Now that we have a basic understanding of dissociation and dissociative disorders, it's time to begin introductions. But for those of you who didn't understand the last article, or who didn't read it, here is a list of the points made.
1: dissociation is any kind of detachment from the world around you, including, but not limited to, the experience of the world being somehow different than it actually is.
2: Everyone dissociates in some way or another, and it’s only when dissociation stops a person from living their life in some way that it is thought of as a disorder or a problem.
3: Dissociation is a spectrum. DID is on the far end, and things like daydreaming or audomaticly driving somewhere and not remembering it, are closer to the typical experience.
4: things like OSDD/DDNOS and DID are mostly caused by trauma. In fact, most dissociative disorders usually are.
5: DID is when 2 distinkt personality states take control of a person’s behavior and one state does not remember what the other did, in the absence of a medical issue or something like a drug that could cause that memory loss.
6: DDNOS/OSDD is when either 2 or more personality states take control of a person’s behavior and there is no memory loss. In other forms, it won’t feel to the person as though they’ve lost control of their body, but rather as though it was them, yet not them, doing any particular thing, which is a difficult sensation to describe.
So now that you have this information, our introductions might make a little more sense. If you’re still confused, feel free to read the last article posted. Here’s the link:
Shattered Minds: A Basic explanation of Dissociative Identity Disorder and Related Disorders
There’s a lot of information in that article. It was meant to be a 5 paragraph essay format, so it’s a bit of a mess, but I’ll add in more information as the blog grows.
Moving onto introductions, my name is Maria and I’m the host, if you will, of the system. I’ve probably not defined this term, so for those who don’t know, a host of a system means the member of any system who takes care of dayly life, and does things like work, school, take care of the kids, cooking, and things like that. I was, as far as I know, the one who the others came from when things got too overwhelming to handle alone.
Hearing how much I talk about others, you might ask, “But having the others doesn’t define you, right? There’s more to you than having insiders, isn’t there?”
To those people, I say of course there is. I write songs, do covers of other people’s music, create projects with a free program used for audio editing, and play the keyboard, all without worrying about insiders causing chaos. That’s not even taking into account all the experience I’ve had advocating for myself as a blind person, or the passion I have for learning new things such as rebirthing breathwork, primal therapy or mindfulness. But despite having all these other things to think about and do, having insiders is a big part of my life, a part that is often not understood, and too often, is a part that many people want to keep silent. I will not accept this silence. My name is Maria, and I’m speaking out about my experiences with dissociation, so that the stigma surrounding it may fall away like an old snake skin that has served its purpose. Will you join me?