I have just been discussing with my partner and my T how I feel like I have a switch--that there are two fundamentally different me's with different behaviors, yes, but also with different assumptions about the way the world and people are.

Sometimes, when I get stressed or feel threatened, I switch to cornered animal/bully mode, and all bets are off. Compassion for myself and others, tolerance, patience, kindness fly out the window. I say things I later regret. I don't find this happening really with people whose relationships I value.

I don't feel like either one is any less "me," but they certainly feel like people distinct from one another. But maybe that's because I'm kinda partial to the buddhist notion of the self at the bottom being no one.