Posted by Dinah on August 3, 2002, at 12:20:41
In reply to May I interrupt? » Dinah, posted by judy1 on August 3, 2002, at 12:00:14
Always glad to have your input Judy. I know we struggle with a lot of the same issues.
I'm not enormously sure why he's afraid, except that I've always qualified my statements to him that I don't have DID, which I really don't, for the simple reason that I'm pretty sure the DSM-IV requires that you lose time. Or at any rate I remember there is something there that I didn't fit. But I'm pretty sure he's also afraid to upset "her", which is a general sort of thing, because upsetting "her" always causes problems, and I think he tiptoes around sometimes.
Now why he's afraid that his thinking she is "real" would upset her, I don't know. She's the one who always wanted to continue seeing him, she's the one who always trusted him, and she's the one who felt he "saw" her even before he thought he did. She's delighted. I'm a bit frightened I suppose. And I still don't know how real it is. I also am never sure how he feels about DID or DD-NOS, as I know it's an area of controversy. And I wasn't sure if he even wanted to talk to her separately. We discussed that yesterday, and I feel a bit more comfortable that it's okay with him, although he did say opinion was divided on whether or not a therapist should speak to different parts of the personality. But he said if she wanted to be heard, he wanted to hear her. And he mentioned what he mentioned a while back, that he had once worked with a pdoc who did have some DID patients, and had worked with them before. But he's still tippytoeing about somewhat and not making direct statements.
I don't know. I know that the separation is a skill I learned, along with my other dissociative skills, and I'm not sure whether it should be considered a disorder at all. I was old enough when I learned to dissociate to know what I was doing. So I think if anything it should be something like disssociative dysfunctional defense mechanism.
No, I don't know what to think. I just know that she is an internal phenomenon and that no one other than me and my therapist (and now the entire internet - grin) knows about her. So I don't know that she qualifies as a separate personality. Moreover neither she nor I am a complete personality. She's got the emotions and I've got the reasoning. And maybe the distinction is an artificial one and there is no her at all. A lot of times I really think that. But...
Oh it goes round and round.
poster:Dinah
thread:730
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/psycho/20020702/msgs/805.html