Sounds like weak self-image or personal boundary issues, if she hangs out with somebody that treats her badly and yet she gets off on it or doesn’t know why she’s attracted… ?
I smell borderline personality, at least to some degree, possible another interpersonal personality disorder, too (I’m not a psychiatrist). Trust me, you want to be careful around that kind of woman. That’s not the cute crazy stuff. Those kinds of women can hurt you easily. Be their “friend” maybe? Tolerate their crap and fall in love? No thanks. I’ve been there. If you have weak self-esteem they will eat you alive.
Thanks to Lindsay Lohan, Britney Spears, and Paris Hilton, these girls now have “role models” to look up to. Pretty disturbing stuff really.
Symptoms of BPD, you don’t have to display all of them to be “borderline”, just many of them:
- Frantic efforts to avoid real or imagined abandonment
- A pattern of unstable and intense interpersonal relationships characterized by alternating between extremes of idealization and devaluation
- Identity disturbance: markedly and persistently unstable self-image or sense of self
- Impulsivity in at least two areas that are potentially self-damaging (e.g., spending, sex, substance abuse, reckless driving, binge eating)
- Recurrent suicidal behavior, gestures, or threats, or self-mutilating behavior
- Chronic feelings of emptiness
- Inappropriate, intense anger or difficulty controlling anger (e.g., frequent displays of temper, constant anger, recurrent physical fights)
- Transient, stress-related paranoid ideation or severe dissociative symptoms
in addition, self-harm is very common in BPD, as well. Suicidal gestures, cutting, threats of suicide/self-harm, etc. Drug use is common, as is drinking. You may not spot any of those symptoms right away as many of these people can feign normality until they gain intimacy with you. They are aware of social boundaries often times, but they don’t actually “believe” in them on a personal level.
These people also tend to be emotionally clingy/vampiric and feed off the good intension of other people, especially love, and twist it around to hurt people, because they have little self-image- they treat everybody with as little care and concern as they show towards themselves. Typically they were abused or neglected as a child, or intensely belittled and not show love or affirmation, or the love that was shown to them was not “authentic” and unconditional, but was dependent on performance (BPD is incredibly common in actors, celebrities, or musicians, esp. teenage ones… Marilyn Monroe is a famous BPD). They are a psychological tornado, pure destruction without motivation, often wrapped up in a pretty package. Careers that many people with BPD take are strippers/exotic dancers, actors, singers, etc. If anything breaking social boundaries and getting “in your face” gets them off because they confuse attention with respect and love.
As far as personality disorders go, it is one of the most destructive, but also is treatable with medications and counselling. The best thing you can do is not to take anything they say about you personally, don’t let them push your buttons, and do not reward their exhibitionism with your attention or concern (but do call the police if they threaten self-harm or threaten others). Being a friend or romanticly attracted to somebody with BPD is very draining at best, and dangerous for yourself at worst.
I’ve had experience with at least one woman that fit that bill. Never again. At least I had enough psychological training to realize what she was and walk away from it, but it broke my heart and was embarassing. I cared about her but honestly I could not help her and she was putting a swath of destruction into my life and everybody I knew.