General Question

Okay - so I dissociate from time to time due to some of my disorders such as BPD, but I do not have DID. I do however have some friends who do have DID and some of their other friends have told them journaling is a good coping skill. While I realize it is good for things like depression - I wasn't sure if that was a good suggestion for DID since not all alts may know of the others much less what they do throughout the day or how they feel - is it truly good to be writing all that down where other alts may stumble across something they never knew existed?

each persons system is set up how ever they needed to survive. each alter has their own sense of agency (what their jobs, purposes, reasons for being created and much more like how they are in the world where they fit in....) my point is that if an alter doesnt know about the others then they also will not have access to others journals.

DID is not something that just comes on a person, a person diagnosed with DID is that way since very early childhood, the demographics statistics in my location document before the age of 5.

now put that into an adult living with DID. their alters have already been doing things like writing, drawing, shopping, cleaning, paying bills you name it. so if a person has alters that do not know about each other the system already has a built in way of doing things so that the others do not find the things others have bought, the things that the others have done said and all including writing out bills, doing homework for elementary, jr hi high school college, work...

see what I mean if a person gets to adulthood and their alters dont know about each other already with all that goes on since very early childhood to adult hood (think about all the times in your life time you have had to take pen and paper in hand and write something down since as far back as you remember) DID isnt a situation where a person never in their whole life time has never wrote down anything, never signed their names, never did homework, never wrote anyone any emails or letters, sent special occasion cards...

everything a person with DID goes through is already happening all their whole lifetime. getting the diagnosis doesnt change anything other than puts a name to whats already been going on.

you can relax. your friend can continue to write her thoughts and any other writing she has done through out her lifetime, just like she has been doing her whole lifetime. when her system decides its time to reach that part of healing where alters share their writings then it will happen until then secrets are safe simply because of the dynamics of how DID and each persons system works.

I was adviced by a former T to start a journal. I personally am not much for journals and kinda rolled my eyes at her about it feeling it was a fruitless endevor and also kinda insulted like it was just a basic autotherapist suggestion. Like being told to take 2 tylenol and call her if symptoms didnt resolve. ... but a gave it a try. Put a big label on the front *PLACE UR THOUGHTS HERE! ALL WELCOME*... and wrote a basic entry about my day. Never expected anything new, but a few days later i went to write in it and found a note from Scarlett. Almost 2yrs later...its not full but it is still kicking around and occasionally ill find something new or even someone new! And the downside of course of ripped out or profanity covering our pgs. but whatever. Done stuff like that to my own writing in the past as well. It has definately helped to learn more about what happens when i dont remember and a more whole pucture of how it all works :/... Also a few keep stuff on the cellphone now. Downloads, pics, bookmarks. We mostly seem to like and respect having our own folders. Just like everything else in the 'verse.. ever changing and being replaced with something more unexplicably bizarre. Bit essentially find it all no different than the purpose a journal would serve to help with any issue. just my experience....

In response to ur last question... Some seem to know they are not singular, some even regularly communicate with other parts... those that dont know ( myself included at various points in life) May find it jarring at first and others prob just ignore it like any other evidence that they might find. Eventually tho some acceptance has to be reached... "Live together, or die alone..." ~ Lost

We have journaled extensively in the past and at various stages information has been written that is not for some alts awareness, but we have always found that there are internal protections against reading it. If one tries to read it but the information is something that alt can't handle or is protected against for some reason the information can't get in. Either a switch happens or the alt 'rolls away' -i.e. can't physically look at the info. More recently we tried video communication for the first time, and we found the same thing - some alts simply can't watch the video entries of certain others.
Which is a good incidator for me that there are still secrets within our system and not everyone is privy to all the information yet.

While I understand it is not something new to the person and is developed over time, my concern was (before seeing the other 2 responses after you) that yes, you are right - there are many times I have written things. Even journaled them. Put them away. Forgotten I had done so - only to dig them back up years later while looking for something else, read them out of curiosity, and remember how awful I felt while I was writing those things. "If I can do that - why can't an alt?- and if they did wouldn't the results be way more catatrophic than they were for me emotionally?" was my thinking. The last two responses resolved that for me, your response was well aimed but missed that one point.

A lot of valid information in it I am sure many can use and benefit from!

*hugs*

Hey hi!

Journaling to me is a personal thing....it's for me. I write all the time but the Others could care less. They might make an attempt, but it's not their thing. So journaling is just a "you" thing. Your thoughts, ideas, feelings....

I know when I do read what Others write, I just don't feel the connection so I just disregard it. They can care less. But, if they cared....that opens a platform where we can start unification and recovery.

By journaling, you can record your feelings, insight, situations, and then hopefully single out the trigger that causes you to dissociate. For me it's easy, Everything causes me to dissociate which I've concluded to be more a brain abnormality over the many years of abuse I've wasn't able to deal with.

I can see my triggers now, but they just don't go away, not like addiction triggers...these go deeper.

We as humans live in the now and tend to forget the past, so writing it down makes it more solid and something to be able to go back to, so yes, writing it down is the only way to catch you at the moment from your soul to share with the future. It's like a snapshot of your being at that time. It's a window to your yesterself.

It's the best thing that you can do to help you.

Thank you for your response. I do agree journaling is a very personal thing - but I have had other people find my journals and read them so even though it is personal - that can also be intruded upon but I am glad to see you would be very open to that if it did occur. I do hope you are able to find some way to repair those parts of your brain which needs repair from the abuse. The brain is one of the parts of the human body which can and will heal itself if given the right environment to do so - so never give up! *hug*

Ummm...other people? If people read my journal, they'd think that I was nuts or making it up. My Others or alters wouldnt care. Besides, reading something that you didn't write but by another Other part is creepy within it's self, like watching a video of your body with an Other controlling it! I get a queasy stomach.

Thank you on the healing part. I suspect that I'm prone to dissociation through a physical trait that allowed the abuse to fragment us for years.

With all the turmoil right now with constantly changing insurance, a new job, trying to move, seperation to divorce, and the teens crazy wants....getting any help is not likely now. With the jobs insurance, mental health is not covered.

I'll figure something out soon....got too to stay sane.

Have you tried any natural therapies to help you? Perhaps that would be something that would allow a sense of calm so you can stop having to dissociate as much anyway...? I am not trying to act as a doctor here just thinking perhaps it could help because I know there are many things natural medicines or therapies help with sometimes better or can combine with conventional meds and therapies to help you better.

We naturally do beer, lol. Confusion, people places things trigger me. It doesn't even have to be upsetting, just a situation, event, meeting people, music, etc. It's like we have an alt for each moment of life. Of course some of us a more well rounded to exist for a length of time, but surprises can trigger. We also fight for out time.

You see, we converse all day, throwing ideas and views to each other. This co-operation has made us quite the smarty pants because we have a committee on it. It has also hindered us at times like when we are fighting and not getting along.

So, when something happens or changes, the ones whose job it is to handle the event fronts as the other steps aside. Beats going into a daze and looking stupid which does happen time after time. I guess our fear of looking weird and co-conscience has kept us on our toes.

Depends on how communication is beneficial, how much confrontation they like, how noisy they like it so that loneliness isn't a problem. Ultimately, if a negative coping skill is started or returned as a result then if they are truly managing then that is only thing they have to worry about while healing if that is truly the commitment. A lot of times, you might not even know it is a set up until one or a few alters catch up with it. I think alters find out anyway especially if there is dialogue maybe not right then , but later on. I wouldn't think your friend is in danger just comes with the territory. I've grown to love journaling , but I'm a little further in my healing then some so I/we do it all the time. It takes work because when I first started it was slim to none, but you know I haven't had one therapist put a number on it, like you must journal daily. I thought that has been really great not putting a bunch of demands on us when we're not really ready or have brought into the idea of journaling the only thing we know to say when asked is I forget or I don't want to.

Sorry, I wasn't online for a few days. What I meant by "natural" though was things like essential oils, herbs, vitamins, minerals, yoga, chiropractic therapy, accupuncture, tai chi, etc...as well as learning different ways to help maintain calmness rather than "allow" the influx of anxiety or other extreme emotion. Of course even after learning those methods and techniques of maintaining calmness you will still have times calmness is not possible, and that is to be expected - which is where the other therapies would help a bit (I would think, though not sure) because they would allow for certain "imbalances" to be rebalanced in each alt that asserts itself as being a prominent part of you. Sounds like you are dealing with some issues that a couple of my friends have dealt with.