My Crazy Mother (tm) in my own unprofessional humble opinion (but having endured over 40 years with her) has NPD (narcissistic personality disorder) among other things, and many here at WS have speculated that TH shows those traits. I see some similarities between her behavior and my mother's. I'm trying to think how my mother would react in this (missing child) situation. The weird thing about my mother is that she was extremely paranoid about us kids being snatched by strangers and/or being unable to be identified if found dead on the street (no joke)--lots of overprotectiveness as far as physical safety was concerned. She also loves (fictional) murder mysteries.
If innocent, I don't think my mother would be accounting for her whereabouts, but she would be trying to solve the crime, proposing theories, wondering about certain "creepy" people, and she would do it in a very detached and clinical way. And some of the theories would be totally out of the blue (made up example--"I wonder if she ran off and joined that troupe of gypsies I saw at the market the other day...") I know this because of various family crises in which I have witnessed her behavior. She might be worried but she would be very unlikely to say or act like she was worried. It would be all business. Oh, and she'd be viciously defending herself (many skeletons in the closet about how she raised us) and pinning blame everywhere and anywhere she could if there was any whiff of suspicion that she had been negligent. She would most certainly blame the victim first and foremost. Confused? I sure am. :crazy:
Just throwing that out there as devil's advocate for the odd/functional mentally ill but not criminally insane. I'm not a psychologist. JMHO, YMMV, MOO, etc.
Hi, are you a long-lost sibling? I so recognize everything you're saying. Everything.
Weird stuff to deal with growing up.
Overall, I'm kinda amazed that a couple of snippets from what appears to be 2 emails have led to:
1. she's poisoning Kyron
2. she's poisoning Kyron & baby K
3. she has M's Syndrome.
I'm not trying to be disrespectful, but I truly truly don't get how those little snippets, edited, out of context of the email flow, can be taken as evidence of anything we know so far, let alone evidence sufficient to prove new crimes and diagnoseses. (sp? no brekkie yet)
I know, I know, we all speculate, but...but.
As for M's Syndrome (which I never can spell)--a key element is missing her. Along with her other nutsiness, my mother, I believe, had M's Syndrome. It wasn't widely recognized or diagnosed back then.
Her method was to with-hold medicines until I got really really sick and then there'd be a crisis where she could be the loving, incredible mother staying up all night with that problematic sick kid and she'd be the star of the show. I only figured that out in the fairly recent past after reading more about M's Syn. and then remembering something important.
I had chronic tonsillitis, and spent so much time sick, sick, sick. And it always was a crisis when I had high fevers, threw up constantly, etc. etc. When I was about 5 or 6 the DR wanted to remove tonsils, my mother refused because going through the surgery would be too upsetting for her.
And I recalled that I'd go to her and say Mommy I think my tonsils are getting sick again and she'd say "Oh, it's just in your head. You WANT to be sick. Just stop thinking that way."
Then a few days later--huge fevers, etc. etc. and crisis with Mommy as the star. But--at one point Granddaddy lived with us.
And then I recalled how when I started not feeeling right I'd tell him and he'd give me some of "his medicine." Only decades later did I put it together that his country medicine looked--just like the antibiotic pills the DR prescribed for me. That wonderful man had done what he could--he got a supply of meds and kept them for me to try and prevent the crisis illness (dangerously high fevers, really, now I shake my head. I was a tough little booger, apparently to get through it.).
The key thing w/M's Syndrome is that it is all a play starring the mother as the most concerned, bestest mother in the world. M's Syndrome mothers tend to be way over-protective. They tend to keep their kids at home because "no one can take care of you like I can."
And most importantly--if TH has M's Syndrome, any child in her care wouldn't be calmly say, given meds and taken on day's errands for being fussy with ears/teeth. No, for that or any other symptom she could haul in with any kid would lead to drama and frantic flights to ERs and/or the doctor RIGHT THEN.
The entire point of M's Syndrome is high drama with Mommy the super star. Without the drama and the attention and all the "oh, that child is so sick but she is so conscientious" type of praise there is no payoff.
The show's the thing.
