Autopsy
kiwifarms.net
- Joined
- Sep 19, 2017
5., meet Case Number Two. Case Number Two is a retired engineer who had a heart valve fail due to radiation damage and has locked himself in his house excluding the escort of his wife and refuses to do physical activity for fear that it will simply kill him. He has been assured that this is not the case and otherwise complies with doctors, however in this area he is insistent. The more you read about him and his situation, the more it becomes clear that #2 is not genuinely afraid of this problem, at least not on the deepest level, but is instead working to keep his wife available and dedicated to his support. He was the "golden child" with his mother, who was seriously ill and eventually died, and he becomes just as dependent on his wife as he was his mother, regressing as a result of his injury. This is what it means for 5: changing your entire life to shackle those around you to your care and support. I could live without posting on the Farms for a little while, thank-you.
The same example is true for 6. It's obvious why someone with a heart valve failure might be nervous about being left alone (without support or an emergency contact) however the pathology predated the failure and earlier dependent behavior was transferred to the present scenario, merely intensified by life being sub-optimal or even downright harsh to the man. Psychiatry does not concern itself with life when it is optimal, however, because life is so rarely optimal or pleasant that the average person needs to be able to cope with that fact, even if it takes drugs and therapy to do it. He isn't damaged for being uncomfortable when alone, but rather for ensuring he is never alone by becoming home-bound and tethering his wife to his hip (possibly literally). In reality, his heart is stable or stable enough to withstand a bit of alone time. I can be alone for more than forty minutes at a time without fearing for my life, thank-you.
I might do a write-up/analysis for more, and I planned to, but it's extremely difficult to read very many DPD cases because contrary to the theme of the thread it's really hard to get diagnosed with it on the psychiatric level, and the disorder is co-morbid with some of the nastiest stuff. It's rare that people do case studies on anything other than outstanding examples, so they don't make for a pleasant read at all. A few vetoed examples include a suicidal housewife who spent months antagonizing her therapist and a man who killed his child because he believed that doing so would reduce his own guilt from his childhood and transfer his responsibilities to them.
If nothing else, the take-away is that DPD is most common in: people with violently ill moms, violent moms, battered wives, and people who are battered wives. DPD is not common in: everyone else.
