Dissociative Identity Disorder: Working Together
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When we have written, we have usually done so as the voice of one. Granted, many of us have put forth our views, but they were interpreted and written by just one of us.
This has the advantage of making things seem slightly more coherent and easier to understand for others. And while this may help explain things, it doesn’t truly give a glimpse into how we work.
When other people are around, we tend to stick with one for long durations for the sake of conversation and to keep from confusing others greatly. Not to mention it keeps people from suspecting about all of our existences. When we are alone, there will be times when we are rather…switchy. While being able to communicate with each other in our head is useful, there are times it is nice to just be able to go back and forth out loud without having to be on the look out for the nice men in the clean white coats.
When we need to focus, one of us tends to stay forward the most. Otherwise we run the risk of having to stop and see what the previous one who was ‘out’ was doing. There will be times when we are writing something personal and after switching, whoever is out has to read what the last put to know where the train of thought was going. Otherwise things would end up a rambling mess. Imagine asking a handful of authors to write about a vague concept without seeing each others work and then try to put it together as a single coherent idea. There may be some overlap, but there would be plenty of redundancy and even some conflicting ideas.
It is even worse when we have to use a pen instead of being able to type. Beside hurting our hand for some reason or another, the writing styles vary enough that they can be easily distinguishable, if you are looking for it that is. Celestia, our resident female, has relatively neat handwriting (at least compared to the rest) where as someone like Bran might have difficulty translating what he wrote, especially if his mind was going faster then his ability to take notes.
Because we write so much slower than we type, switching occurs a lot more often. Someone else will think of an idea or direction that they want to take things and just step forward to do so. This further slows our ability to hand write anything as we have to go back and read what was just written to know where to go next in a coherent fashion. When we type we can generally keep up with our thinking and keep one of us forward quite a bit better.
Though there will still be times when we stop to ask ourselves “What were we thinking?” Sometimes none of us properly know. It becomes more of a “I thought you were going somewhere with that?”, “No, I thought you were…”. This can lead to a lot of long winded ramblings that try to cover way to much area and succeed in little, if any of it. But if we focus, we can generally get an idea out in a way that doesn’t require the reader to constantly have to ask “And who wrote this part?”
Sometimes one of us might have a good insight into something that we wish to write about or consider, but they really don’t feel like it right then. It might be because they don’t want to think of anything right then out of fear of where their mind might take them. It might be because they are feeling depressed and have no motivation to do anything other then just exist.
It might be because they get so absorbed by something they are doing or reading that they don’t want to give up their spot up front so that other things can be done. This often becomes a case of “Just one more page/webcomic/internet meme/etc. and then the rest of you can do what you want, I promise!” Or it might just be a case of “This is my time now and if you think otherwise you shall find that I have utterly misplaced my supply of fucks with which I could bestow upon you.”
I would not be the least surprised if many, or all of you have experienced something to this extent, but usually one at a time. Having multiple occurrences happening at once, or with greater frequency can get a bit irritating. Imagine trying to do something on say, a computer, but a friend, sibling or spouse keep telling you each time that you ask that they will be “Just one more minute.” Or even worse, if they glared at you then went right back to what they were doing without even dignifying your request with a response.
Now expand this analogy to a group of these people. You might need person A to set the mood, person B to handle the technical aspects, person C to proofread, etc. Include the various differing personality types and trials and things only go smoothly out of a combined effort
Though there are many times when we understand when one of us behaves in any of these ways. It might be part of their nature and they cannot always help it, they might not care, or they might truly need it. Try telling a young child that they cannot play now because you have to write something and you will play with them later. Try telling someone who is reading mindless pages on the internet just so they can distract themselves from memories so intense they feel they will lose their minds without them that what they are doing isn’t important enough.
It might not always be easy, but we are getting better all the time at creating a harmonious group, even if, at times, we must accept the chaos to remain such a collective.
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Thank you Greenlight. We sometimes worry that the very rambling we mentioned in this post has plagued our previous articles. But it is quite reassuring to know that others are seeing this series in such a positive light.
It is even more reassuring to know that you have been able to take something away from these. We are glad that they have helped in your understanding.
To be honest, we were a bit afraid of how these would be accepted, but thus far, the response has been nothing but positive, and we thank you all for that.
It really does help to get this out in a way that we needn’t fear about the repercussions.
These posts have been absolutely incredible…thanks for opening up in this way. This series has taught me a lot about the disorder, which I suspect is one of the most misunderstood, and you’ve done an outstanding job of making the topic approachable and relatable. Outstanding.