I have been diagnosed with multiple personalities, can someone help me please?
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There's a wonderful MPD/DID message board that's very safe and friendly. You might want to take a look:
http://messageboards.ivillage.com/iv-bhm...
Also, here's some current information on this psychological condition that I think you'll find helpful:
http://emotional.health.ivillage.com/per...
Ask your therapist to put all the parts back together so they can all enjoy a normal life. That is what you want isn't it?
Certain psychologists believe that multiple personalities are created by psychologists who believe there is such a thing as multiple personalities.
I'm sure you can find references to this on the internet.
Hi Friday - Though I have different disorders, I have found http://www.psychcentral.com/ to be a very supportive place. There are people there who are going through the same things you are who can relate and share their experiences and what helps them. You will find lots of people to talk with.
http://dailystrength.org/support/mental_...
I am sorry as i do not do email myself for a host of professional reasons, but here's a website that seems very well-organized and protected so as to keep little parts safe from triggering experiences. It is an entire online community for DID and i thought you might wish to check it out:
http://www.mosaicminds.org/community/ind...
There is even an area exclusively devoted to child alters.
On another note, it is really important to see your therapist regularly as infrequent visits won't allow the necessary depth for integration to occur. Talk with your therapist about more frequent appts. I wanted to share the following excerpt from other questions I have answered on DID and I hope you may find it helpful, though it may not offer you any new information depending on how long you've been in treatment. But here it is anyway:
Treatment stages:
I do believe that integration is the eventual goal in therapy with folks for DID as I see anything less than that as settling for less than a person deserves, though I respect the choices people make as to how far they wish to go in therapy. But integration most certainly is possible.
Initially I focus on contracting to decrease overtly self-destructive behavior in order to allow therapy to proceed. This contracting can take weeks or months before all parts are willing to get on board and suspend overtly self-destructive behavior as there is usually a lack of understanding by each part that what they do effects all parts. Safety of the body has to come first before other work takes place in order to avoid hospitalization or injury which will only delay and interfere with therapy.
The first step in therapy then is always establishing communication between alter parts. Sometimes this happens initially through a journal where each part can write or post comments to a question. Once there has been some initial communication and awareness of other parts, communication is fostered through developing co-consciousness which is the ability for one part to stay "present" while another part or parts are dominant. Mainly, this involves a willingness to stay and resist the desire to dissociate. The greater the degree of co-consciousness, the less amnesia there is and the less confusion the person experiences.
The next step is to facilitate cooperation between parts and decrease the internal struggles and battles for control which lead to disorganized behavior and inconsistency in relationships. This often is somewhat like family therapy and the basic tenet is to encourage openness to understanding the perspectives and needs of other parts within the system. The most important thing here is to encourage respect for other parts-it is also one of the most difficult aspects of the therapy as negative attitudes by the host personality toward other parts is generally the source of most conflict. The other parts' behaviors are interpreted out of context and are often perceived by the host as destructive or persecutory. Other parts often are angry with the host and see the host as weak and dependent. It's my experience that persecutor alters are every bit as valuable and important and necessary to the system and are really protector parts in disguise, no matter how horrendous or destructive their behavior may appear at first on the surface. This step is crucial, as communication will shut down and no further work will take place without establishing respect between alters and a willingness and desire to learn from one another. Each alter offers unique coping strategies and needs to be honored for the role they played in the system's survival. Initial cooperation and collaboration among alters may begin with simply negotiating things like who has time out in the body and when. Clearly, a degree of respect needs to precede this in order to facilitate the trust necessary to allow alters to voluntarily take control. This also diminishes the severe headaches which usually result from switching struggles.
Once there has been a level of communication and cooperation established, the next step is to facilitate sharing of memories across alters which further reduces the amnesia barrier. It also results in the transfer of skills between parts and a dramatic increase in empathy for what each part experienced and the contribution they made to survival. The greatest roadblock to accomplishing this step is usually host resistance, as the host is reluctant to accept the dissociated memories and the attendant emotional pain and they must become committed to the goal of accepting the other parts of themselves and owning the experiences and the pain. This leads to integration.
When alters integrate by sharing the emotions and the memory, they never actually leave or disappear-they simply cease to exist as separate. This is key as no part is ever eliminated (which sometimes is what the host personality strives to do-trying to destroy or suppress a part is a negative barrier and not possible either) as each is equally crucial to the person's evolving sense of self. Other alters fear loss of independence and uniqueness and their role and often resist too at this stage until the concept is fully understood. Acceptance of all parts directly results in integration. All of these fears of loss of separateness, loss of coping by dissociation need to be processed to facilitate this stage.
The last stage is usually grieving with all the anger, sadness and feelings that come with owning the experiences of horrific abuse, and sometimes worse, the emotional neglect. Grieving the loss of the parents you never had is the most apt phrase I've ever heard and is credited to Colin Ross, the guru in treatment of DID.
Finally there is a resolution phase, where as clients call it, they adjust to being a "monomind" and coping with new experiences without the use of dissociation or other ways of avoiding affect (like alcohol, drugs, self-mutilation, rage episodes or other forms of acting out) and they practice and solidify the coping mechanisms they have been learning throughout therapy.
Good luck to you!
Here is another good message board, just google "Coping with Dissociative Identity Disorder ezboard". They have sections specifically for "inside kids."
We are a multiple person, and we are slowly experimenting with "coming out" to close friends. We've been really lucky, and we have three friends that many of us talk to. It has been great for all of us.
But we have really good co-consciousness, and ability to take care of each other emotionally, plus pretty good people judgement. And most of our friends knew us for a while, before we told them we are multiple.
All are important to coming out. It's best if you can recognize who would be good to come out to. And if you know as many of your (insiders, too) hopes and expectations for coming out, and if you are prepared to deal with any bad results (like losing a friend, or people thinking you're crazy). Coming out can be really hard- we have come out because we wanted emotional support, and then were very upset when we didn't get it. We expected more understanding of DID than most people have, and were upset when people just didn't understand how hard it is to talk about, or why certain things would "trigger" (upset) us.
So unless you're relatively together, you might just want to stick to message boards. You can e-mail us-at YouQA.com , if you want.
Good luck- it can be really tough at first, but it gets better.
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