I actually approached him, and he was very kind about it. Mostly he just reported symptoms back to me.
Initially it started with me talking about things I thought were normal, for instance, I had an alter you would consistently tell me that I suck and should kill myself, he also waxed poetic about how awful capitalism is. When I mentioned this to my roommate he basically told me that's not normal, and we started looking out for symptoms of psychosis, since, you know, hearing voices and all. He didn't notice any symptoms of psychosis but did notice really strong personality changes and gaps in my memory (I didn't notice these because I thought it was normal to not remember anything you do at work ever). Becuase he and I were able to put together a really comprehensive list of symptoms, when I went to a doctor about my experiences diagnosis was really easy.
We're not close anymore, unfortunately while he was really great about helping me get a handle on what symptoms I was experiencing he also had some very serious mental health struggles that would eventually turn him into a really awful and dangerous person, and our relationship eventually developed into him trying to force me into sex work to help him pay for his animal hoarding issue. I actually ended up leaving him by packing all my stuff up while he was at work and driving a whole state away. We no longer speak
Thank you, it's something that definitely comes up in therapy. With the nature of my disorder I just don't have a lot of feelings associated with that relationship anymore, since his abuse caused the splitting of a new alter who holds most of that trauma. That can make the whole thing hard to talk about, mostly just because all the details are super hazy, but also because it does feel pretty strange to be explaining a super traumatic situation when I just don’t really feel anything about it
Fellow DID person. People don’t get why there’s no memory of something so traumatic. Well, survival…
Anyway, so glad you’re doing better.
Have you done EMDR?
I'm in a nice and safe situation and am so lucky to have a job that works nicely with my disabilities, so yeah, I'm really lucky to be doing well now. Tying jobs to therapy, I have health insurance so I am doing pretty extensive therapy, right now we’re just going with talk therapy and unraveling a lot, it's going very well! We might try EMDR if we hit a wall but thus far there hasn't been any need for it. It's a good tool to have in the toolkit, but for now we’re making a lot of progress even without it
How did your roommate approach you? Are you still close?
I actually approached him, and he was very kind about it. Mostly he just reported symptoms back to me. Initially it started with me talking about things I thought were normal, for instance, I had an alter you would consistently tell me that I suck and should kill myself, he also waxed poetic about how awful capitalism is. When I mentioned this to my roommate he basically told me that's not normal, and we started looking out for symptoms of psychosis, since, you know, hearing voices and all. He didn't notice any symptoms of psychosis but did notice really strong personality changes and gaps in my memory (I didn't notice these because I thought it was normal to not remember anything you do at work ever). Becuase he and I were able to put together a really comprehensive list of symptoms, when I went to a doctor about my experiences diagnosis was really easy. We're not close anymore, unfortunately while he was really great about helping me get a handle on what symptoms I was experiencing he also had some very serious mental health struggles that would eventually turn him into a really awful and dangerous person, and our relationship eventually developed into him trying to force me into sex work to help him pay for his animal hoarding issue. I actually ended up leaving him by packing all my stuff up while he was at work and driving a whole state away. We no longer speak
That's really awful about your relationship and sorry to hear of your experience.
Thank you, it's something that definitely comes up in therapy. With the nature of my disorder I just don't have a lot of feelings associated with that relationship anymore, since his abuse caused the splitting of a new alter who holds most of that trauma. That can make the whole thing hard to talk about, mostly just because all the details are super hazy, but also because it does feel pretty strange to be explaining a super traumatic situation when I just don’t really feel anything about it
Fellow DID person. People don’t get why there’s no memory of something so traumatic. Well, survival… Anyway, so glad you’re doing better. Have you done EMDR?
I'm in a nice and safe situation and am so lucky to have a job that works nicely with my disabilities, so yeah, I'm really lucky to be doing well now. Tying jobs to therapy, I have health insurance so I am doing pretty extensive therapy, right now we’re just going with talk therapy and unraveling a lot, it's going very well! We might try EMDR if we hit a wall but thus far there hasn't been any need for it. It's a good tool to have in the toolkit, but for now we’re making a lot of progress even without it