Insight: disidentification - the key to healing?

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yoyo12

Peer Supporter
So, I've been struggling with my TMS symptom for quite a while. I've gotten a little better, relapsed, but never got a real cure. It's getting frustrating. I'm putting this out here because it might help someone.

The other day, I stumbled upon an article about physiological changes in people with multiple personality disorder. It said that different personalities in the same person could have different physical disorders or physiological traits. It was on a website that didn't seem very 'scientific' (I'm always very skeptical lol) so I went looking for more reliable sources. I found more scientific articles and publications confirming what I had read.

People with MPD would have a personality with diabetes while the other one would not suffer from the condition at all (confirmed by blood tests). I read about people that would have one personality with an allergy for orange juice who would completely break out with rashes and hives when drinking it, and when the person would switch personalities, the hives and rashes disappeared completely. Another interesting thing was a study in which scientists compared eyesight in people with MPD across their different personalities and the study conclusively showed that visual acuity was different for every personality. A look on a forum for people with MPD confirmed this as well. People were saying how they would have different perscription glasses for every personality. They also talked about many other things, like how their eyecolor would be lighter or darker or even different when they changed personalities. I read a ton of stories, including about MPD sufferers who had one personality that would suffer from drug addiction while the others didn't.

This made me think about something: I believe it's all about identifying with a disorder/physiological state. People with MPD can suffer from diabetes in one personality because they identify with the diabetes. When they're in the specific personality, they completely identify with having diabetes. It's part of them. When they switch however, they no longer identify as a person that has diabetes and as a result their blood levels shift to what is in line with their beliefs.

I feel like TMS book cures can be explained like this as well. People read the book, and realize that the pain or disorder they experience is not really part of them and that it has nothing to do with them as a person per se. They disidentify from the pain/disorder and as a result it just vanishes.

I aim to use what I've learned from reading all of this to start disidentifying from my symptom. I really hope this could help someone out there in shifting their beliefs and ridding themselves from their pain!

Ps. I wrote this down very quickly and English is not my native language so sorry for any spelling mistakes and my grammar :')
 
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Wow, yoyo, this is fascinating!

And it's perfectly understandable, by the way - I would not have thought that English wasn't your first language if you hadn't said so. There are plenty of native English speakers who can't write worth a damn. I do love that our community here can embrace so many members from around the world who are willing to communicate in other than their first language! It's not something I'm able to do :D

yoyo12 said:
I aim to use what I've learned from reading all of this to start disidentifying from my symptom. I really hope this could help someone out there in shifting their beliefs and ridding themselves from their pain!
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What I love about this is that it is yet another example of the many different ways that we can do this work - it's a great reminder that there is no one way to do it.

Thank you for sharing this with us - I think it's awesome!

~Jan

PS to other readers: here's a NYT article which reports on several of these case studies: http://www.nytimes.com/1985/05/21/science/new-focus-on-multiple-personality.html?pagewanted=all (NEW FOCUS ON MULTIPLE PERSONALITY)
 
This is very interesting, thanks for sharing. I think the point about disidentification is very important. I am currently doing Internal Family Systems Therapy which is about how we all have multiple sub-personalities, some of which can get frozen/exiled from our consciousness after they have been hurt or have had a trauma. They can also become "protector" or "firefighter" parts which seem very vicious, but they are actually working hard to protect you from perceived difficult emotions/traumatic emotions. They can actually cause physical symptoms in the body. One of mine gives me insomnia when it needs to be heard. Disidentification from the parts is a core part of IFS therapy, as then you can begin to form relationships with the various parts and trauma can be healed. Then the internal system can be led by our core "self" which is inherently compassionate. I suppose mindfulness also works in the same way - it allows you to disidentify from the symptom or part by being alongside it instead of identified with it.
 
It's been a while since I saw IFS mentioned on the forum, but a few years ago, a lot of members were doing it and they found it very helpful.
 
Yes, I agree that disidentifying with TMS is an important component of recovery. Here are a few recommendations I list on this topic in my Success Story:

*As much as possible, go about your life doing everything you need and want to do despite your TMS symptoms. Try to never use TMS as a reason not to do something.

* Don't feed your perception of yourself as a disabled person by talking about your symptoms to others. (Except to offer support to other TMS sufferers.)

* Do things that change your perception of yourself to being an active, healthy person (e.g. exercise, sports, yoga, dance)

* Realize that you are not fragile and don't need special equipment, diets, supplements, routines, perfect weather, etc
 
Yep, you've got to let go of your story. No matter how true it may have been in the beginning it isn't serving you now. Emotional repetition of the narrative digs neural grooves in your brain and your body becomes the stage. With every breath we can change our fate just by rewriting our story.
 
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