QUESTION:

Dear Dr. Heller,

I’m concerned about my sister. She spends all her free time on the computer and doing what we call a ROLE PLAY GAME. She plays two characters and has a love interest that is involved w/only those 2 characters. She frequently refers to her-self as those characters and calls herself by their names. Her "love interest" from that game she refers to as that character, and calls her by that name.

She has no real close friends, is interested in a boy at her job because he looks similar to the character in her "game", although they have not dated. I’m concerned because she lies, and manipulates the person playing this character(love interest). She is sulking when there is no romance between the character and either of her two characters, and is happy when there is. She is overwhelmed w/jealously when the person that plays that character wants to play against another cast member. She has stated all the time that her character "loves" the other character.

I should also add, that she spends her free time, not w/friends, but waiting on the computer for the other person to show up and play against her. She is on the computer from the moment she gets outta work till she goes to bed, never going out to socialize.

She lies, and plays a "victim" when cornered on her behavior, but this usually stems from jealously over this character she plays against.

WHAT IS THIS PROBLEM?.

ANSWER:

There’s likely more than one thing going on. The BPD may be present, but it’s not the whole thing. Delusional and other psychotic thinking may be present. Schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder and some other disorders need to be investigated.

If this is a fair representation of what’s going on, she needs help - ASAP. She’s not in the "real world" and is susceptible to dangerous behaviors. She clearly needs to see someone expert in diagnosing these disorders.