"Electrical" issues.....

When I am working on my laptop and I switch, the program I'm working on often crashes or the computer freezes up. It took several incidents of that happening to figure out the cause. I instructed the gatekeeper to stop me if I looked at porn online, because I'm drawn to unacknowledged replays of the SA. Once when I did, he zapped me so hard, my laptop just went dead, as from a power spike, and wouldn't reboot. I had to have everything reinstalled. It felt like a bolt of lightning went through me, or like I stuck a metal object into an electrical outlet, or like I fell on my head, suddenly compressing my spine and shooting a spike of pain through my body. There's no doubt in our mind that something electrical happens in DID. For us, it's evident around switching or when I'm feeling switchy (wanting to switch).

O my gosh wow! I thought I was losing my mind about this issue until I read these posts! I've been seriously having issues with static electricity over CONSTANTLY. When I wave my hand over a blanket you can actually see the blue electricity. I'm glad to know I'm not the only one and yes I also find that the more and more I unravel my DID the more this happens as well. My computer mouse dies every 2 days - it's soooooo frustrating!!! Perhaps that's why my laptop battery has been replaced twice and yet the new one is also 'faulty'. It's me! haha

Una wrote:And now the car lock/unlock remotes work for me only some of the time. My husband and auto mechanic can't reproduce the problem, so it is me.

Actually, it turns out my problem with the remotes was a combination of exhausted batteries and a manufacturing defect in one remote. Now they all work okay for me.

I am continuing to get bad shocks when I touch car doors. Other people with me don't get shocked but sometimes they can hear the shock I get. Zzzap! Ow that hurt!

I have had at least two periods in my life of increased static eletricity. Everyone kept telling me it was my shoes. It got so bad that I began to flinch any time I was near a car or about to open a door. The first period was, I think, during college. I had a major, nearly debilitating intrusion from Poet for almost a whole year (junior?), who had escaped quarantine after the mistake of living at my mom's one Summer. At the time, I remember an objective presence describing quarantining those "problematic" emotions. I wish I had known the term dissociation at that time, I would have self-diagnosed. The shocks went away. I never correlated the two, but I am pretty sure they were around the same period.

The second period I am sure of is...right now, since my parts have emerged, it has gotten worse and worse. It doesn't matter what shoes I wear. I am being shocked all the time, mostly on cars and doors, and pretty often see arcs. I have also had some bizarre issues with my laptop generating very strange buzzing noises, but it may be unrelated. I told my H about this theory (having heard about it from JJ) and he said he has had a lot of electrical issues himself. I thought he would laugh at me about it, but he described shorting stuff out too. He scored about 10 points below me on the DES and has a parasomnia that has strong features of dissociation, in addition to my observing severe ego-state switches and a horrible memory in general for present day stuff. I wouldn't be surprised if he has DDNOS, to tell you the truth. Anyway, just to add two more to the electrical issues list...

This frequently happens with two of my girls, both who said that they are "ghosts".

The elder looking of the two (but younger), when my abusive ex still lived with us, caused the computer to freeze while said ex was on it. The younger looking one (but older) froze the computer, made the music player mess up... and there was another incident that was VERY disturbing and rather violent in nature, so I will warn people that this could be a ***trigger***...

We were at a doctor's office, and the doctor basically insulted us, told us we were sponging off my (abusive) mother, needed mental help, etc... I was so angry that I couldn't speak. When we left, and sat down with the receptionist, I felt my girl coming up very fast from "under". She was absolutely furious, and told me "I am coming up". Seconds later, the receptionist's phone rang. She picked it up. She kept saying "hello? hello?" ... No one was there. She hung up. It kept ringing and she had to disconnect the phone. A few seconds after that, one of the pictures hanging in the hallway of the room lifted up off the wall and got thrown down on the ground. And it was thrown... I heard it wriggle, so I looked. It lifted up into the air and got SMASHED down on the ground. The glass on it did break. The receptionist was a bit startled. We promptly left and never went back!

***end trigger?***

I don't know who or what my two girls are, but they can, do and will interact with this world on a physical level that I cannot explain. The younger looking of the two, especially; she identifies as the older looking one's protector and voice; she is also protective of me, and is sometimes scarily strong. I know it's unrelated, but a close friend of mine actually saw the younger looking of my girls at work-- she had once said she didn't believe me, and my girl said she'd "prove it". Not too long after, my friend told me she believed me, because she's walked around to the back of her counter at work, and my girl had been sitting on the ground in the corner staring up at her. My friend had blinked and my girl was gone. So, I don't at all doubt the electrical oddness that happens around us or other people!

People can believe or not believe, but it happened. It's strange, for sure.

By way of an update... My problems with electricity seem to be over. I still have the same vehicle, shoes, socks, clothing, even jacket, but for the past year or so I don't get zapped nearly as much. And my DES and anxiety scores are way down too. Possibly these changes are related.

How about you?

While I am posting, here are some links to old DID Forum threads that mention electrical troubles:

Electrifying personalities
Does any of you have psychic-like abilities?
First Person Plural: My Life As a Multiple

Hi, Una. Nice to hear these changes for you and I definitely think they're related. I don't remember any incidents of static electricity for a year or more maybe. We haven't destroyed any electronic devices since we (Sphinx, technically) accidentally fried our hard drive. It's paralleled the reduction in dissociation and increased intra-alter communication and cooperation. Negative triggers cause a switch less often, and those are less "explosive," though positive triggers -- Look, there's a bunny! -- regularly cause switches to littles.

I still avoid a switch if I'm holding an electronic device or at a computer since we ruined so many of these. Switching changed a while back to smooth so maybe it's safe. Also within a minute or so post-switch we started to yawn involuntarily and that seems to dissipate the energy and heat generated by a switch.

This is one of my favorite threads because it helped explain another large group of life experiences that I labeled bizarre and was tempted to call paranormal.

Well, let's write an update too: my laptop's battery is still not dead after 7 years. The technicians at the store wonder how come it might have lasted this long. On the other hand, I have a 7" tablet whose backlight flickers at the lowest level only when I hold it. It is correct though at higher brightness levels.

My friends at college ask me once in a while to pass my hands in front of the Wifi antenna of their laptop to get a signal strength boost, or to get reception when they don't.

But as of a few months ago, I started getting zapped by static electricity everytime I touch the car's doors. That is most likely due to my shoes and my mittens (made of wool).

I would have liked to say that I stopped thinking about this topic in the last year, but instead, my scientific mind kept at it. It made me think that there could be an underlying physiological phenomenon explaining some cases of severe trauma-related disorders. As most of us know, developping a dissociative disorder is related to your capacity to deal with trauma, and what I was wondering about is if the neurological system of DID and other dissociative sufferers is not filtering the information the same way as most other people. My theory is that people with DID have a neurological system that is more electrically conductive, including nerves from the peripheral nervous system, therefore explaining why we affect electronic devices (like my tablet with the oscillating backlight). It also means that we are registering more information about our perception and thus more easily traumatized. This seems to parallel my T's view that people with DID have lived difficult events, but are otherwise traumatized by events which would leave most "normal" people troubled, but not traumatized. Anyway, it's just a theory.

Totally loved what Johnny-Jack wrote about him having super powers. It's so beautiful!

Yeah, you totally do!

I've thought that other people have their supper powers too. My sis for instance is so good at making people laugh and lighten the mood. I think, I'm good at perceiving people's mood, and changes of it.

And what SnakeskinSoul shared is soo amazing!

It's so incredible this relationship between DID, electrical issues, and ethereal issues.

If I'm near a computer that is moving slow or having issues of any kind I step away. That usually makes them start working again. The "light bulb"thing has slowed down, but they usually blow when I'm near.