What to do with parts outside therapy?

For one year I was receiving weekly therapy sessions from someone who specializes in dissociation. According to her, I have DD NOS with some degree of dissociation. I do not have it to a severe degree: I always know where I am, I have a more or less continuous memory of things that are happening to me, I do not black out, etc. I have had some moments, however, when, for instance, I wrote using a complete foreign handwriting that I could not recognize later when it was presented to me, and entered an incorrect SSN using this handwriting, leading to problems. At that time, I was also off my bipolar meds and manic.

I stopped therapy because I lost my job and could not afford it and also because I did not see effectiveness.

I am not in therapy at the moment.

When I was in dissociation therapy, the following parts came forth:

"My little boy" - usually, a 10 year old boy, with straight blonde hair (mine is dark and curly). He has great perseverance and is very meticulous and exact. He helped me with detail-oriented tasks, manual labor, sorting through large amounts of information, and such. At some point he grew into a very handsome youth and then returned to being "My little boy"

"Pippy the Longstocking" - my father's girl, unpredictable and at times scheming. Dangerous to a degree.

"The Crazy Lady" - a tall and extremely skinny lady in a long green dress with a tight waistline, without a bust (I am overweight with E-F cups, for comparison). She overbuys. Before I started taking Lithium, I overbought a lot - it is a symptom of bipolar mania. She runs around like crazy and overbuys. She wastes her life this way. She has children (I do, too, but they live separately).

"The dark lady" - a woman about age 30, similar to me in measurements but skinnier, as I used to be. Dressed in black. Represents my mother to some extent, is borderline, possessive, wants to one-up people, etc.

"The commandante" - as per the title.

"the IT" - an animal-like creature that represents me in pre-verbal age. Has sharp teeth and big eyes. Is massively scared. Bites people when able to find vulnerabilities in them.

My question is, now that I am not in therapy, what if anything should I do with these parts? Do they exist? I do not even think of them every day - maybe I do not need them at all?

Thanks for advice!

only you and your treatment providers (ie a medical doctor, therapist, psychiatrist...what ever or who ever you have now) can answer these question.

we cant tell you whether your "parts" exist or not in fact Psych central has a rule that says we are not to question whether someone has a mental disorder or question whether their alters/parts exist or not.

I cant tell you what to do with your parts, only you know what you and your parts need and what you need to do with them.

All we can say is what we do with our own parts/alters. before I was integrated I didnt worry about what to do with my alters because they were so categorical that they had their own jobs, purposes, reasons for being and this wasnt something that happened just during therapy. my alters/parts were like this all the time in and out of therapy, I had no control over what they did, who did what and who came out when..

Now that all my alters are integrated with me I dont have the problem of all the different parts of me taking over control. So this isnt an issue with me, therefore I dont worry about something like this happening. I guess I have other more important things to worry about then to worry about something thats not going to happen because I am integrated.

my suggestion.. if this is something that continues to bother you, it may be something you might decide to go back to therapy so that you have a therapist that can help you discover what is best for you.

No, it does not bother me, I am just curious.

Sometimes people think that you've got to have absolutely horrible problems before you can go to a therapist, but that's not true--it's like saying you can only go to the doctor if you've got a compound fracture; you're not allowed to get treatment for a sprained ankle. Therapists can help people even without mental illnesses--people just going through stressful times, like they've lost somebody or they're arguing with their family or whatever. It's perfectly legitimate for you to go and say, "Well, this doesn't actually cause distress, and it isn't interfering with my daily life; but I want to learn more about myself, and you've got training in psychology, so..." Nothing wrong with that. Therapy for the purpose of insight and self-improvement is not a bad idea, especially when you have the tendency to form alters. Maybe you can learn more about why you tend to do that.

As for the question of whether they're real: Yes, of course they are. They're as real as your thoughts, your feelings, your memories. Whether they are full-blown alters--who knows? That's one of the things you could talk to a counselor about, if you decide to go to one. You'd know better than I would. But your experiences are legitimate, by definition. What you experience inside your head--your thoughts and perceptions--is as real as any other idea or thought. "Is it real?" can be answered in the positive. But the more interesting question is, "How will I interpret this? How will I act on it? What does it mean to me?" Those may take a while to answer, but that's okay. There are far worse ways to spend your time than thinking about how your mind works and why.