How DID forum helped me with OSDD

People here are very knowledgeable of DID, and I was right to think that I can adapt some of that knowledge to OSDD.

The main lesson I learned that emotions and feelings in DID could be fully separated thus only one alter experiences something the whole system is meant to experience. I converted that to OSDD by realizing that other versions of me that came to be on certain events in life is all meant to be me thus I have to find a way to put them all into account.

The problem was that every single version of me seeks to take life in different direction or have interests that asks different lifestyles, so it seems that it is impossible to put them all into account, but I found a way that does that to some extent.

Integration is a huge part of DID treatment, in OSDD it is all about connection. Every version of me has to be connected into some whole that then becomes actual me; I cannot disregard the fact that other versions came to be, I cannot be just one version.

Because of complexity of those versions, I had to introduce abstract roles like main and extra version, and also abstract goals like version being in peace and being open to fulfilling version if possible. Then I just had to think of a whole connecting those roles/goals, and be clear of all doubts regarding which version should have which role.

In the end, there is a pathway to every version, even if only one or two versions are truly in spotlight thus having theirs lived.

AW10 wrote:People here are very knowledgeable of DID, and I was right to think that I can adapt some of that knowledge to OSDD.

The main lesson I learned that emotions and feelings in DID could be fully separated thus only one alter experiences something the whole system is meant to experience.

Yes we have found this site very helpful too. We know we definitely experience dissociation but there's no specialists in our area and we can't travel that far so not sure what exact dx we would get.

In our younger days we had ones that held memories seperate...those that went to school had no medical trauma memories, those that only came out at home alone had no classroom memories.

AW10 wrote:The problem was that every single version of me seeks to take life in different direction or have interests that asks different lifestyles,

This happened to us too in a major way after one changed the bodies legal name and another later left home choosing a lifestyle none of the ones who had existed up to that point wanted! We did not have communication or control of switching to take the life back to what we wanted at that time and no understanding of what Dissociation was.

AW10 wrote:Because of complexity of those versions, I had to introduce abstract roles like main and extra version, and also abstract goals like version being in peace and being open to fulfilling version if possible.

Not quite sure what you mean here...are you using the word 'version' to mean 'alters'? so main version would be 'Host' or ANP and 'extra version' would be an EP or an insider that rarely hosted??

AW10 wrote: In the end, there is a pathway to every version, even if only one or two versions are truly in spotlight thus having theirs lived.

pathway to every version?? ...are you talking about communication between alters?? ..about life choices? etc

TL

In OSDD, at least in my case, there is no alters like DID would have, there are modes/versions of living that do alterations to base personality. It is easy to draw analogy between versions, as they essentially have the same elements, just in different form or differently organized and with different reasoning behind. Although, there could be elements exclusive to specific version, mainly if those elements were needed in time version was created. There are no memory or feelings separation, it is all one person with dissociative programs in mind, and it is hard to notice from the inside before you develop each program to see differences between them, and almost unnoticeable from outside unless you actually try to emphasize those differences to observer. In any case, there has to be dissociation, when living one version, other versions feel like something like you never could be or do; although eventually one acknowledges that all versions are essentially the same person.

To manage this one needs a starting point which is also the point one can always return to recalibrate, the main version of self from which there are rules when to live all other versions thus pathways. In my case, main version feels like idle self while I have a version I switch to that feels like my true self, and I will eventually be switching to that version most of the time. I call that true self version I switch to the extra version, as it is direct extension to main version. Versions other than main and extra are only lived to fulfill certain goals, usually goals of those other versions.

AW10 wrote:In OSDD, at least in my case, there is no alters like DID would have, there are modes/versions of living that do alterations to base personality. It is easy to draw analogy between versions, as they essentially have the same elements, just in different form or differently organized and with different reasoning behind. Although, there could be elements exclusive to specific version, mainly if those elements were needed in time version was created. There are no memory or feelings separation, it is all one person with dissociative programs in mind, and it is hard to notice from the inside before you develop each program to see differences between them, and almost unnoticeable from outside unless you actually try to emphasize those differences to observer. In any case, there has to be dissociation, when living one version, other versions feel like something like you never could be or do; although eventually one acknowledges that all versions are essentially the same person.

To manage this one needs a starting point which is also the point one can always return to recalibrate, the main version of self from which there are rules when to live all other versions thus pathways. In my case, main version feels like idle self while I have a version I switch to that feels like my true self, and I will eventually be switching to that version most of the time. I call that true self version I switch to the extra version, as it is direct extension to main version. Versions other than main and extra are only lived to fulfill certain goals, usually goals of those other versions.

ok in which case we must be DID as although we have had some that feel like 'different versions of one' and fragments that never developed beyond a specific memory of one or two events, we also have some that have completely different backstories and some not even human! They see themselves as seperate individuals with their own (internal) name and identity.

Dissociative disorders all work the same. The intensity of the symptoms (separation of the identities, intensity of the amnesia, number of dissociated parts...) varies but the overall mechanisms are the same and the therapy is the same Don't hesitate to have a look at the list of ressources for dissociation and trauma (link in my signature)