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DID Introducing my parts..where have you been?

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watundah

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At the beginning of the year, I started tapping into my inner children. There are three who reference themselves consistently as “we”. They shared many repressed memories with me, of which I have zero recall, and my T says more than likely the memories are real. The most prolific part is very much an adult vs child in their presentation and wants to write and write. She states she is 14 but is very articulate and empathic. I wish I could be as empathic as this part is!!

I was a selective mute as a child, and there are studies that suggest the disorder is an aspect of DID. I still have a mute part that will hijack my T sessions where I will totally shut down, lose my words, and respond with yes and no answers, but that’s about it as far as any physical manifestation of these three parts. All of this info combined has led my T to suggest that I may have a spot on the DID spectrum. Funny thing is, I have never seen any of these parts (aside from the mute one) anywhere in my life until I started these writings. I don’t lose time, which I was surprised to learn is not a pre-requisite for DID.
She suggests that they may be appearing in the therapeutic setting because they are seeking healing. That is, in fact, what they are writing in our exercises, that they want to be healed. Now, of course I am weirded out by all of this. If I quit writing, then the other parts go away right? (except for the intrusive mute one). Oh, I know, not so simple. In typical fashion, I am reading up on this and hope to gain a better understanding of how this all works. I understand that therapy consists of integrating the parts which to me seems like I’ve just signed up for a life sentence of therapy sessions. I have seen “The Haunted Self” recommended here as a good, though weighty, read on the subject. I am open to other recommendations and am finding many of the older threads here helpful, as well.

I understand that this disorder can present itself in dozens of different ways and my symptoms may differ from everyone else's. I look forward to input from others who may be dealing with this and are further down the road in healing.
 
Pete Walker is a lighter read, and has some very good things to say. He was my favorite author until I encountered The Haunted Self - I crave academic rigor and a clear structure, and THS is the first book to have met those needs.

You seem to be approaching the challenge with a sense of humour, which is reassuring for me. I think it's a very useful protection against disappearing down a rabbit-hole (which I tend to do quite often).

I had the same impression as you about 'lost time', but I don't lose time and have accepted a diagnosis of DID as the most accurate description so far of what's happening with me.

'Integrating the parts' is something that can be interpreted a lot of ways - I'm much less hard-line about this than I used to be. I now feel that I agree with The Haunted Self, when it talks about 'treating the phobia of the parts'. I don't need to link all of the parts together so that they are one, seamless person. I do need to not have phobias of the parts; each of them is very good at handling a specific aspect of my life so far, and those aspects may indeed be part of my future life. If I can call on them to do the jobs that they do when they are needed, then that is 'sufficiently integrated' for me. (I've spent a lot of the last 10 years on a crusade to 'become one person' and it had some long-term unintended consequences that I'm addressing now. My phobia of dissociation turns out to be one of the phobias that I need to overcome.)
 
@BlueOrange thanks so for your reply.
I have read Pete Walker and like him very much. A trip to the library yielded little but I did get "The Wandering Mind, understanding dissociation from daydreams to disorders," by John Biever and MaryAnn Karinch, an easy read of about 125 pages.

@shimmerz, was I diagnosed as a child? No. There are studies now correlating the two which are google-able. Back in the day, they didn't know jack about the SM disorder and I never received treatment.
 
for me switching has become more of a constant flow. I am just trying to function as a "functional we". (as opposed to a functional WII ;) ) at first freaked me out being split and my husband asking who I was. Didnt loose time eiether, and had conversations with the ones I identified. Keep writing and let them heal.

Sometimes in therapy, I have changed seats to let one through more. or durring something deep in childhood I color. this past session I ended up drawing a birthday cake the way I did as a kid and talking about it.

my depression meds have calmed the saddest one down so I am not dragged into cry sessions so often.

Surving made creating parts or fragments necessary, so time you re organize and find how things fit together.
 
I have a part that I often don't lose time with, and I'm with @BlueOrange - it's not such a concern for me to get a seamless integration with that part because it's not really a problem for my functionality. It's the parts where I do lose time that are the bigger problem...and losing time is a lot like losing memory, you often don't realise it's happening until someone points it out, because it can be for short bursts of time, sometimes just a few sentences in a conversation.

As for them disappearing if you stop writing? Not my experience!! Although some of my parts do tend to go awol if I'm not actively engaging them in therapy. But they go underground, they don't disappear altogether (nice if they did!).
 
I'll keep writing. It seems that's where much of the trauma is housed. Getting it out is hard as I was unaware of so much of it...on top of that which I can recall. It's difficult to comprehend. Like everyone, I keep questioning how it can be real.
 
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