Hi there my name is Mary Ann. I am the eldest of 4 children. We come from a very dysfunctional home and all have our issues. I am here because I need some suggestions or possible diagnosis' for my sister so that I can send some links to my stepfather to maybe get her some help.

Background on my sister:
She's 18, mom of an almost 2 year old boy

She started taking the 'wrong' path at an early age. She craved attention and got it by being the center of attention. She was promiscuous (lost her virginity at 11) got drunk her first time at 12.

She was always very concerned about her appearance and wanting to fit in and not get picked on in school.

She took a turn at around 15 from preppy to 'Emo'. She created this delusion (if you will) that she was severely depressed. Started to cut herself (only for attention - not a 'true' cutter). She got tattoos and several body piercings. She started to dapple in bisexual lifestyle as well.

She wants to blame our mom for all of her problems. She only wants to party and have fun. She doesn't want to be responsible. She constantly flaunts her 'depression' for all to see. She takes pics of herself all made up but with a sad face and posts them on her facebook with cryptic lonely/depressed captions. She always seeks everyone's sympathy. She wants to play the victim. She is very good at manipulating people.

The more I read and the more I see her the more I feel that she is NOT depressed. I feel like she chose an image in highschool and she went the way her friends went and chose 'Emo' (emotional, I think this was Gothic when I was a teen). I feel like she had it in her mind what an Emo was supposed to be like and decided that she had to play that part. She constantly changed her image and tried to stand out. She started to cut herself (but not because of a deep need to, this was by choice). I feel like she created this 'fantasy' of how she was supposed to be and like the saying if you lie about something enough eventually you will think that is the truth, she started to believe it.

She is a carbon copy of our mother. My mother is not depressed. She's in major need of psychiatric help though. She's narcissistic, psychotic, paranoid, obsessive compuslive and much more. My sister is my mother 20 years ago before the drugs took hold of her.

I feel like she is flaunting her 'depression' in any environment that she can so she can get the most sympathy. She wants to be the victim, she likes that attention. She likes that she can use that as excuses for why she isn't able to take responsibility for herself. One example I can give happened very recently. She just graduated high school (thanks to our mom and her dad because they basically took care of her child and her so she could finish her senior year of HS) recently and is visiting our cousin for a nice 3 week vacation for our cousins wedding. Instead of posting about how nice it is to get away for a while or how nice the beach is etc. she is only posting mopy things. She keeps saying that she can't stop thinking about this or that. I'm so upset I can't stop shaking.....Every post she makes it's all gloomy and reiterative. She's so sad, so lonely, so lost. She can't handle this. Everyone says I keep making mistakes and I hurt everyone.....Then she gets all of these sympathetic responses and her answer is always basically 'yeah, I don't know, it's just too hard'....

I just feel like she's just PLAYING the depressed role. She likes the sympathy, the attention. She likes everyone coming to tell her how incredibly she is doing. That she graduated high school as a teen mom, that she is going to take a nursing course, how she is making wonderful decisions, that she is a great person and a great mom and not to let anyone keep her down. My mother is the same way. She LOVES, thrives, off of the sympathy and attention. She will literally make up stories just to get the attention and sympathy that she is craving that day.

The things that I saw that might fit her were borderline personality disorder and histrionic personality disorder.

I would really appreciate any thoughts, suggestions, links to research anything that I might be able to pass along to my stepfather.

Thank you so much to anyone that takes the time to read my disorganized jumble.

Mary Ann