Identity Crisis

This past weekend my boyfriend had a "ocd"break down....at that moment I got the distinct experience of meeting no less then five people living in my love's head......most choose to use his given name...there are two that use different names....john is the mean one...
As the person on the other side of this I'm at a lose as to how to cope with the fact that I'm in love with not just one man....once the gate was open they all came out to say "hi"......they all seem to be in agreement that they all love me.....that's nice.....there is a little boy....all he wanted from me was some ice cream and more of the cookies I made last week.....
Honestly....at first I thought this was all a joke.....a bad one....but a joke......then it went bad.....my love was so upset that his secret was out that he tried to kill himself.....not realizing that I would not be at work that day....I was there to beg for his life the whole day.....we made it through the night.....I woke up hoping that the worst was over and he would fess up to a very very bad joke......no soap.....I was greeted by "john".....not a nice man.....but very protective of my love.....he told me that "we" are going to die.....it was "their" choice and no matter how I tried I couldn't stop what was in the works.....Then as quick as it all started my baby was back behind his eyes....I was understandibly upset....he was confussed and wanted to know what had happened.....I did not sugar coat.....after some more tears on my part he let me take him to a mental health facility here in town......he's getting help and lots of snacks.......I know nothing of what I saw that day....and would love some guidance......

Basic Information on Dissociative Identity Disorder with sections on Basic Information on DID from the DSM-IV-TR, The History of DID/MPD, Diagnosing DID, Responses to those that state that DID is iatrogenic or a social construct, MPD/DID connection to severe abuse, Recent information and DID resources
http://members.aol.com/smartnews/Dissociative-Identity-Disorder.htm

Recovered Memory Data with information on recovered memory corroboration, theories on recovered memory, legal information, physiological evidence for memory suppression, replies to skeptics and books and articles on memory. http://members.aol.com/smartnews/recovered_memory_data.htm

Satanic Ritual Abuse evidence with information on McMartin Preschool case
http://members.aol.com/smartnews/SRA_references_list.htm

The McMartin Preschool Case - What Really Happened and the Coverup
http://members.aol.com/smartnews/McMartin_Preschool_Case.htm

Basic Information on Dissociative Identity Disorder with sections on Basic Information on DID from the DSM-IV-TR, The History of DID/MPD, Diagnosing DID, Responses to those that state that DID is iatrogenic or a social construct, MPD/DID connection to severe abuse, Recent information and DID resources
http://members.aol.com/smartnews/Dissociative-Identity-Disorder.htm

Recovered Memory Data with information on recovered memory corroboration, theories on recovered memory, legal information, physiological evidence for memory suppression, replies to skeptics and books and articles on memory. http://eassurvey.wordpress.com/2008/08/22/recovered-memory-data/
or http://members.aol.com/smartnews/recovered_memory_data.htm
Recovered Memory Data with information on recovered memory corroboration, theories on recovered memory, legal information, physiological evidence for memory suppression, replies to skeptics and books and articles on memory. http://eassurvey.wordpress.com/2008/08/22/recovered-memory-data/
or http://members.aol.com/smartnews/recovered_memory_data.htm


Recovered Memory Data with information on recovered memory corroboration, theories on recovered memory, legal information, physiological evidence for memory suppression, replies to skeptics and books and articles on memory. http://eassurvey.wordpress.com/2008/08/22/recovered-memory-data/
or http://members.aol.com/smartnews/recovered_memory_data.htmRecovered Memory Data with information on recovered memory corroboration, theories on recovered memory, legal information, physiological evidence for memory suppression, replies to skeptics and books and articles on memory. http://members.aol.com/smartnews/recovered_memory_data.htm

Satanic Ritual Abuse evidence with information on McMartin Preschool case
http://members.aol.com/smartnews/SRA_references_list.htm

The McMartin Preschool Case - What Really Happened and the Coverup
http://members.aol.com/smartnews/McMartin_Preschool_Case.htm




The McMartin Preschool Case - What Really Happened and the Coverup
http://members.aol.com/smartnews/McMartin_Preschool_Case.htm

The Etymological Antecedents of and Scientific Evidence for the Existence of Dissociative Identity Disorder
http://members.aol.com/smartnews/did_proof.html
The Diagnosis and Assessment of Dissociative Identity Disorder
http://members.aol.com/smartnews/did_diagnosis.html

Dear friend, I too understand what you go through.I was told for many years I had schizophrenia.But I felt there was more to my problem then that.I finally got a good theropist while in Florida.She told me,I had mpd.I tried to understand what that ment.And found out that,most people are women,that have it.But there are some men as well.I happen to be one of them.I just turned 50 years old this mounth.And I finally understand the trueth.Along with all the reasons for all the bad feelins I get,when I get close to other people.Espeasilly men.I had been a victom of sexual abuse since before the age of 5.Had also been repeatedly gang raped over a long period of time.At the age of 13,I had been kidnapped and used as bad things in devil peple.thay hurted me,and cut me.can you helpp me fin help for me here.I no like thm

Karen Overhill is such a hero-her willingness to share her story is a big deal! I'm sure it's meant so much to so many, myself included. I'm in my mid 40's and have learned in the last year or so that I have DID. Like Karen, I'm also looking forward to enrolling in college, albeit a little later than my peers, and planning for a future that I never expected.

Summary of Research Examining the Prevalence of Full or Partial Dissociative Amnesia for Traumatic Events - The most comprehensive review of the scientific literature on dissociative amnesia has been conducted by Brown, Scheflin and Hammond in their book, Memory, Trauma Treatment, and the Law . (New York: Norton, 1998). This book is viewed as setting the standard in the field after receiving the American Psychiatric Association's 1999 prestigious Manfred S. Guttmacher Award for best book in law and forensic psychiatry. Brown, Scheflin and Hammond reviewed 43 studies relevant to the subject of traumatic memory and found that every study that examined the question of dissociative amnesia in traumatized populations demonstrated that a substantial minority partially or completely forget the traumatic event experienced, and later recover memories of the event. Dissociative amnesia can occur after any type of traumatic event. www.leadershipcouncil.org/1/tm/prev.html

J Nerv Ment Dis. 1988 Sep;176(9):519-27. Multiple personality disorder. A clinical investigation of 50 cases. Coons PM, Bowman ES, Milstein V. Carter Memorial Hospital, Indianapolis, Indiana 46202. To study the clinical phenomenology of multiple personality, 50 consecutive patients with DSM-III multiple personality disorder were assessed using clinical history, psychiatric interview, neurological examination, electroencephalogram, MMPI, intelligence testing, and a variety of psychiatric rating scales. Results revealed that patients with multiple personality are usually women who present with depression, suicide attempts, repeated amnesic episodes, and a history of childhood trauma, particularly sexual abuse. Also common were headaches, hysterical conversion, and sexual dysfunction. Intellectual level varied from borderline to superior. The MMPI reflected underlying character pathology in addition to depression and dissociation. Significant neurological or
electroencephalographical abnormalities were infrequent. These data suggest that the etiology of multiple personality is strongly related to childhood trauma rather than to an underlying electrophysiological dysfunction. PMID: 3418321

Arch Gen Psychiatry. 1982 Jul;39(7):823-5.
EEG studies of two multiple personalities and a control.
Coons PM, Milstein V, Marley C.
There are few reports of EEG findings in patients with multiple personalities. In our study, EEGs were visually scanned and frequency analyzed in two patients with multiple personalities and one control. Auditory and visual evoked responses were also obtained from one of the patients and the control. The visually scanned EEGs and the evoked responses demonstrated few differences among the various personalities in each patient, whereas the frequency analysis showed the greatest number of significant differences among the "personalities" in the control. These data suggest that EEG differences among personalities in a person with multiple personalities involve intensity of concentration, mood changes, degree of muscle tension, and duration of recording, rather than some inherent difference between the brains of persons with multiple personalities and those of normal persons.

Trauma Induced-Dissociation - Anne P DePrince and Jennifer J. Freyd in ???Handbook of PTSD - Science and Practice??? edited by Friedman, Keane and Resick dynamic.uoregon.edu/~jjf/articles/dpf07.pdf

Adaptive dissociation: Information processing and response to betrayal by M. Rose Barlow and Jennifer J. Freyd - University of Oregon "This Critical Issues column is adapted from a chapter to appear in Dissociation and the Dissociative Disorders: DSM-V and Beyond, to be published by Routledge. It appears here with the kind permission of the book???s editors, Paul F.Dell and J. A. McNeil. This column proposes a view of dissociation as a set of characteristics, including information-processing tendencies, that can be organized into two branches of symptoms. A dissociative information processing style is developed as an adaptation to trauma, and is a way to remain unaware of information that threatens a necessary attachment relationship. ISSTD NEWS 8201 Greensboro Drive, 3rd Floor McLean, VA 22102 Phone: (703)610-9000 Vol. 25 No3 may 2007 5 E-mail: info@isst-d.org www.isst-d.org
dynamic.uoregon.edu/~jjf/articles/bfshort07.pdf

Over seven years of therapy have still only scratched the surface. Someday healing will come...this we believe. It does not happen over night. Just as the way we learned to survive did not come overnight. I have hope for all of those who are living wtih this "disorder", although it is more of an order than not. There are many of us out there who are dealing with these same issues and healing from the same kinds of abuse. Somehow we can come together even if it is not through intergration. Community and survival kept us alive. We are greatful to read this article and know that we can be shown as persons within a person trying to heal rather than a survivor or an oddity for the world to confront. Thank you for letting us know we are not alone.

One of another..., et al

Ground Lost: The False Memory/Recovered Memory Therapy Debate, by Alan Scheflin, Psychiatric Times 11/99, Vol. XVI Issue 11] The appearance in the DSM-IV indicates that the concept of repressed memory is generally accepted in the relevant scientific community. This satisfies courts following the Frye v United States, 293 F.1013 (1923) or Daubert v Merrell Dow Pharmaceutical, 113 S. Ct. 2786 (1993) rules regarding the admissibility of scientific testimony into evidence in court....Although the science is limited on this issue, the only three relevant studies conclude that repressed memories are no more and no less accurate than continuous memories (Dalenberg, 1996; Widom and Morris, 1997; Williams, 1995). Thus, courts and therapists should consider repressed memories no differently than they consider ordinary memories.
www.psychiatrictimes.com/p991137.html

I was recently featured on a show with Dr. Baer and my goal was to show, as astarte59 commented, that you can live with cooperation if you feel integration is NOT for you. I think that your mind has created this suvival skill and you can learn in time to balance out and work together. I'm not saying it's easy or doesn't take work...I'm currently still fighting so much but I'm very proud of what I've been able to accomplish thus far. I hope that with my recent interview I was able to let others know that you are a survivor and not just something that needs to be "fixed". Best wishes to Karen, too!

Enter Your CommentI

Thank you, thank you, thank you!!! The fact that a main-stream publication like Newsweek is publishing an article about DID will (hopefully) result in at least a few more people opening their minds to the reality of this condition. I can't tell you how difficult it is to explain "ourselves" to people who think this is all some "Hollywood" stunt! WE are real! And we ARE real because of what has been done to us by those people who were supposed to love and protect us....by people we trusted and believed in, and counted on to have our best interests at heart! We were betrayed, and continue to be betrayed....first by our abusers and now by a society that denies that severe child abuse even occurs, except by "sickos" (well, maybe they're right there, but there are more "sickos" than meet the eye!)

Thank you... Altough I don't won't our "GIFT" (DID) to be exploited, I do feel that it needs to more excepted by more of the professionals. I am very fortunate in that I have the most wonderful therapist. As for calling DID a gift, well I truly do believe that my family members and my LITTLES are a gift. Fore without them I cannot imagine what my life would be like.

DID: Research and Pseudoscience by S. Dallam RN, MSN,FNP, Treating Abuse Today, Vol. 8 No. 3 May-June 1998, "The authors conclude (about a different article): "This study establishes, once and for all, the linkage between early severe abuse and (D.I.D.)"

The Spectrum of Dissociative Disorders: An Overview of Diagnosis and Treatment by Joan A. Turkus, M.D. " Major studies have confirmed the traumatic origin of DID (Putnam, 1989, and Ross, 1989), which arises... as a result of severe physical, sexual, and/or emotional abuse. Poly-fragmented DID (involving over 100 personality states) may be the result of sadistic abuse by multiple perpetrators over an extended period of time."

1: J Am Optom Assoc. 1996 Jun;67(6):327-34. Visual function in multiple personality disorder. Birnbaum MH, Thomann K.
State College of Optometry, State University of New York, NY 10010, USA.
BACKGROUND: Multiple personality disorder (MPD) is characterized by the existence of two or more personality states that recurrently exchange control over the behavior of the individual. Numerous reports indicate physiological differences, including significant differences in ocular and visual function, across alter personality states in MPD. METHODS: The existing literature was reviewed to provide an overview of the nature and characteristics of MPD, with emphasis on reported physiologic and ocular differences across alter personalities. In addition, a case is reported of an MPD patient seen over a 3-year period. RESULTS: Physiologic differences across alter personality states in MPD include differences in dominant handedness, response to the same medication, allergic sensitivities, autonomic and endocrine function, EEG, VEP, and regional cerebral blood flow. Differences in visual function include variability in visual acuity, refraction, oculomotor status, visual field, color vision, corneal curvature, pupil size, and intraocular pressure in the various personality states of MPD subjects as compared to single personality controls.
CONCLUSIONS: The possibility of MPDs should be considered in patients who
demonstrate unusual variability in ocular and visual findings, particularly with a positive psychiatric history. The existence of visual and other physiologic differences across alter personalities in MPD offers a unique potential for the study of mind-body relationships.

5: Clin Electroencephalogr. 1990 Oct;21(4):200-9. Brain mapping in a case of multiple personality. Hughes JR, Kuhlman DT, Fichtner CG, Gruenfeld MJ. Department of Neurology, University of Illinois, Chicago 60612. Brain maps were recorded on a patient with a multiple personality disorder (10 alternate personalities). Maps were recorded with eyes open and eyes
closed during 2 different sessions, 2 months apart. Maps from each alternate personality were compared to those of the basic personality "S", some maps were similar and some were different, especially with eyes open. Findings that wer

DID: Research and Pseudoscience by S. Dallam RN, MSN,FNP, Treating Abuse Today, Vol. 8 No. 3 May-June 1998, "The authors conclude (about a different article): "This study establishes, once and for all, the linkage between early severe abuse and (D.I.D.)"

The Spectrum of Dissociative Disorders: An Overview of Diagnosis and Treatment by Joan A. Turkus, M.D. " Major studies have confirmed the traumatic origin of DID (Putnam, 1989, and Ross, 1989), which arises... as a result of severe physical, sexual, and/or emotional abuse. Poly-fragmented DID (involving over 100 personality states) may be the result of sadistic abuse by multiple perpetrators over an extended period of time."

1: J Am Optom Assoc. 1996 Jun;67(6):327-34. Visual function in multiple personality disorder. Birnbaum MH, Thomann K.
State College of Optometry, State University of New York, NY 10010, USA.
BACKGROUND: Multiple personality disorder (MPD) is characterized by the existence of two or more personality states that recurrently exchange control over the behavior of the individual. Numerous reports indicate physiological differences, including significant differences in ocular and visual function, across alter personality states in MPD. METHODS: The existing literature was reviewed to provide an overview of the nature and characteristics of MPD, with emphasis on reported physiologic and ocular differences across alter personalities. In addition, a case is reported of an MPD patient seen over a 3-year period. RESULTS: Physiologic differences across alter personality states in MPD include differences in dominant handedness, response to the same medication, allergic sensitivities, autonomic and endocrine function, EEG, VEP, and regional cerebral blood flow. Differences in visual function include variability in visual acuity, refraction, oculomotor status, visual field, color vision, corneal curvature, pupil size, and intraocular pressure in the various personality states of MPD subjects as compared to single personality controls.
CONCLUSIONS: The possibility of MPDs should be considered in patients who
demonstrate unusual variability in ocular and visual findings, particularly with a positive psychiatric history. The existence of visual and other physiologic differences across alter personalities in MPD offers a unique potential for the study of mind-body relationships.

5: Clin Electroencephalogr. 1990 Oct;21(4):200-9. Brain mapping in a case of multiple personality. Hughes JR, Kuhlman DT, Fichtner CG, Gruenfeld MJ. Department of Neurology, University of Illinois, Chicago 60612. Brain maps were recorded on a patient with a multiple personality disorder (10 alternate personalities). Maps were recorded with eyes open and eyes
closed during 2 different sessions, 2 months apart. Maps from each alternate personality were compared to those of the basic personality "S", some maps were similar and some were different, especially with eyes open. Findings that wer