YOU ARE NOT ALONE - A companion online community discussion board for The Mental Illness Happy Hour podcast with Paul Gilmartin

Hello. I have been listening to Paul's podcast for a few months now. Can I just say how helpful it is to not feel alone in my life long mental struggles since finding his podcast. I finally got a small vacation (I'm self employed so it's hard to have free time to check out websites) so looked this place up. This site feels so safe because most of us here, from what I can see, suffer from mental issues. It has been my frustrating experience in life that people run in horror from people who have issues. They don't understand so make me out to be someone to avoid. I'm 53 years old- I've had years of therapy- but it took my parents passing away for me to finally get professional help that focused on the real issue. I have DID... Dissociative Identity Disorder. I was in therapy for 6 years when I turned 30 because I was severely depressed, suicidal, agoraphobic and trusted no one. I was in the middle of an "emotional break" I think is what my therapist at the time called it. I never did do much improving back then because I couldn't admit to anyone about how I felt as a child.

Here is a small paragraph to give anyone who doesn't know just what this disorder is. I got this off of WebMD: "Dissociative identity disorder is thought to stem from trauma experienced by the person with the disorder. The dissociative aspect is thought to be a coping mechanism -- the person literally dissociates himself from a situation or experience that's too violent, traumatic, or painful to assimilate with his conscious self."

It use to be called "multiple personality disorder" but got reclassified to include those who personality didn't split much. That would be me. Know one would guess I had this because I've learned to cope over the years- with great difficulty. I didn't know what exactly was wrong with me until I got into therapy a month ago and finished telling my life story to my new therapist. Things I've never told anyone about my abusive childhood.

Anyway- this is my intro in a tiny nutshell because I could write a book. I hope to join in on ongoing conversations here and get to know the currant members.

Hi & Welcome!

It irks me whenever I hear someone on TV or in a movie say "Multiple Personalities" because that's not what it's called! (My other peeve is when they refer to multiple personalities as schizophrenia, which is also wrong...can you tell I was a psych major? )

I know someone else who has struggled with DID and is very open in discussing it, if you'd like someone else to talk to. No pressure, but I thought I'd put it out there.

Thankyou Murphy. I would appreciate being able to read someone else with this. I'm finding it fasinating because for the first time in my life- there is something that makes sense as to my issues.