question

Just wondering do we ever become just one person and has anyone done it?

Yes and not yet.

Hello sunbeem

I want to send you big hugs.

Yes, it is possible for a person to recover from DID and be able to see through one set of eyes , see and feel herself as one whole and self aware, self identifying person, and no longer react via dissociation to those things that connect back to earlier life traumas which were never really processed in the mind and body.

Personally, I beleive that there are differnt answers for each person who goes into therapy with DID. Being able to live life to the fullest and being able to make real connections to other people is what I think most people would be working towards.

DID involves the mind, the brain, and the body. All these apsect of a persons expereinces and life should be utilized and iinvolved in recovery and integration--or becoming one person.

I have been looking into current trends in therapy and am VERY HAPPY to be able to say that therapy for trauma related conditions like DID now recognize and utiize the mind body connection.

One book I just picked up and have yet to read is Trauma and The Body.
A second book is about Sensomotory Psychotherapy. As someone who, yes, is now one whole and self aware person after spending a lot of years all over the place, I do believe this approach to therapy and healing is right on point.

I am so excited that it will be used to help people with this disorder.

And yes, kiddo, with a lot of hard and soemtimes painful work in therapy it is possible for a person in parts and peices to become one healthy self aware and fully functioning person!

I would like to add that DID is NOT a mental illness, but a condition.

Blah, I was about to post that I agree with you AC, and went off in search of a definition to back it up.

But all the definitions seemed to agree with this sentiment.

men¦tal ill|ness.
NOUN
1.a condition which causes serious disorder in a person's behaviour or thinking.

Mental Illness: Learn the Definition, Tests and Statistics

I really detest the term ' mental illness'. I would prefer to use 'psychological disorder, if anything.

It is possible to live life freer cope not negatively and not go back to any of the not useful alters no matter why you decided you stop it is just not useful. I call that a little more wholeness, but mostly just living freer when there is always enjoyment in anything we do. It depends on who you talking to and why, DID is more of a psychological term, I kind of despise the word mental or condition. For instance, if you visit psychology today and read about a T in your fee/insurance range, then read that in t 'mental health' section dissociative disorder....When you decide to make the phone call for more information I'm going to use the word 'mental health', dissociative disorder then proceed with my questions to possible make appointment for intake. Some terms are necessary all people are different all interactions are different.

I think condition is use in different context almost like a negative connotation...In one condition can you do x y z...Conditions of your programming....Conditioning you to enter into a career you are destined for since nothing else has really worked. I get it though, to different people you have to use different terms....I still like the term coping mechanism for systems new in healing , but even that requires a deep explanation when you in therapy after some time, maybe not right in the beginning unless you with a new T with the existing dx.

i never liked, "mental illness", either- at least when it's said in full.

i'm okay just using MI though

I split when I was abut 8 years old. I had about 12 different alters. I would go out on our large porch and I called it the roundhouse with me and all the others. One time my mom and I went on the bus and I took my favorite alter "Maggie"' My mom and I got off the bus but she left Maggie on there. I cried and yelled "you left Maggie on the bus". People stooped and kept asking me why I was crying," She said I was talking about my imagine person. Never did get Maggie back. Done a lot of time with my therapist and most of them are gone. I still have about 5 now so I do think I am doing better. There are a couple I want to keep. Does that sound crazy.

I had an alter like Maggie too, her name was Cinder. but my treatment providers said that Cinder wasnt a dissociative alter with my DID. they said that she fit the diagnostics for being an invisible friend. a fantasy play mate. they also told me that DID\Dissociative type alters live inside my body so they cant be left anywhere, seen or played with like you do a friend. dissociative type alters take control of my body when I dissociate. if Cinder is doing something then its with my body doing it. that I cant leave my alters behind because where my body is the alters are. that if I could leave Cinder behind somewhere then she wasnt one of my dissociation alters, that she was either an invisible friend or a hallucination\delusion (which I also had problems with)

Cinder was my invisible friend not an alter and not a hallucination/delusion. Cinder went with me everywhere, I even got upset when eating dinner and a plate wasnt set for her. my parents ended up having to set two plates at my place at the table so that I could share my food with Cinder. In time Cinder got left at the store. My mom tried to tell me she would be ok at the store but my brother hiked on down the road after her. After a while Cinder just disappeared. but I still have pictures of where I am holding out my hand to someone who isnt really there in the photo but i know that when that picture was taken I was 8 yrs old and holding my invisible friend Cinder's hand when my mom took that photo.

later I discovered by reading the diagnostics for DID and what constitutes dissociative type alters that my childhood treatment provider was right. Cinder was not my dissociative type alter. based on the fact that I had Cinder was why as a child I was not diagnosed with DID in childhood, Having Cinder knocked out that diagnosis. but as an adult when I went through diagnosis for mental disorders it was discovered I had other alters that fit the criteria of what dissociative type alters were (which did get me diagnosed with DID)

Sunbeem, I do believe that full integration is absolutely possible, and other people have definitely achieved it. We personally haven't yet, but we currently have a 'sort of' state of integration amongst us. It is definitely much, much easier than living life escaping / denying / dissociating the internal reality!

I found this today looking for an answer to a question much like yours. It's got a lot of info about alters, but I really liked what it had to say about co consciousness and healthy multiplicity. It gave the "compliant one" in me some comfort.

Just wanted to share.

Alter Identities in Dissociative Identity Disorder (MPD) and DDNOS

It's been a hard night here, with the "h" earphone music kind of night. Compliance did NOT want to deal with it. Tomorrow will be better... It usually is.

Night!

I have two that I want to keep. Judy is 14 and my t said that she was my teenage person that I really was. Then there is Sarah she is 6 a very happy child who I buy things for and play with her. Problem is Judy is the one who plunges me into depression and I would probably be better without her but my t said she doesn't think that will happen. Anyway I do understand what she means because Judy is me. Now that sounds stupid all of them are me but Judy is the most vocal.