In my experience with life, I think mental illnesses, personality disorders, psychoses, however you want to label them have the capability to spread. Whether by nature or nuture or just the tendency that humans have to adapt/control to their surroundings. Maybe humans are pack animals so that it's in our genetics to take on common characteristics because somehow that was selected for survival. Sometimes one sick person in a family, or a group of friends, seems to impact everyone else's actions as well. Sometimes it almost seems as if the condition is contagious. The disease, or whatever you want to call it, seems to spread. I think we all have tendencies, some stronger than others. There's an old saying that one bad apple can spoil the whole barrell. Old sayings start new and continue long enough to become old saying because there's a lot of truth in them. It's why we tell our children to chose their friends carefully...not that they always listen, not that we listened to our parents either. Bet Amy, TonE and Jesse will be more careful in the future. Your family, though, your stuck with. Looks to me like Casey was the sick one who spread to her nuclear family, the rest of whom were at least functional until KC hit them like the plague. Personally, I from I think and Rick were wise to resist getting sucked in. I'm sorry they've had to had their dirty laundry exposed for all the world to pick over and analyze. I hope Shirley's ok. She seems like a nice lady.