. 4. Impulsivity in at least two areas that are potentially self-damaging (e.g., spending, sex, substance abuse, reckless driving, binge eating). 5. Recurrent suicidal behavior, gestures, or threats, or self-mutilating behavior. 6. Affective instability due to a marked reactivity of mood (e.g., intense episodic dysphoria, irritability, or anxiety usually lasting a few hours and only rarely more than a few days). 7. Chronic feelings of emptiness. 8. Inappropriate, intense anger or difficulty controlling anger (e.g., frequent displays of temper, constant anger, recurrent physical fights). 9. Transient, stress-related paranoid ideation or severe dissociative symptoms.Casey had all nine. Without knowing it their love would begin to heal thirty years of abuse and neglect.
