[alf0156]

I have not been diagnosed with having multipul personalites, but every one i know tells me i have them. I do know i hear voices in my head all the time and at times i fight with them. out loud even. some times i feal like jim carry on lier lier whin he beats him self up in the bathroom. is there ways i can tell or not?

[(JD)]

There are self inventories available...a list of statements or questions to ask yourself. I think it's always best to consult a therapist though. Are the voices EVER outside of your mind, or are they always "yours" in some way?

If you have some friends that say you are DID (multiple personality term was replaced by Dissociative Identity Disorder to better portray the process) .. why not ask them about what they see or think. Can they ask you for a name at those times? Perhaps you are DID. Would this upset you?

You can also try beginning a journal, with an open, written invitation for any other aspects of yourself to write and share. Sometimes that helps.

TC!

With me my friends couldn't tell me I was DID or not. in fact no one had any idea until I was working with a therapist and she recognized the symptoms. My switching is trigger related so when i switch that piece of memory that matches what ever is happening around me is the one that gets acted out. For example when I am shopping with a friend and I get frustrated then I switch into the memory piece of when as a child I was shopping and got frustrated and abused in some way.

Because me switching matches matches what is going on around me no one notices.

I used to have times when I would hear a voice and respond out loud until a DID specialist explained that if I can here the voice and respond by argueing and so on out loud then I have the ability to stop my responding that way and stop the voice from replaying. being aware of the voices and memory replaying is called being co conscious. When a person is co conscious they know what is going on and can control their behavior. The specialsit told me to look around when I hear the voices in my head and match that voice to whatever is going on and then use my grounding techniques and do something about the trigger (the match that is making the audio memory (voice) replay) for example if a lamp is upsetting me I can move the lamp or go into another room where I can't see that lamp. Once I use my grounding techniques and do something about the trigger the voice stops.

DID - separating memories and storing them in the unconscious level is a protection measure. Its there so that the person who is being abused can continue to function like they are supposed to and not reviel to other people that the abuse has happened and the person is not mentally there. And DID happens in childhood so people around the person with DID has seen the same behaviors from the person with DID right from the beginning so they don't usually notice something like DID.

For example My best friend has known me for 13 years and all she thought was that I had a bad memory because sometimes she had to repeat conversations, and that I had many different likes and dislikes and joined right in with the kids on the playground when her, another friend and I took our combined 6 children to the local park.

So Im surprised if it is friends that are saying you are DID and to that well friends are not qualified to diagnose someone with DID. Personality just means moods and feelings, a normal person has many personalities that make up who they are - sometimes they are sad if something sad happened to them, when with friends they joke around and have a good time being happy, a person in church is very quiet and subdued, and so on so yea everyone has many personalities that make up who they are. Only a professional following specific guidelines and symptoms can say if those normal personality traites are in the disordered ranges.

Because DID is a protection measure where memories are separated and acted out when the person is not mentally aware, the only way you are going to know for sure if you are DID is by going through the diagnostic proceedures of taking a comprehensive psychological evaluation with suplimental tests for DID. Some of those suplimental tests for DID can be found on line like a shortend version of the DES is available on line. It doesn't explain which questions are the validity scale questions and how to score them on the valisity scale and where the person fits on the dissociative scale but it will give you a general idea of what dID testing is like and whether or not in your own opinion if you should consider going through the complete DID testing and diagnostic procedures with a psychiatrist. If you can answer yes to most of them then that leans towards you may want to consider going through the official diagnostic procedures.

[alf0156]

you talk about the loss of memory. That is what i am having all the time. I cam be talking to someone and during the conversation I miss part of what they are saying, and the whole time i am looking at them. I have beem told of things that i have done that i do not remimber doing. I have been to places that i don't know exist ( i know i have because i have pictures taken on my camra by me) i just can't explain it. at times i feal like i have been ubducted and had my mind wiped. if that makes any sence to you.