Just Found out but I've kinda always known... [Open]

Hello. I'm new to the boards (as many of you can probably tell). I'm 26 years old from the east coast of the US. I have just recently been diagnosed with DID back in December... but I kinda always known I've had it. From a very young age, I always had this "alter". Thea is what I've always called her. She has always been like a protector to me. I'm not familiar with all of the terms yet so forgive me but I'll be using my own terms mainly.

Thea was the first. Since she first surfaced, there are four others who have surfaced in the past few years. It hasn't been easy but I've learned how to hide it over the years. Thea's the only one with an accent and even she has learned to cover that up for me. At first it was hard but now she mimics me perfectly. I haven't told my family yet. Most of them already think I'm just bat$#!% crazy and they like to rub their judgement in everyone's faces. I'm usually on the judged end of the totem pole anyway for just being me so... I'd like to keep anything else from landing me there again.

However, one of my exboyfriends knows and also has one alter. My exgirlfriend is one of my closest friends and she had an extensive relationship, knowingly, with Thea. I also just recently told my best friend in the whole wide world. He even said it himself; "I had no idea. You always seemed like you." However after explaining to him in detail the differences between me and them, he said certain pieces came together and he understod what I was explaining. He also said that explained a lot of things for him when it came to me. I was so relieved to be accepted by him. He's saved my life many times and he's been there for me more than anyone has. So that was my biggest relief.

Honestly... I have been looking for others that I can communicate with who also have DID. It would be so nice to actually be able to share experiences and openly talk to others that have the same disorder. It's nice that I have two people I can talk to about it but I've never really had the opportunity to share my experiences with others who also have DID and to really have someone understand exactly what it's like would be amazing. So if anyone has any tips, pointers and so on, I'd really appreciate it. I'm still learning about all of this and really digging deep into it. I've thought about creating a blog about it to maybe see if that helps me with sorting them all in my head but I'm not sure yet.

Either way, Hello to everyone! I'm glad I could find a place to come to and share stories and learn from others more about this disorder!

-Swede

warm welcome to this forum. glad you are here and glad to hear that you have support!

Hi Swede @BeWildAndDream, welcome to the DID Forum. As you have a formal diagnosis, please contribute to our survey on time to diagnosis: Check in: Time to diagnosis?

Hey! I'm 25, also from east coast USA.. Was diagnosed with DID 7 months ago. Just joined the forum today, also looking for others with DID to communicate with. I have my therapist to talk to and my best friend is a therapist, so she understands DID, and I'm blessed to have both in my life, but knowing others with DID would be nice...

I, too, have always known in many ways that I had DID. Once I began doing therapy work, my parts began showing me how they've been there over the years, and things I've thought, said, did, were actually them, and not 'just me' as I always thought it was... The pieces were finally beginning to come together. And there's a name for what is going on with me! That means I'm not alone! And this has been an incredible journey over the last 7 months ..

So, thanks for posting this and it is very nice to be able to communicate with others who can relate

Hello, and welcome!

I'm also new here, and don't think I have DID, but dissociate and know something odd has(d?) been going on in my brain. So I decided to post here to maybe, I guess um, reach out and find out more. And everyone has been super helpful and nice!

Glad to hear you're so positive about DID!

Hello and welcome!

BeWildAndDream wrote:I haven't told my family yet. Most of them already think I'm just bat$#!% crazy and they like to rub their judgement in everyone's faces.

It might be a pretty big decision to tell your family or not. It could be worth having the input of Thea and any others before making such a big decision. A person's family of origin may have contributed to the development of DID if the family's treatment of the child wasn't what it was meant to be. I'm not sure if that was the case for you or not, but you might want to be sure of what memories other parts hold before determining whether it's a good idea to tell someone in your family. Personally, it was not a good idea for me to tell my family, given that they are the cause of my DID and they would take the opportunity to manipulate that in an abusive fashion. So you can see it might depend on your situation and what you discover about yourself to inform what your decision about telling your family might be. There is no rush or need to tell people you think will be judgemental, that's for sure. It's good that you've been able to tell some supportive people in your life so far... Hopefully you also find others here supportive and helpful in your journey too.

Take care.