This first blog is a good opportunity to introduce you to my Los Angeles divorce attorney practice. We handle the usual “bread and butter” family law issues like divorce, paternity and paternity fraud, pre-marital agreements, “move-away” cases, property distribution, custody and support, and interstate jurisdiction. We also do some pre-foreclosure defense cases in which the property owner/borrower has mortgage insurance. Nevertheless, over the years my practice has evolved to emphasize high conflict custody cases in which the other party suffers from Borderline Personality Disorder. This initial blog is limited to discussing how it came to pass that so much of my practice deals with Borderline Personality Disorder cases. Subsequent blogs will deal with specific family law issues, including recent developments in family law.
Potential clients and other family law attorneys often ask me how I, an attorney, can claim to have any real understanding of Borderline Personality Disorder. This is a fair and good question. The answer is simple: I learned the hard way—I was in a very dangerous, destructive and debilitating long-term relationship with a Borderline. As anyone who has been in a long-term interpersonal relationship with a Borderline will tell you, life ceases to be life and a quick death would have been a kinder sentence. My life and who I am changed forever the day the woman I thought I knew changed, literally overnight, into a monster.
I jokingly tell people that over a period of years, my Borderline bestowed upon me an honorary Ph.D. in Borderline Personality Disorder. I do not claim to have anymore than a layman’s knowledge of any other personality disorder like co-dependency, histrionics, obsessive/ compulsive disorder, bi-polar disorder or narcissism, but I do claim to know more about Borderline behavior than many Ph.D.’s who only understand Borderline Personality Disorder from what they read in textbooks.
As you can well imagine, if we can handle high-conflict Borderline cases, then “normal” family law cases are walks-in-the-park in comparison.
That, in a nutshell, is what “qualifies” me for claiming a working understanding of, and appreciation for, Borderlines and people who are in inter-personal relationships with Borderlines.