Exposed, a new book by HLN’s Jane Velez-Mitchell, delves into the strange world of convicted murderer Jodi Arias and is available in bookstores today.

From her pathetic attempts to pander to the media before her arrest for the slaughter of her ex-boyfriend Travis Alexander, to her pathetic attempts to pander to the media in jail, to her pathetic attempts to pander during the trial –to her pathetic attempts to pander, ad nauseum, the nation was riveted by the young woman they loved to loathe.

A couple of years ago I would have said “you’re crazy” if you told me that someone who was every bit as abhorrent to the public as Casey Anthony was would come on the American horizon. But Jodi Arias certainly gave it the old college try when it came to being particularly loathsome — and in my mind, she succeeded in surpassing Anthony on the despise-ability front. (I’ve never thought Casey Anthony intentionally killed her child, but I do believe she was absolutely and unequivocally responsible for it).

During the Arias trial, a psychologist for the prosecution determined, aptly, in my opinion, that Arias suffered from borderline personality disorder – an incredibly  nasty mental health problem that causes chaos in the lives of any and everyone that has to deal with a person afflicted with it.

Arias is certainly the poster child of the disorder — an example of the mental illness in the extreme (note: mental illness is not the same as legal insanity.  Arias’s attempts to lie and manipulate the police and Travis Alexander’s friends after his murder were clearly a sign that she knew right from wrong). Most borderlines don’t butcher their lovers, but they all share some similar traits:

• A borderline will either love you or hate you, there’s no in between.  And you’re love/hate status can change with them in only a matter of minutes.
• They have an abject fear of abandonment, which can cause them to go non-linear at slights, real or imagined, that most of us would shrug off
• They are extremely difficult to treat because they refuse to take responsibility for their myriad poor choices and decisions — it’s always someone else’s fault.  For example, most people who are sane would start to question themselves after a second or third divorce.  Not a borderline.  They’re victims, even after the 6th or 7th marriage.

According to Sandra Tester, licensed therapist from Northwest Arkansas, borderlines personality disorder and bipolar disorder have similar symptomatology.  In fact, many borderlines are incorrectly diagnosed as bi-polar.  Like one who is bipolar, a borderline has extreme highs and lows.  The difference is that those with bipolar disorder have cycles that span a period of weeks or months.  A borderline can experience the same extremes in mental state, but they do so in a matter of minutes, often more than once a day.

For more information on borderline personality disorder, visit Bipolar Disorder Central.