Saturday, August 19, 2006

Questions regarding DID, my opinion

I often get mails regarding my Dissociative Identity Disorder. Posting one of my replies below............

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Dear ........,

Most of the websites do not really offer too much meaningful information about DID. The doctors fall into two categories, one group diagnoses patients with various personality disorders (these are more likely to be the traits of the multiple personalities, in my opinion) and the other treats the identities as enemies which need to be fused.

I do not know if the approach I have taken is right (my doctor does not know and would not approve if she knew). However, the first step is getting to converse to the personalities (one or more of them may be able to talk to you) either by putting a thought in your head or closing the eyes and speaking to them. Having established this contact, you may then find the reason for them having been created and if the trauma which created them no longer exists, you may tell them so. You may also tell them that you are a friend not a rival or an enemy. In my experience the personalities then lose any violent / aggressive / negative traits which they have, these ocassionally these might manifest again.

If you have a friend / relative you can depend upon, you might also try recording a small message on the computer for the personalities and then get their replies recorded as well. This should serve as an effective means of communication.

My experience tells me that the personalities are part of me; fusing them would mean losing a part of my life / brain / memories. It is better to live with the bad memories (after getting over the trauma) than purging them.

The doctors do not experience what we do, so they invariably term our situation as delusions / hallucinations. Our personalities' moods are often misclassified as bipolar or schizod.

Can personalities have twins ? Shall write about this in my next post !