DID

I don't watch the Oprah show very often, but found myself watching out of curiosity of the subject matter yesterday. Oprah was interviewing a woman with DID (Dissociative Identity Disorder). It's one of the disorders that have scared me over the years and I find that if I educate myself and normalize things they don't scare me as much. It was interesting hearing this woman's story and how she is managing to raise a healthy (currently 13 year old) girl. The expert they had on the show to explain the disorder did a very good job of helping those of us who don't suffer from this disorder understand it a bit better (since it is one of the few disorders that most of us can honestly not even imagine having). She said that all of us have experienced a form of disassociation at some point in our lives (for many it occurs while we're driving, we arrive at our destination and honestly can't remember the process of getting there). For many of us that have faced a trauma at some point we have experienced the post trauma version whereby you feel almost like you're floating outside of your body. In extreme cases of abuse sometimes the only way a person can survive is by fragmenting themselves to protect themselves from the reality of the things that are happening or have happened to them. It was good for me to hear this ladies story (mostly told from the perspective of her strongest personality Patricia). It was interesting to hear that she feels perfectly normal. Also it was fascinating to see the amazing paintings that her and her multiple personalities have created (each one so distinctly unique). One of the most interesting parts was seeing the self portrait that each of her 21 personalities created. It still disturbs me how severly childhood sexual abuse can affect a person, but I now understand this condition more and am not frightened by it.