Your personality is showing!

Long, long ago, while I was married to husband no. 3, the Republican three-piece suit, I was endeavoring to find out what the hell was wrong with me.  There I was, with every little thing I thought I wanted (okay, I wanted a 35 mm camera, and he gave me a lousy 110), a four bedroom house, a swimming pool, bunches of kids, German cars, even a dog, and I was miserable.  So I read a lot of self-help psychological books, searching for the neuroses that was my own, hoping I could find my way out of my own darkness.  Of course, it didn't help things much that, eventually, I would throw up my hands and just get drunk, scream, swear, and throw things, like wine glasses.  Very satisfying sound when a wine glass hits the wall,  you know.  And one day, I came on an answer.  My problem was, ta-dah, my HUSBAND.  He had narcissistic personality disorder, which made him a cold, nasty son of a bitch.  And, really bad news, persons with personality disorders hardly ever change, because they don't believe there is anything wrong with them.  My husband, for instance, would just tell me I was crazy.  I believed him.  Things I heard him say were never said in his universe.  I was too sensitive, paranoid, looney-tunes.  Of course he was right, I had married HIM.  Later, I realized he was just my mother in a different package.  And today, I was reading that mental health folks are still struggling with a means to treat personality disorders.  They are the ugly stepsisters of the DSM-IV, defying all efforts to bring to light a therapy, even difficult to diagnose.  Well, gee, folks.  Why don't we start with a definition of a HEALTHY personality.  Deviant behavior has to start somewhere, right?  There must be platform from which to deviate.  Personally, I never saw an emotionally healthy individual in my home as a child, or in my subsequent homes that I tried to make.  Currently, I live alone.  No models to mental health here, either.  Dogs are even squirrely.  It would be nice to know what standard I am not measuring up to at any given moment.