questions: dissociative disorders version

(stole this idea from the bipolar section!)

the idea though is to ask a question of the person below- it could be about dissociative disorders, it could be general- then that person answers and posts a new question for the next person.

let's see how it goes:

my question.. who is your most dominant alter?

its my understanding that question\answer \ask the next question games goes in coffeehouse but since you asked I did not have any alters that were more dominant (as in how often they were in control) my internal system was based on dissociation. which meant that any time I was triggered which ever alter dealt with that issue took control and did what I could not handle doing.

dominant as in bossy, strength and other attributes\characteristics each of my alters were bossy, strong and such in what ever their sense of agency was.

example thelma was intimacy based alter so her strengths and things she managed was intimacy. her sense of agency was not for example sadness so she was not controling, strong and other characteristics\attributes in that area.

another example rainy was my alter that dealt with sadness and storms so her sense of agency was to be dominant\take control and areas of strength was when I was triggered by feelings of sadness and storms.

each of my alters had their own areas of dominance\strengths based on what their sense of agency was.

which ones did I the body born perceive as being the most dominant again my internal system was dissociative based so they took control when ever i was in a state of dissociating. (numb, spaced out disconnecting) so my judgement of who was stronger\more dominant never came into play.

now that I am integrated one whole person I see each of my alters as they were...strong and dominant in what areas they were created to handle for me. thats what their job, purpose and reason for being was.

Im not going to ask the next poster a question because this is a good thread that can lead to great discussion here in dissociative disorders but if I asked a question and turned this into a "question and answer game" it would most likely get moved to the gaming \ socializing board called coffeehouse where members do ask and answer and ask the next person questions would go.

Currently that would be me. I have been 'running the show' for the last few years.

Next question:
How long ago were you diagnosed with a dissociative disorder?

it was sometime back in the 90's.

how young is your youngest alter?

i think it might be a fetus.

Does anyone have a service dog and how does the animal help you cope with DID or other disorders.

nope... no doggies (but they are soooo cute!)

which alter is your eldest

That would be Maia...

Throughout your life, how often would a "complete stranger" insist that you have a "lost identical twin" that for some reason your family must not want you to know about, and then tell you everything they can think of about her, because they want to help reunite the two of you (because they don't think it's cool of your family to keep you two apart like that!) LoL >^..^<


Sent from my XT1045 using Tapatalk

^^I don't think that has ever happened to me...not like that anyway...but, I have been hugged, greeted, approached by strangers who act like they know me. Call me by other names..some I have learned are other parts, some idk?, sometimes I think some of it is just regular random mistaken identity..that does happen from time to time to everyone..I think??.. though, I try to ignore these situations/strangers, brush them off, most will eventually believe they are mistaken..but some will go on and on.. Wow if your not *insert name here* that's crazy..really you look exactly like her..uncanny!! That's the only good part of ppl not knowing much about or believing in DID..You insist they are mistaken and generally they will believe cuz that's far more plausible to their minds.

What is the strangest place/ situation that you have "come to" and found your self in?

I'm not fugueish, a wrong turn is about all......Yes DID

How many kids 10 years old and younger in the system ?

I don't know how many under 10s there are in our system. We have/had a handful of child alts who are well established and have/had 'time out' but our abused child alters were / are mostly very fragmented and bitsy. The ones we 'recovered' or worked through in long term t were particular to their abusive experiences and (I guess?) were integrated after working through the traumas they held. I don't think they wouldn't really qualify as alters at all.
Our system is quite dissociative atm after several years of stability. We don't know what's going on, or what is still to be found. But there is more pushing through, and some of them are child states.


I hope this thread will stay here and not go in the games section. I think this is a nice way to be able to 'check in' to this forum without having to say too much... a way to touch base and say 'I am here' while being able to say as little or as much as you would like. Maybe it would be a good idea for people to write a little more every now and then (like AL did above) to keep the thread status as a question and answer one rather than a 'game'.
I for one don't view this as a 'game' thread, but as a great way for people to connect and share about their dissociative experiences, without the 'responsibility' of starting an entire thread.

Question:
Are you stable in your current day to day life?

Not really. Im all over the place, my mind is just whirling constantly. I can see myself going quiet, cutting myself off from the few people around me over the last few weeks.(I already lead a pretty solitary existence, so thats really saying something!) This is usually a prelude to an almighty breakdown / sui attempts blah blah blah thats lasts around three months. Everything falls apart over those months and I give up all sense of responsibility, and come out battered, scarred, and broke. I can see it coming but I don't have a clue how to stop it. I have had a nightmare throat infection for the last few weeks, and am taking progressively stronger and stronger antibiotics. That combined with other chronic illnesses I have, which are triggered by infections, Im hoping Im just ill and grumpy and at a low eb, and things will improve instead of spiralling once my physical health is sorted.

Question: Do you have any opposing political or religious views fighting it out inside you?

yes i have

question: have you ever had someone come up to you insisting that your child alters/ adult alters, are actually real friends/relatives and then they ask for phone numbers/ pictures/ locations of them?

(this has happened to me!)

luce,

i'm surei t will.

theb ipolar one stayed in the bipolar section (and that's where i got my idea for this!)

plan to post a few other versions in a few other forums

That all sounds very ominous and frightening. Do you know what has triggered it? Or, do you know what has helped you 'come out the other side' the times it has happened in the past?

No, I haven't. I bet this happens a lot more now in the digital age! We currently present mostly as integrated in daily life, and when this would have been an issue for us it was pre-internet times. Our difficulties with that were all face to face (eg: someone coming up to one of us thinking we were a different one of us.)

Question:
What grounding skills work for you and your system?
For us - distracting (eg: watching a favorite program or film); counting objects around us; mindfulness meditation; playing with our kids; playing candy crush!; playing with our kitty; sleep

1 of the things i like to do is take note of what's around me.

what can i see. what can i smell. what can i feel... etc

i also have a special stone which helps me (it's just a regular stone, but holding it in my hand gives me comfort)

are all your insiders the same gender?

No, although most are female. We were intrigued when our most prominent child alter apparently 'grew up' recently (I don't really know how or why these things happen, but it felt like that was what happened and I asked and she?he? said she?he? was 17 now. And I say she?he? because we always felt there were two of the same alter - one male and one female - but we've never really known for sure.) Anyway, I asked what was the best thing about being 17 and she?he? replied "Now I can get a girlfriend." And I was like "... 0_o ...Oh. Okay."
I, being very female and (I thought?) straight, don't know what to make of that.
(ETA I mean to say I haven't been aware of any lesbian alters before, or had to deal with any male alters that wanted to have a relationship. This is very much a new turn of events for our system).

Question:
Do you currently have a T?

yes.. but we may as well not- like all the others, it's not really helping

how many are in your system (that you are aware of)

Im sorry to hear that Will you persevere? I swing wildly between thinking T is the best thing ever, and thinking its just making me worse!

Im not even confident I have a system / DID, and if I do I think it is highly fragmented. I want to say at least *deleted*, but Im so completely sceptical its embarrassing just to type it!

Question: How did you find out about your alters and their names?

This is my first post to the forum. I was looking for a way to participate so this is a great thread!

How did I find out about my alters and names?

I have been in counseling for almost 20 years. Almost through all of those counseling years I was dissociating and having panic and self defeating behaviors (I'm toning this down a lot). About a year and a half ago I had a huge change in my life and I couldn't function anymore. I went from meeting with my therapist once a week to needing to talk to him/email with him multiple times a day to function. I was telling him a lot about how I would shift inside, I called them "drives" and I couldn't stay in the same "drive" which was causing me to change huge things in my life but then I'd switch back and be so angry with myself, not understanding what was happening. It was really late one night and we were emailing back and forth and he just said to ask inside about what was happening and when I did I heard answers directed back at me. That was the beginning of my co-consciousness. It had never occurred to me that I could ask inside. I'd heard voices talking to me before but didn't understand their origins.

Most of my parts (I have difficulty calling anything alters) don't have names. I have given names so that if I'm talking about them I don't get confused. What I usually find is that the other parts have no need for a name or just get really pissed if someone calls me by my given name. We are not out to anyone except my therapist, so he's just careful in how he talks.

SORRY if the question has already been asked...
QUESTION: How many people in your life know you have parts/alters? Do you regret telling people if you have.

I stayed away to give someone else a chance, but since no-one else has...

They told us or T. Our first hosty one learned about the first two alters that presented in therapy from T, and then they introduced themselves to hosty one (co-consciously). Later, with ex long term t we discovered more through the process of therapy and trauma memory recovery. One group of alts was / is happy to be known by name (insist on it). The trauma based alters have many issues around being known and do not like to reveal their names.

CassyO, the way I think of numbers of alters is that 'it is what it is' - it needed to be what it needed to be. We personally had many, many fragmented self-bits. We had years of severe ongoing abuse for all but a snippet of childhood and our system seemed to deal with it by sealing the traumas off in tiny fragmented self-bits. Sometimes self-bits dealt with similar traumas over time, and sometimes new ones were created for particular aspects of a single incident. I don't know how or why, it just is.
I describe our fragmented self-bits as 'containers for snippets of overwhelming experience / emotions' rather than 'personality states' or 'alters'. We have vastly fewer actual developed alters that have functioned independently over time.

Question:
Out of all the Ts you may have seen, how many do you think were competent (or at least willing to learn) about working with clients with dissociative disorders?

hmm,

maybe 2?

yeah....2

question: what is the weirdest thing that is happened when you have not been in control?

Going from seeming like I am just fine to suddenly erupting into intense, traumatic, scary crying jags where I feel terror and am crying so hard I can't breathe. Also during which I can't respond to anybody who tries to talk to me or ask a question, and I can't pull myself out of it or explain to others what exactly is happening to me.

If you are in therapy, how many total years have you been in therapy?

Welcome! Your first few posts are reviewed before posting so in a thread like this they might show up after the thread has moved on. No matter! We can work around that.

#Ts that know = 5 ( but the #Ts that believed in DID = 2)
Current non Ts that know = 1 (and yes, I regret telling that person)

About 20 years ago I was part of a DID community so a few people knew then, but I no longer live in that city.