When I put myself into the Charter Hospital in Plano, Texas in 1994 (I was trying to get help from Dr. Colin Ross. His nurses told me he was not treating patients anymore but was trying to educate other mental health professionals. They told me he was helping the Charter Hospital in setting up a program from treating dissociative disorders. I made the mistake of going directly to the Charter Hospital instead of Dr. Ross's office.) I met women who had no memories of abuse but they had still been given a dissociative disorder.

One woman was from a middle class family like me. She had no memories of abuse. She would switch personalities, go out and buy clothes with a credit card and not remember doing it. Her and her husband could not afford it so her Dad and Husband sent her to the Charter. One day we were in a group therapy class. The point of this class was to let the patients vent pent-up emotional pain. They had a punching bag for patients to hit.

The woman began crying. I asked her why she was crying. She said that her insurance was running out and she would have to go back home. Since she had already been given a dissociative diagnosis I did not see any problem with that and I asked her what the problem was. She said that her Dad and husband did not see anything wrong. She was afraid that she would forget about her alters. I understand the nightmare of amnesia when no one understands. I understand not having anyone who understands. I understand having family members who promote the mental illness out of ignorance and insensitivity. I felt her isolation. I have lived it. I broke down and started crying also. The other patients, who were all women, fell in love with me. We bonded over that situation.

A few days later they invited me up to the second floor where they lived to go to a birthday party for one of the older women. This was the first birthday that this personality would be out for a birthday. The woman would always switch into a child personality at her birthday parties. (This woman had five college degrees but only remembered getting two of them.)

I learned more about dissociative disorders and MPD from that night talking with those women than I have from all the mental health professionals that I have paid.

The women who had serious cases of MPD/DID were horribly abused during their toddler years and later as wives who married abusive husband. It was gut wrenching to listen to their stories. I was never seriously physically abused like those women were but I still have a dissociative disorder.

It is extremely easy to traumatize a toddler from newborn to three years old. It does not have to be physical abuse. Parents need to be taught this!