Who's On First? 7/1/16

by Laura and Allegra

[On sorting out who's who and who's present.]

For the purposes of this post, Laura's responses will be in purple and Allegra's responses will be in blue. When we speak together, the text will be [dark].

[One member of another system realized that she wasn't who she thought she was.]

Being multiple can be as confusing as hell.

[On determining when another system member is influencing from the background.]

After 20 years, we're still trying to figure this out.

[On deciding that it's not necessary to schedule time for different system members to come out.]

We'll bet that you feel relieved to realize this. We don't have the kind of discipline to schedule time like that. And we don't have a host. We interact with each other, and with outside people, the way that outside people act with each other.

[On whether we have different "levels of presence."]

Yes, but not in the way you described. In our system, people can be at the front, near the front, moderately close to the front ("in between"), or far away from the front. Those at the front are fully present. Those near the front are often "backseat drivers," or they pop out to contribute if something particular interests them. Those moderately close to the front ("in between"), which covers anything in the realm between nearby and far away, will only come out when they need something, or if we sense that someone needs something and bring that person forward to talk.

The eight kids who age four and under are in the "far away" zone and rarely if ever come out. Neither do Deborah or Drew, two 23-year-old females. The problem is that we need all of our adults to be relatively active and participatory, so there's an ongoing issue with this. ~Light~ and Gideon, our noncorporeal yin/yang tandem, also never come out.

Those of us at or near the front with any regularity would be Charity, Mary, Laura, Joseph (8.5), david (5), Rachel (23,) and me. Rachel is usually angry and difficult to contain. Everyone else is in the broad "in between" zone.

[On background chatter, fighting for control, and other complicated switches.]

Our switching/presence is more straightforward, although Laura and I will often finish each other's sentences. :-D :-D The tweens, who were the first group to learn to work together, often communicate as a group.

[Friend: My DID doesn't seem to fit into a subheading 'box'. I seem to tick/score for many different types of DID.]

Well, we learned that for us it's most helpful if we try not to categorize ourselves. We believe that categorizing leads to pigeonholing, which in turn limits our potential to heal and grow.