need advice - stalking/harassment/libel

What is the name of your state? Michigan

I'm 24 and live in Michigan. for the past nine months I've been trying to get two ex-friends to leave me alone. I told them to get out of my life back in August after their behavior around me became very inappropriate and they refused to notice how uncomfortable I was even when I told them. since then they've been primarily harassing me online (okay, they've been cyberstalking me, as they've created new AIM screen names and livejournal accounts in order to get around blocks I have on them) starting with livejournal posts telling me they'd forgive me for telling them to get out of my life and be my friends again.

since then they've been telling people I hate them (they aren't worth that kind of emotional involvement), telling lies at places I help mod online including that they saw me on Jerry Springer (which is completely false), they've planned on going to a game/anime convention I was going to try to make it to after they found out I was going (they said it was to "confront me" and "mess with my head" in their livejournals), left me threatening anonymous messages in livejournal ("we know where you live, so watch out" - and I do log IPs, I did call the police after that, but they said it was not specific enough for them to do anything), called me "****ed in the head", cussed at me in public chat, accused my disability (Fibromyalgia) of being fake in public chat, and have threatened more than once in their livejournal to drive over to "deal with me". they also plan to have my livejournal, ezboard, and email account hacked into by December (they told a friend of mine they didn't know was a friend of mine this).

I haven't been talking to them for months, but they still try to contact me (usually pretending, quite badly, to be someone else or as themselves telling me to leave them alone), and they try to set themselves up as the victims. I just want them to leave me alone and move on, but dealing with this without any legal involvement hasn't worked so far.

I'm afraid of them, they aren't stable. one believes she has psychic attacks from evil spirits and the other thinks he got MPD/DID from a bump on the head. I worry that they will come over to harass me in person at my home or job.

my questions are, should I get a lawyer? if so, what kind of action could be taken against these two? would it make things better, or possibly worse?

I just wanna be left alone...

Aside from making annoying and harassing phone calls, I can't see that any crime has been committed by these individuals. You can try to get restraining orders, but this might be tough if they are anonymous figures known only by avatars and nicknames on the internet. If they are people that you actually know (physically) then you can get the R/O ... maybe. If a judge thinks you need it.

Unfortunately, what you describe about harassment on the interent is pretty commonplace and can usually be done with impunity for a number of reasons. If you had the resources, you might consider getting an attorney. But, a more productive action might be to just ignore these yutz's entirely - and, report any annoying or threatening phone calls they make to the police. And of they make any credible threats via e-mail as well.

Good luck.

Carl