Who are your Apparently Normal Parts? ANP

How about the rest of you? Not your Emotional Parts, but the main parts - the ANP
You might think of this as the host or hosts.

Great page -easy to read on what an ANP and EP is.
http://www.empty-memories.nl/didmpd.html

My ANP Theory! Just my idea! This is not a fact!
In DID an ANP will loose time if another ANP takes control. This can only happen in DID because it is the only one that has more than one ANP.

When an EP takes control it can either be co-conscious or cause time loss such as in a flashback, but... but only the time loss only occurs in DID. DDNOS does not have time loss.

This is why those that have DD-NOS DO NOT loose time and those with DID do.

Someone with DD-NOS deals with everything the DID person does except they only have one ANP.

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My ANP's

My Apparently Normal System - No Co-Conscious between them. Amnesia for when they are out. I think I switch between the 2 a lot, actually several times a day, but I think right now 1 is out far more, and other times in life 2 was.

ANP tylas 2 - The seductive brat. The reason I chose a female therapist. Men love this part all except the temper, jealousy, etc.. which is what usually ruins the relationship. She does not like women and adores men. Men love to take care of her and she does not need to work, in fact they like her at home. She is very emotional. Moody, clingy, obsessive, jealous, needy, demands attention, pouts, runs away from relationships for no reason and then begs to come back even though she really does not want to. It drives her mad until the man is the one begging her to come back. She is extremely sexual - every man's dream sexually, likes BDSM, slave/master, bi-sexual, dreams of gang rapes and similar, Romantic, passionate. She loves to be touched and be in love with a man. Waits on him. Makes him feel like a king. Poor guys search and search afterwards for someone like this without the temper and jealousy. Even long after the relationship they will state this. Stays fit because she must look good or else she will hide and not go out. She is very fit and athletic and takes care of herself. Never reads, loves to belly dance and dance in clubs, hikes. She has problems with impulse control though and binges, then works out, then binges...etc... Has energy to do things and in fact is rarely tired. Can also be very angry, mean and abusive. She has a hard time talking to and relating any kids.She enjoys going out every night and having fun. Very 'me' centered. Does not trust women at all!

ANP Tylas 1 - The Mom. Not 'me' centered at all. Everything is for everyone else usually. Turns all things into a job - even hiking and dancing. This one came home a year ago and is the one that raised the last 4 kids. She has little to no emotion, very tired and depressed but tries to do the right thing and trying to fix herself for her kids. She has a hard time talking to and relating to kids over 11. Gaines weight because it makes it harder for tylas 2 to take control. Robot like. Gets things done. Stays alone when possible. Reads, likes to talk facts, avoids all emotion. Hates when tylas 2 is emotional and tries to keep her away so she is not always sobbing and making a fool of herself. She does not care how she looks, but would like to feel better and hates that her clothes do not fit, but does not want to buy new ones. Does not want men touching her. Has no interest in men, but does feel alone. This is the one that goes to therapy, writes books, creates websites, works, runs a business, posts in this group.

Tylas, you seem to be assuming that only an ANP can take executive control with amnesia to other alters. I don't think that is correct.

My system is actually very unsettled by the distinction, as parts seem to in some cases be able to have switched between the two. And I think the terms "normal" and "emotional", as if emotions aren't normal and it's normal to not have emotions, make it really had to see the theory objectively for most of me, even if it's not what is meant. I wish there was a better way of stating it. :T

Una+ wrote:Tylas, you seem to be assuming that only an ANP can take executive control with amnesia to other alters. I don't think that is correct.

I am saying that when an ANP take control there IS amnesia and thus it is DID.

EP's seem to do anything! They are sort of like a wild card, yet those with DD-NOS do not loose time according to the DSM.

And asking how to know the ANP from an EP?

Again, this is not a fact. Just my thinking. Does it make sense?

Una+ - I think Tylas is proposing not that there is no time loss with EPs, but that if an ANP takes executive control then there must be time loss during those switches, would not be co-presence, co-consciousness, etc. I don't know if that's the case or not. I'm co-present or co-conscious most of time time, even with the parts that seem like ANPs. Also, my Observer part just told me that someone I thought was an EP played host during most of my teens until there was a voluntary switch to me, so we could live a healthier life, less contaminated by her depression (around the time I became a Christian). I don't know if I buy that analysis, but in any case, whether it is an EP or (presumed) ANP that takes over, I still only have very rare (obvious) time loss. So, under Tylas' proposed definition, I'd probably be DDNOS, I think. Anyway, it would be interesting to hear what my T thinks in terms of who is ANP and who is EP, but he is more concerned with just caring for everyone and hearing with what they have to say, so I don't think that's a discussion he would find fruitful.

yakusoku wrote:Una+ - I think Tylas is proposing not that there is no time loss with EPs, but that if an ANP takes executive control then there must be time loss during those switches, would not be co-presence, co-consciousness, etc.

And that the switching of ANP is hard to tell and really hard for the host to know. As my T said yesterday, I have spent a lot of years covering it up from myself!

Yes!

My T said too that all this ANP/EP stuff is more for a Psychiatrist. She did not seem interested in reading this new book at all even though she has the others I have been interested in. I send her lots of info from the books and ask her what she thinks. She might be on brain overload too!

But I like to understand how and why things work how they do. I want to know!


I found a great article!
http://www.empty-memories.nl/didmpd.html


This one is a little more difficult, but describes the ANP and EP in more detail by reviewing the book the Haunted Self.
http://www.istss.org/source/stresspoint ... le_ID=1288

"Complicating the categorization, is the realistic observation by the authors that in low functioning DID patients, many ANPs and EPs may seem to be virtually indistinguishable from each other. This difficulty is addressed by the observation that “on closer scrutiny some dissociative parts — ‘ANP- biased’ — appear to be more orientated to functioning in daily life, while other parts — ‘EP – Biased’ — seem more oriented to defense” (p. 78-79)."

The concepts of ANP and EP were not developed specifically for application to DID and my reading of the work from that research group is that fundamentally and simply an ANP is a rational, unemotional, usually control-oriented personality and an EP is an emotional personality, often a very obsessive and preoccupied one.

My personal perspective is that I am an ANP, and I know my system has another ANP who sometimes takes executive control. I know this because at least some of the time I remain co-present while that other ANP is in front. I also lose time, not much but I do lose it, and I don't know who comes out then. Perhaps soon my therapist will be able to tell me. Does it matter if I am formally diagnosed as having DID or DDNOS, if the boundary between these two conditions is moved? Does it matter if behind that amnesiac barrier lurks an ANP or an EP? I think not. What matters to me is that I lose time, I fear what may happen while I lose time, and I want to stop losing time.

Una - The concepts of ANP and EP were not developed specifically for application to DID and my reading of the work from that research group is that fundamentally and simply an ANP is a rational, unemotional, usually control-oriented personality and an EP is an emotional personality, often a very obsessive and preoccupied one.

I think it can be emotional to a point, but the key is that it has NO trauma memories! If I understand this right an ANP does not. The EP's hold them.


My personal perspective is that I am an ANP, and I know my system has another ANP who sometimes takes executive control. I know this because at least some of the time I remain co-present while that other ANP is in front.



Does that alter "other" ANP hold trauma memories?

I also lose time, not much but I do lose it, and I don't know who comes out then. Perhaps soon my therapist will be able to tell me. Does it matter if I am formally diagnosed as having DID or DDNOS, if the boundary between these two conditions is moved? Does it matter if behind that amnesiac barrier lurks an ANP or an EP? I think not. What matters to me is that I lose time, I fear what may happen while I lose time, and I want to stop losing time.

I don't think it matters to most. It is why I always write DDNOS/DID since there is such a fine line, but! When it comes to healing and treatment it has to help to know if you have one or two ANP's I suppose? Maybe not.

Mostly I want to know if the tylas1 and tylas2 I describe are 2 separate alters or just one. Perhaps the emotional one is only an EP? - but it hold's no memories, so I doubt that and has worked with the other ANP to keep the entire system from me - but then an EP does that. This is all so confusing!!!

Okay, my brain and entire system has been on the fritz recently so it's been difficult for me to follow discussions that require focus or memory but here goes.

ANPs are: John, Jonathan, Little John, Adam
EPs are: Jack, wolf-pup Ashar, Dack
My RANTTLBNOEP: Sphinx (robotic and not the tiniest little bit normal or emotional personality)

I can only guess that Adam and Little John are ANPs because they were previous hosts.

Tylas, I don't think an EP *necessarily* holds trauma memories, I just think the distinguishing factor is that they are emotional. Who you describe as your ANP number 2 seems emotional to me, and I would think they were an EP versus an ANP. The way I think about these labels (and I have to remember that they are just labels) is that one is emotional and one is unemotional. Myself, Caroline, the person who usually posts on here, I think I'm fairly unemotional. If I do feel feelings - sadness, anger, etc - it's usually overwhelming and I don't know where it's coming from. In the last few months, since I've become more aware of other parts of myself who do hold strong emotions, I've begun seeing that when I do feel a strong feeling, it's most likely because one of my alters is feeling it.

What's confusing about this whole notion that with DDNOS you only have one ANP and with DID you have more than one is why then do I know of two unemotional parts of myself (me, host, and a very unemotional gatekeeper type) and yet not have an amnesia barrier (that I know of)? It seems I would break that rule, since it seems as though I have DDNOS (due to no amnesia) and I have two ANPs.

Or maybe I have it wrong - maybe an EP is an emotional part, and an ANP is an unemotional HOST. That would make more sense, because my gatekeeper type person hardly ever talks and has only come out one time in therapy. Hmm...

-- Sun Jul 10, 2011 12:24 pm --

PS...

tylas wrote:Great page -easy to read on what an ANP and EP is.
http://www.empty-memories.nl/didmpd.html

... this is an awesome resource. Thank you so much for posting!!!