Posted by alexandra_k on September 9, 2004, at 17:31:29
In reply to Re: urgent situation, posted by Shadowplayers721 on September 8, 2004, at 3:17:58
I agree with shaddows. You asked a while back whether your friend was a sign of mental illness. I wrote that I thought that it was not because it wasn't distressing to you. The notion of 'switching' or 'hosting' whether it is co-conscious or whether you miss time when it happens does sound like MPD / DID, however. I think that diagnosis isn't a black and white issue in terms of whether you meet the criteria or not. I think that there are funny borderline cases and it is hard to know what to say about them. The definition of mental illness includes the notion of distress, though, so without that it is probably pointless to wonder about which criteria you do or do not meet.
If you do want to host or switch, however, then the concern that I would have would be that your friend may start to be called on more and more frequently as you are anxious about your ability to handle different situations. After a time he may well start to take on a 'life of his own' and that may cause you significant distress if he develops goals and beliefs that are too radically divergent from yours (which is what tends to happen as you segment parts of yourself off to him that you cannot cope with).
All this is just my opinion, but it sounds to me like you are at a cross-roads. This can be made better or worse depending on the decisions you make (or perhaps depending on how bad the anxiety is for you in dealing with various situations). I don't think that there is anything amis with using your friend to cheerlead you and help you build the courage to tackle situations with his companionship. But if you are serious about the switching / hostingn idea, then you sound MPD / DID to me. What else did you take MPD / DID to be?
I hope things work out okay for you, I really do. Hang in there :-)
poster:alexandra_k
thread:387861
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/psycho/20040905/msgs/388849.html