What is DID like?

I'm wondering what DID is like. I've had several friends with it, saw a person black out and become their alter. It was actually pretty frightening to me because I'd never seen it etc. I've been also interested by it. I have grown up with schizophrenia or bipolar, assumed, since the age of fifteen. My mom also has schizophrenia, so it's likely that it's genetic. The schizophrenia traumatized my reality a lot, and also gave me heightened memory recall and ability. I've often wished I could be another person, experience another life or lifestyle, and just escape for awhile. Is it refreshing to go on vacation from your true self? Is it confusing to know which true self is yours?

Are you in control of your identities or do they just appear on their own, and you learn to name and label their characteristics? The brain is incredibly powerful, I have learned. Sometimes I wonder if schizophrenia is a form of dissasociation because it feels like it. When I'm off medication, I lose sense of my own inner voice--and get massive anxiety, and basically become unhinged or undone. It seems similar. I also have a deep seated fear that if I did continue off meds, I would get DID...simply because of how traumatic everything would be. For instance, in my teen years I tended to lock myself in my room and play out fantasies...but on medication, I have very little imagination....and that's the part that is painful.

bright_star wrote:I'm wondering what DID is like. [...] I've often wished I could be another person, experience another life or lifestyle, and just escape for awhile. Is it refreshing to go on vacation from your true self? Is it confusing to know which true self is yours?

DID is nothing like that.

these threads might be good for getting an idea of what DID is like :

-- Your experience in uncovering alters- time line (possibly triggering): http://www.psychforums.com/dissociative-identity/topic94601.html


-- Hearing Your Alters: http://www.psychforums.com/dissociative-identity/topic97632.html


-- "Typical" day (discussing internal voices/conversations) (possibly slightly triggering): http://www.psychforums.com/dissociative-identity/topic96635.html


-- Do all DIDs have an inside world? : http://www.psychforums.com/dissociative-identity/topic74425.html


-- Can you see your alters? : http://www.psychforums.com/dissociative-identity/topic97740.html


-- What exactly do you hear, see, and feel ? : http://www.psychforums.com/dissociative-identity/topic69896.html


-- When do you switch? : http://www.psychforums.com/dissociative-identity/topic98641.html


-- Switching at will: http://www.psychforums.com/dissociative-identity/topic97732.html


-- Co-consciousness & Co-hosting? : http://www.psychforums.com/dissociative-identity/topic99350.html


-- Switching Symptoms (Possibly Triggery): http://www.psychforums.com/dissociative-identity/topic102917.html


-- Long vs Short Switches: http://www.psychforums.com/dissociative-identity/topic103012.html


-- A question about alter "creation" (possibly triggering): http://www.psychforums.com/dissociative-identity/topic100271.html


-- What was it like when you first realized?: http://www.psychforums.com/dissociative-identity/topic99442.html


-- How aware are other personalities (aware) of each other?: http://www.psychforums.com/dissociative-identity/topic96030.html




basically, the best i can describe it is DID is like having an internal family that's made up of different parts/alters of you/your personality. sometimes you fight, sometimes yo help each other, you might not all get along, you might not all like each other, but you're all in this together, and you gotta learn to make the best of it, and you gotta work on communication, compromising, and not ignoring or hurting each other and stuff.


- cassie (age ?)

Thanks for the information.