DID-Dissociative Indentity Disorder

This is why you can't call my life normal.

A few days ago, I went out to eat, and my friend gave me her money to pay for her portion of the meal. When I got back to my dorm room, I found an AIM screen name printed on one of the dollar bills. For fun, I decided to IM this person. Mind you, I got this dollar bill in Springfield, MA.

Danny is a 19 yr old from Warwick, RI and studies psychology at the University of RI. He minors in peace studies. Danny unfortunately comes from an abusive home, his mother died in recent years, and his father is in prison for abuse, tentatively coming out this month.

Danny has a twin brother named Dave, and a boyfriend also named Dave. He plans to move to Europe at some point and do his grad studies there.

For the past few days, Dan and I have been talking on and off. I learned something very unique about Dan, besides him being gay and having a rough life, and having a very sweet boyfriend. No, there's more to him than that.

I met Adam. Adam is one of Danny's 15 personalities. Danny and I had just finished discussing his disorder, DID or Dissociative Identity Disorder. This disorder can have as little as two different personalities to infinity. People with this disorder get this from a repeated abuse and get no counseling or help, so without the issues being dealt with, there is a likelihood of someone getting this disorder. It knows no age or sex. It can happen to anyone who is constantly abused/disrupted in a bad manner. It can be curable through years of therapy, but it is not certain. There is no drug or anything else that can be done about it.

While Danny and I were talking, he says "I'm getting spacey. Usually when this happens another person comes out." I said "Danny stay with me." The next response was "No".

So I asked "Who is this?" "Adam" was the response. I had just finished writing down and saving the conversation as Danny told me most of the personalities that come out when he changes. I looked at my list. Adam is a 9 yr old boy who likes to talk. I can deal with that.

Never having dealt with this before, I treated this conversation like I was really dealing with a 9 year old boy.

I asked him how he was doing, and he asked me who I was. I told him. So he goes "Hi!" Next thing I know he asks me if I liked to color. I told him yes, and asked if he did. He says yes. Then there is nothing. Worried that something bad was going to happen, I said "Hello?" Adam tells me he was distracted by the TV. I asked him what he was watching, and he didn't know. Then I asked him where Danny was. He said "Danny was membring." Danny had told me earlier if this happened if I tried using his name should be able to come back to me. I took as Adam saying "Danny was membering" meaning that Danny was coming back. Then there was silence.

I said hello again. I get a "Sorry". I ask who it is, and he goes "Dan". I got Dan to snap out of it. He told me he was embarrassed and I told him it was okay, not to worry, at least I knew about it. I was glad he told me before this happened, otherwise I would've been clueless. He told me he should go to bed, because he still is "spacey" and the likelihood of another personality coming out is great. I told him to go ahead.

From now on, I am going to make myself aware of who I am talking to when I talk to Dan. Adam and Nick are similar, just Nick is a six year old. Then there is Ephrem, who is scared and hides away a lot. Brandon knows everything. Alex is 16 and flirts with everyone. Mike and Rick are the ones I have to watch out for. They are the angry personalities. Mike can be reasonable if you're nice to him, and Rick is out of control, but this only happens if Dan is really upset. Then there is Allison who is shy but talks. James is sad and introverted. Dave is outspoken. Melanie is creative, but she doesn't come out much. Steve isn't much of a distinct character, he's just calm. There are more personalities, but he doesn't remember who they are. The first five are the more common personalities, all which are ones I can deal with.

I thought there was a connection between the names and Dan's past. There isn't. This is a sad disorder. Dan seems like a really cool guy, and I hope to meet him (and possibly all of him) someday, since he's from my state. DID only recently got it's name, and is a fairly new disorder, as far as knowledge goes. Danny plans in the future to speak to people who have this disorder. I give him kudos.

DID

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