Thanks for the reply, Davey. I've read the info you suggested. This is all very new to me and I feel pretty helpless in the whole thing. Right now, my biggest fear is a selfish one. I'm very worried that my stepdaughter (together with her minor boyfriend and her newly acquired pitbull dog) is heading across several states toward our home. She's just been thrown out by her mother within 36 hours of her arrival there in this "fight or flight" rampage she's on. She's been thrown out of no less than 5 homes and her own apartment within the last 5 - 6 months and has been fired from at least 2 jobs that we know about in that same amount of time. The last time she stayed in our home, I woke up several times at night to find her standing at the foot of my bed or just inside the bedroom door. She also cut a doll to shreds - the one blonde haired doll out of a set of 6 (all the other dolls are dark brunettes). I am the only blonde in the house and she's been very clear in establishing her hatred for me (just for marrying her dad). A friend of mine who is a pastoral counselor/therapist has warned that he sees indications of impending physical violence aimed specifically at me. She's bigger and stronger than I am and I suppose, in all honesty, I'm very afraid of her. We live in a small town where doors are never locked, but now, knowing that she's supposedly driving this direction, we're both finding ourselves locking doors and watching for her surprise arrival (it fits her m.o.). Do you agree that her behavior is building toward a possible attack on me? (we've never had significant direct problems - she just acknowledges that she doesn't want me in her dad's life) How do I deal with this if it happens? Considering her past actions in this house, is it realistically safe to even allow her into the house? It's hard to stay focused on trying to help her when you're worried about protecting yourself and the others in the house. The list of previous damage to the house and other attacks (similar to the doll issue above) is long and would take pages to describe. We're truly not worrying about this without reason. Do you think we should be prepared to call for police assistance (kills us both to even think about that)? Or are we going to be expected to wait until she actually hurts herself or someone else? We're not sure she's ever going to get serious psychiatric help without being forced. Any advice on how to deal with the likely confrontation that is barreling our way?