Macalua.com

People may be familiar with the story of Jennifer Carol Wilbanks and John Mason - her being the “runaway bride” who decided to disappear, and him being tagged as a possible suspect in her “disappearance”. Already people are second guessing the reasons for her last-minute brush with commitmentphobia. On one side you have the general public who think that Wilbanks simply got cold feet. On the extreme side, you have mental health professionals already pointing to a host of mental disorders: borderline personality disorder and histrionic personality disorder.

“There’s more going on here than just cold feet,” said Robert Carlson, Ph.D. “My sense of it is that we are probably dealing with a personality disorder, minimally. And perhaps something even more severe. But there is clearly more pathology here than someone who just couldn’t go through with it.” (Ledger-Enquirer.com)”

Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD)
The American Psychiatric Association describes BPD as “a pattern of unstable and intense interpersonal relationships characterized by alternating between extremes of idealization and devaluation.”

Histrionic Personality Disorder (HPD)
Individuals with HPD are “uncomfortable or feel unappreciated when they are not the center of attention. Often lively and dramatic, they tend to draw attention to themselves and may initially charm new acquaintances by their enthusiasm, apparent openness, or flirtatiousness. These qualities wear thin, however, as these individuals continually demand to be the center of attention.”

Now personality disorders seem to farfetched for me but I too am guilty of this, and I don’t mean on just the issue of marriage. The absoluteness and finality of a thing scares me to no end. When the only reality left is change, to take that away would mean losing one’s ability to avoid failure. But then again, it’s facing up to one’s failure that defines a person.

Arrggggh life.

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