Free Social Network for Disabled Artists

Dissociation is a defense mechanism brought into being as a result of extreme stress.  The stress can be emotional, energetic, sexual or physical but often is a combination of all of the abovementioned stressors.

Dissociation is a choice, a desperate choice, but a choice, to retain at least some individuality and ability to survive and remain in the individual integrity in the face of unrelenting stress.  Stressors can be anything from war, abuse, a sense of contstant danger, or constant emotional stress.

Though dissociation is listed in the DSM-IV TR as a mental disorder, there are benefits to the choice of dissociating.  Here are five:

1) Dissociation is highly imaginative.  Many of our most brilliant thinkers in history have been extremely imagnative.  Think of C S Lewis, Lewis Carroll, J R R Tolkein and others.  No, I am not saying that any of these famous writers were dissociating, but they did tap deeply into their own imagination, tying in themes from the societies in which they lived.  Many of the themes these writers illustrated are energetic ideas that we are still wrestling with today.  People who dissocicate create a rich inner world to combat the chaotic, often violent outer world that they aren't equipped to deal with. This has two benefits: a) It helps them survive the worst of the abuses and b) It gives them the opportunity to explore deep life themes.

2)  People who dissociate are deep thinkers.  Wrestling with deep life themes isn't something most people choose unless they have to.  The benefits of thinking through the energetic themes that are extant in our society can allow for creative solutions to everyday issues.

For example, creative thinking about how emotions flow between people can lead to thoughts about traffic flow, which can lead to innovative solutions for city planning.

3) People who dissociate are excellent multitaskers.  Creating separate inner awarenesses can be a challenge due to the extra steps needed to connect to the separate awarenesses in order to perform routine tasks.  But this can be an asset too.  Because dissociative people need to access many points of view to perform daily tasks, they can keep track of many points of view at once.  This gives them an edge in orchestrating complex projects or keeping track of many details at once.

4) People who dissociate think outside of the box.  Because peopel with dissociative identity disorder follow a different path to live their daily lives, they can come up with creative ways of doing things that others might not think of.  Becuase the 'normal' way of living didn't work for them, due to abuse or other traumatic circumstances, people who dissociate have had to figure out different ways to survive.  This means they are not limited by a specific pattern of how things are done.  Simply put, because life didn't work for them as it does for many others, they have a more highly developed and more freeform structure of problem solving.  This ability can encourage creative solutions.

5)  People who dissociate are excellent at discerning what others want and need.  Because many who dissociate grew up in dysfunctional homes, they learned to read the body language and also learnd to anticipate the needs of their abusers.  As they  interacted with people outside of their family, the family "code of silence" that protected the abuse necessitated that they learn to read others as well.  

This can create a keen ability to intuit and observe, that can help people who dissociate to know without asking how a coworker likes her coffee, or notice which friend is quietly struggling.  If shared from a perspective of philanthropy, this gift can create and strengthen interpersonal ties, which can, in turn, help the dissociative person heal from the early abuses.

So I hope you can tell that connection is the key.  The catalysts that caused the DID person to dissociate in the first place can create ways that the dissociative person can reconnect in the future.  To the extent that a dissociative person is able to tolerate interaction and inner and outer connection is the extent to which the DID person will be able to choose to reconnect her inner sense of self.