Abnormal Behavior: Dependent Personality Disorder

Solution Preview

Abnormal Behavior Diagnosis

Casey: Behavior and Background

Casey is a 28-year old woman who has run-ins with the law largely because of what many determine as a highly obsessive, excessively dependent behavior that leads her to stalk ex-boyfriends and ex-friends and others. For all intents and purposes, Casey appears normal and easy to get along with for anyone who first meets her. But when they get into some form of relationship with her - she becomes increasingly intrusive into their personal lives, obsesses about her place in their priorities, and is dependent on them for her joy and happiness and feels extremely rejected when they break away from her. She is unable to relate to them in a manner that allows her to understand their need for space and does not see her overly dependent and intrusive behavior as odd. Because of this, she invades the privacy of her ex lovers and friends, sleeping in their beds, going through their private things, eating their food, wearing their clothes, etc. without them knowing. She does this by copying their keys. Her invasion extends to her reading their emails and letters, sending out replies in their behalf, including hate mails to their friends and family whom she feels caused for their 'love' or 'good relationship' to go awry.

Casey grew up the youngest of 4 children. Her parents divorced when she was 5. Because her mother was unable to provide her and her siblings the support they needed, they were occasionally sent to live in foster homes. Unable to get the love and support she needed from her parents and siblings, she clung on to anyone who gave her the semblance of attention and care, even strangers. She deeply missed her grandmother who was the constant carer who gave her love when the latter died when she was 10. She clung on to her then foster mother who helped her through the grieving process so that when she was once more placed with her mother when she was 11, she often goes to this foster mother, begging her to take her in. She was once again heartbroken when this foster family moved to another state, leading her to another period of grief. By the time she was 14, she started to engage in premarital sex with boys believing that having a boyfriend will stop her from being sad. She looked to relationships - lovers, friendships - for some form of emotional stability and desperately tried to control them believing that doing so will make her happy. Every time she broke up with a lover or fell out with a friend, she would stalk them for a period until authorities were involved and she was given some form of warning. Her worst case of stalking behavior was in her last relationship.

Her ex-boyfriend Daniel moved to another town to avoid her. For some months, he believed that his email and Facebook accounts was hacked by Casey as his ...