The first friend I described my “character” concept to looked at me side-eyed and referenced the book Sybil.
After starting this blog—where I share tales of thoughts conflicting in my mind, or appearing without any conscious intent on my part—someone asked me if I might…possibly?…have Dissociative Identity Disorder.
Multiple personalities? Who. Me?
I mentioned this to another friend, whose immediate response was, “don’t we all?”
I laughed, deciding that, yes, we all have moments where our thoughts collide within our minds or where we refer to experiences in almost a third-person way; we use language to create a bit of space from which to consider actions or thoughts we may have doubts about.
“I wasn’t myself.”
“I’m of two minds about that.”
“It was out of character.”
Psychology gives us the Id, the Ego and the Superego, which certainly seem like different characters to me. Folks who write about them aren’t met with side-eyed Sybil comments.
So, I’m going to keep talking about life, and things that happen, through the lens of persona or character or Sybil, simply because I’m having fun with it. Plus the characters are more interesting and have less power when I give them names.
Well, except maybe, for The Judge.
Real ‘Sybil’ Admits Multiple Personalities Were Fake, NPR Morning Edition, Lynn Neary, 10/20/11
Walk the Goats 
I like the idea of naming them. I think I’ll give that a try!
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I’ll be interested to hear how that works for you. Thanks for reading along!
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Was I the inspiration for this post?
I wasn’t trying to make you feel uncomfortable. I am just rather curious about DID in general.
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Aye, you were the inspiration! I was wondering if you’d recognize that! Rest assured, I don’t feel uncomfortable. It was a legit question. And my other friend really did side-eye me and say Sybil when I first described this whole thing. lol
I’ve just been finding the concept of “characters” an incredibly helpful tool as I try and live a life less reactive to other people. A lot of my automatic reactions can have a charge to them that is unpleasant for me and people I care about. It’s a mindfulness exercise to which I’ve added my own creative, dramatic flair!
Thanks for checking in and offering your reassurance. That’s very sweet.
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Ok, I’m glad to hear that.
Mindfulness indeed is very helpful.
And if it’s helpful to you, then by all means, do whatever feels right, because no one else will know that better than you.
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I sometimes imagine people as trees. Trees may all be classified as trees, but within that classification, there are a lot of differences. So, as you said, what works for one person/tree won’t work for another.
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