"While the child is daydreaming the boy matches what is upsetting the child to the memories that are stored at the unconscious level of thinking and automatically acts out those matching memories. "

That is supposed to be body matches not boy matches sorry about the spelling error.

Also because of this thread I got a few great email questions to my katherinemanne address so I thought I would add it here -

if the memory pieces are abuse memories then how can some alters be fun and play with legos and blocks?

Can a person with DID just begin to have symptoms - voices, acting out, losing time, playing like a child... as an adult?

The answer is becaause of what the child was doing right before being abused. for example if the child is playing on a swing when their abuser comes up to them and starts abusing them their being on the swing at the time of being abused is part of their memory of the abuse situation. Just like a person can remember talking on the phone when they look out the window and experience a traumatic event like seeing a car accident. looking out the window and talking on the phone are not abuse situation but is what the person was doing when they experienced that trauma of seeing a car accident.

Every part of the situation - what the person was seeing, hearing, tasting, felt through touch, how they were being touched and their emotions during the situation - gets separated because that is how memories in general are stored in the brain. but unlike normal memories these pieces of traumatic events including what the person was doing saying and so on when the abuse happened get stored in the unconscious level of thinking. and unlike normal memories the person has no conscious awareness that the situation happened so they cant just like a normal memory think "when this happened I..." because it is a traumatic even and is stored in the unconscious level of thinking it takes something outside their bodies to remind them unconsciously of those memories that are in the unconscious level. That thing is called a trigger - something that is making the person uncomfortable or upset in some way.

Then the person acts out that memory.

As for the symptoms just suddenly showing up as an adult - no. The person is DID from the first time an abuse memory is stored in the unconscious level of thinking. Which means the first time that they are abused and dissociates (daydreams theirself out of the situation) and that memory gets stored in the unconscious level of thinking. Since a person with DID dissociates to that extent as a child the symptoms - hearing voices, acting out, losing time, playing like a child and so on happens right from the beginning. The person who is diagnosed as being DID just does not notice this is happening because all they believe is that they are safe and sound in their daydream safe place and have no awareness that time went on and that during that time they had been abused or uncomfortable or upset. They believe that they are just fine and normal and everyone is like them. It isn't until the person is an adult and they are in therapy for depression, sleep problems and so on that they find out that what is wrong with them is not normal because their therapist told them. That doesn't mean the sympton just suddenly began. it just means the symptoms have always been there and someone trained to recognize the symptoms as DID puts the clues of what is already happening together to suggest going through testing proceedures. If it wasn't already happening the therapist would not see those symptoms so would not suggest the testing proceedures.

Kind of like if a person hasn't already drawn a picture and or isn't already drawing a picture another person cant say "thats a nice picture".

cause and effect the situation has to be happening already in order for the result of that situation to happen.

you cant have a broken foot without first injuring that foot.

you cant have DID first without having the abuse situation and symptoms - dissociation, time loss, acting out and so on happening first.

the symptoms that are already happening can become more noticable as an adult because adults don't usually sit on the floor for hours stacking blocks, normal adults dont sit in a chair in a public place sucking their thumb, or other behaviors that are stored in the abuse memories of them selves as a child.

that doesn't mean the symptoms haven't been happening all along. it just means the person is now old enough that those behaviors are not passed off as normal child play and behaviors because the person is biologically an adult not a child..

the repressed memories are already there being acted out while the person is unaware from the moment they have been repressed (stored in the unconscious level)