Dear mapnerd:

One more thing, for your possible consideration:

You wrote in your last post about your mother’s behavior: “There were times when she would totally meltdown- literally throwing things, yelling, crying… one time she basically turned everything in the house over, throwing everything on the floor, knocking over furniture, just totally unhinged. These episodes happened throughout my life, even recently.”

And you continued: “as she suffers from bad depression and other issues I don’t really have a clinical definition for.”

I am sure she suffered/ suffers from depression and anxiety. She is also exhibiting symptoms of Histrionic Personality Disorder (HPD). The DSM 4 states about HPD: ” a pervasive pattern of excessive emotionality and attention seeking…provocative behavior…shows self-dramatization, theatricality, and exaggerated expression of emotion”-

This means  she wouldn’t have behaved in those ways if she wasn’t performing for an audience (you/ others). It means she felt anxiety and depression and then she exaggerated her feelings via theatrics. The theatrics made her feel good, a sort of release, like an actor on a stage, impressing an attentive audience.

anita