Programs & Services

About Disccociation - Dissociative Network Initiative

Dissociation is a psychological term for a whole range of experiences. Put simply, dissociation is a disconnection of some kind. You can think of it as being unplugged in some area. Dissociation happens on a continuum, it can be very mild or all the way to very severe.

About Multiplicity - Dissociative Network Initiative

People with multiplicity have many different understandings of the origin and function of other personalities, alters or ‘selves’ – here we’ve called them parts. For some common terms and language about multiplicity, please see Language, definitions, and common terms. Of course, each part may have their own understanding of the multiplicity (or be unaware of it, or reject it) and these may contradict each other. It’s extremely important to make room for these contradictions and respect the right of each part to understand and articulate their experiences in their own way.

Multiplicity is a very broad term meaning any experience of more than ‘self’ in your mind or body. People have very different understandings of what it means to experience this ‘more than one’. In some cultures these experiences are considered sacred and valuable, in others they are seen as extremely negative and dangerous. People’s experiences vary widely from extremely distressing and life threatening through to deeply precious and life saving or enhancing. Some people’s experiences includes both extremes. Some people may see these selves outside of their body as people they can talk to, but others do not. Multiplicity may be a temporary situation but for some it is enduring – this can be a good or bad thing. It can be confusing to become aware of the many different ways people can understand experiences of multiplicity, but it can also help to broaden our understanding and connect with others with a diversity of meanings and experiences.

Borderline Personality Disorder - South Australia Mental Health Commission

SA Mental Health Commission – Action Plan for People Living with Borderline Personality Disorder

Borderline Personality Disorder - Schizophrenia Society of New Brunswick

Gender, Dissociation, & Multiplicity - Dissociative Network Initiative

Diverse gender identity can overlap with experiences of dissociation and multiplicity. This does not necessarily mean that people have a mental illness. Having an experience of diverse gender identity is simply part of the normal variation of human experience, and occurs in cultures throughout the world. ‘Transgender’ is often used as an umbrella term for the many different ways a persons gender identity may be different from the gender they were thought to be at birth. It doesn’t mean anything about who a person is attracted to, it’s about their own sense of self. For more about sexuality and multiplicity, see Sexuality and Multiplicity. Some trans people strongly identify as male or female when they’ve previously been identified as the other. Some trans people don’t feel comfortable about the gender binary of only male/female. People may prefer other terms such as non binary, genderqueer, agender and so on.

Trans people often experience significant forms of dissociation, particularly where severe gender dysphoria, trauma, abuse, or anxiety are present. For many people, access to peers, safe places to live and work, and connection with accepting communities are key to reducing the chronic stress that drives these experiences. Tools to manage dissociation and language to communicate about it can also be very helpful particularly when people are in distress. It’s extremely important for mental health resources to be trans-friendly without pathologising the experience of being trans, or the perfectly normal dissociative responses to transphobia.

It can also be extremely helpful when trans supports are aware of the vulnerability of anyone experiencing trauma, shame, identity confusion, and isolation and are able to provided tailored support for these issues, or work in collaboration with mental health and trauma recovery organisations. For more information about dissociation and strategies to manage it, see About Dissociation or our Crisis Page.

Many trans people experience no sense of multiplicity whatsoever. Many people with multiplicity have no trans experiences at all. However, it’s not uncommon for both to be present together. Some trans or queer supports are aware of this and extremely helpful, but others can be limited and cause distress, particularly when only one gender identity is treated as ‘real’. There are many ways gender diversity and multiplicity can be experienced, for example

• Some people have a sense of a male and female versions of themselves
• Some people have different personalities who identify differently with regards to gender – perhaps someone who is non-binary, 3 men, a boy, a child who doesn’t identify with either gender, and a woman all sharing the same system and body
• Some people find that their sense of gender identity is fluid, changing from day to day, in some cases because of co-conscious switching between parts

There’s quite a spectrum! It can be helpful to be aware that trans experiences are common for people with multiplicity, and multiplicity experiences are common for people who are trans.

The presence of multiplicity may change the needs of someone who is trans a little, but it doesn’t have to be a bad or frightening thing! There’s many different ways this can be experienced, explored, or resolved. Some people find that their sense of multiplicity reduces as they accept and begin to live congruently as their real gender. Sometimes a part may be a social construct – a kind of mask worn due to social pressure rather than an authentic separate self. Sometimes different gendered parts may agree to allow the part who is out to use their preferred pronouns or to present the way they feel – male parts wearing male clothes, sometimes multiples permanently transition to allow their primary day to day part/s to feel most comfortable in the body. Sometimes a trans part is integrated or retires and is no longer a independent self sharing the mind or body.

Memory & Amnesia - Dissociative Network Initiative

Amnesia (any kind of memory issue)  is a challenge for many people! Far less sensationalised than multiplicity, it doesn’t get anywhere near as much attention. It can be very difficult to find books, groups, or other resources specifically for managing this experience. However, the effects can be devastating and far reaching. Some people experience amnesia alongside multiplicity – being unaware of other parts and simply ‘losing time’ or blacking out when they are active. However, it is a myth that all experiences of losing time like this mean that multiplicity is part of the picture. You may ‘come to’ in a strange environment without knowing where you are or how you got there because another part was out. It’s equally possible that you ‘zoned out’ and were operating on auto pilot, in a kind of trance before you suddenly came to and took stock. It’s also possible that you knew exactly what you were doing and had a clear plan in mind, which you have just forgotten. Either way, these are forms of amnesia that do not involve any kind of multiplicity.

Amnesia can be caused by many different things! It’s extremely important not to assume that amnesia is a psychological process, especially if it is suddenly a new issue, or quite severe. Amnesia can be caused by many physical issues such as low thyroid function, a blow to the head, and some drugs and medications. Amnesia is also common following trauma and while under stress. It’s dangerous to assume that amnesia is caused by a something psychological without checking for other common causes. It is of course, also possible to have both physical and psychological causes for amnesia, such as alcoholism and a history of childhood abuse. Whatever the cause of amnesia, access to resources and peers can be extremely helpful.

Memory is an extremely complex field of study. Our ability to remember things is a key aspect of how we navigate the world around us. It is part of our sense of identity and belonging, crucial for connecting with family and friends, and essential for maintaining work and using skills we have learned. People can experience amnesia in many different ways and may find some aspects of their memory affected while others remain intact. For some people, amnesia is a blessing, protecting them from overwhelming trauma. Others find that amnesia started as helpful but became problematic as it affected other areas of their lives. Other people suffer greatly due to their experiences of amnesia and are desperate to reduce or resolve it. Some people experience the absence of memory as a terrifying void, as a subtle persistence sense of something wrong, as white noise, or as living in a fog. In some cases, people are not aware that they have amnesia and rapidly forget about any events that reveal gaps in their memory.

Memory and emotions have a relationship. Things we feel more strongly about we are more likely to remember clearly. That emotion is the reason we can vividly recall specific details of our wedding day or child’s birth but not what we were doing on a different given morning 10 years ago. However, intense emotion can also make memories more prone to being forgotten. Children who have been abused may find relief in amnesia for those experiences. Experiences that are never spoken about and are pushed out of thought do not become part of our life ‘story’, the narrative we have about who we are and where we have come from. These events even if strongly emotional are much more likely to be suppressed and forgotten until triggered by something similar. Some people find they seem to be both forgetting and intrusively remembering the same traumatic memories – unable to recall an incident but reliving it in flashbacks and nightmares for example.

Sometimes people with multiplicity find that memory is split up between different parts. Parts may even ‘take’ and ‘hide’ memories from other parts. Sometimes different parts may remember the same event differently.

Sometimes people (or parts) who have a memory gap will fill in the details with a possible scenario – without being aware they are doing so. The mind does not like to be aware of memory gaps and will fill them in with possible scenarios. This is an automatic brain process called confabulation. Common in survivors of head injuries, it can be mistaken for lying and cause people a great deal of distress.

Memory is not perfect, not like a recording of the event safely stored in our minds. Even in the immediate aftermath of an incident, witnesses will vary greatly in their descriptions of events. This does not mean that all memories are unreliable – witnesses will generally agree on crucial matters such as ‘there was a huge fight and this man was punched in the face’ even if they disagree about how it started, or the colour of the tee shirt of the man who did the punching. Sometimes memories that were lost for awhile and then recovered are inaccurate. Sometimes memories we have always remembered are inaccurate. Sometimes memories are confused by stories we have told ourselves or information other people have given us, such as a young child remembering seeing the ‘dragon’ that burned down their house, or ‘remembering’ the series of three surgeries you were told you had on your hands after the fire, when in fact there were only two. Sometimes people deliberately attempt to confuse people’s memory to discredit them.

Online Discussion Group - Dissociative Network Initiative

the Dissociative Initiative facilitate a public group called the Dissociative Initiative Open Group on Facebook, for anyone to join – people who experience dissociation, multiplicity, or amnesia; our friends, family, supporters, and professionals. This is a public page so please be aware that anyone on the internet can view all of the content.

Psychosis & Dissociation - Dissociative Network Initiative

Psychosis and dissociation are both ‘umbrella’ terms that describe a lot of different things. They can be easy to mix up because a severe dissociative episode and a severe psychotic episode can both be frightening and intense and make people feel like (or look like) they’re going crazy. But they are actually very different categories. A quick way to describe them is that where dissociation is some form of disconnection, psychosis often involves an addition of some kind – being able to hear voices or see things that other people can’t, or having unusual beliefs.

Some people have experiences that are considered to be dissociative as well as those considered to be psychotic. For some people, dissociation is part of the prodromal (that is, the onset phase) of having a psychotic episode. Once they recognise this, dissociation can be a useful warning sign for them. Others experience dissociation and psychosis together, feeling disconnected from themselves or their world at the same time as having unusual experiences. For other people, dissociation may follow a psychotic episode; as the unusual experiences finish, they are left with a sense of numbness, unreality, or other forms of disconnection that can make it more challenging to recover and get back into life. Sometimes people find that dissociation protects them from psychosis, others that dissociation makes them more vulnerable to it. In all of these cases, recognising and learning to find what helps with your dissociation can make psychosis less likely or more manageable. Some people with multiplicity experience it in ways traditionally considered to be psychotic, such as being able to see their parts.

People who experience any form of dissociation or multiplicity are often misdiagnosed as psychotic. When someone is panicked and distressed, it can be difficult for someone outside of them to know what is going on, and most mental health staff are far more familiar with and therefore more likely to diagnose psychosis than dissociation. To make things more complicated, some experiences such as those classed as Schneiderian First-Rank Symptoms – which involve things such as though insertion, thought withdrawal, and voices heard arguing, have been shown in some studies to be far more indicative of DID (multiplicity) than schizophrenia (psychosis). So some of what mental health staff have been told to look out for as evidence of psychosis is actually evidence of dissociation.

For some people, neither of these classifications fit very well. Their experiences sit on the border between the two ideas, or for them they overlap. This is often the nature of classification systems, as soon we create discrete categories, it’s quite normal to find that not everything fits. An example is that for some people who hear voices, they experience them as parts, that is, as separate distinct personalities that share their mind. However they don’t switch and can’t impact the body or the physical world. These people currently usually get a psychotic diagnosis and are told the voices are auditory hallucinations. However, voices are also not uncommon for people who experience multiplicity (multiple personalities, dissociative identity disorder). The distinction between psychotic voices (parts who can be heard but can’t affect the body), and dissociated parts (parts who can affect the body and may or may not be heard as voices) may be an arbitrary one that cuts people off from valuable perspectives and resources. It’s possible that similar psychological processes are behind the formation of both, in some cases. Some people experience both voices and parts.

Traditionally, clinical services have very different approaches to voices vs parts.  People with parts are more often:

• Told they are faking for attention
• Told they must love, live with, and connect to all their parts
• Told they must have a trauma history, must talk about it, and must make trauma recovery the focus of therapy
• Told they must integrate with their parts to be healthy
• Told that parts prove they are creative, resilient survivors

People with voices are more often:

• Told that they must ignore, suppress, or medicate away their voices to be healthy
• Not allowed to connect with, get along, love, or miss any of their voices
• Told they have a life long illness they must learn to manage
• Have any trauma history considered irrelevant
• Told that voices prove they are fragile, mentally ill, and vulnerable to stress

In either case, a dogmatic approach where people are strongly encouraged to fit their experiences to current understandings and frameworks can do harm. Some people who hear voices find that multiplicity type resources have invaluable ideas and approaches. Some people who have parts or other forms of dissociation find psychotic type resources to be incredibly useful. It’s perfectly okay to cherry pick ideas and strategies from different – even conflicting – frameworks to create something individual and effective for yourself/selves.

For more information about voices and other ‘psychotic’ experiences, please see our sister Network, the Hearing Voices Network of South Australia. (hvnsa.wordpress.com)

Sexuality & Multiplicity - Dissociative Network Initiative

Most queer (bisexual, gay, lesbian, pansexual, queer, asexual, poly and so on) people are not multiple.

Many people with multiplicity do not identify as queer, and have only parts with a straight, cis-gender orientation.

For some people, it’s their gender identity that cues them about their multiplicity – see Gender, Dissociation, and Multiplicity. For other people, their introduction to their own multiplicity is through trying to make sense of their sexual orientation.

Sometimes people are exploring identity, trying to find something that feels like a good fit, and every label they find feels like it’s not quite right, or not right all the time. That may be because the labels just don’t fit or because they’ve been used as insults, because they are used by people we don’t wish to be compared to, or because they leave out something important about themselves. It may be they are too broad or feel too unspecific. Sometimes people reject or give up on labels, but still wonder why there’s a lingering sense of not understanding something about themselves that’s waving for attention.

Sometimes the issue is that people have been told they have to be one thing or the other – straight or gay, for example. It can help a lot to realise that many people identify as bisexual  or pansexual because they find they are attracted to more than gender. This does’t mean you are multiple or that anything is wrong. When David Bowie was coming out, he once mentioned that being mistaken as straight felt weird, and being mistaken as gay started to make him feel like a closeted straight man. He identified as bi. You can learn about bi here: What bisexuality is, and 9 things it isn’t.

Another challenge can be fluidity. Many people experience their sexual orientation as ‘fixed’, that is, unchanging. Even if they deeply wish to change, or are subjected to therapies and efforts to change, deep down it stays the same. So a lot of the gay rights movement has developed around this awareness that most people simply can’t change their orientation and shouldn’t be made to. Some people find however, that their orientation is ‘fluid’ and that their attraction can change over the years, or even day to day. This can make people uncomfortable, and may lead to diagnoses such as Borderline Personality Disorder or DID. In reality, fluid identity in itself is not sufficient for any diagnosis, and many people embrace their fluidity and live with it – being fluid may be something they can’t change.

However, for some of us, things still just don’t quite fit. Sometimes it’s because multiplicity is part of the mix and no matter what labels you choose, there’s a part who doesn’t fit in or feel comfortable. If there’s experiences of multiplicity present, it may be that parts have orientations that are different to each other.

• For example, Sarah’s system has a number of orientations across different parts
• Straight, cis (that means not trans) woman who’s pretty shy
• Agender nonromantic asexual
• Bisexual male who likes cross dressing and finds it amusing that he can do that in work situations without being harassed because our body is female
• Bisexual nonbinary who’s out and does a lot of advocacy work
• Lesbian

Child who doesn’t particularly think of themselves in terms of gender identity or presentation, aside what’s good to wear for climbing trees, and who certainly isn’t attracted to anyone of any gender

Because Sarah navigates public life as a group, they identify as bisexual and non-binary/genderqueer as these are the most inclusive terms – or simply as queer which is less of a mouthful!

It can be a relief to look at your experiences through the framework of multiplicity when it fits. For some people, they can hear, feel, or sense other parts and their conflicting feelings. So for example, out on a date they may feel disturbed by a child parts feelings of distress, boredom, or revulsion. A person with a gay male part and asexual female part may feel very home in the local gay club, and very out of place at the same time, or may switch between them feeling great one moment and desperate to leave the next, or have strange, strong, hard to name internal conflicts about getting there in the first place.

If people are threatened or ashamed of diverse sexuality, this can be a reason they deny multiplicity and reject other parts. It can be strange and difficult to process that we are sharing a mind and body with a part who experiences the world so differently – it can also be wonderful! But it’s extra hard if we believe it’s wrong to be queer or disgusting to be straight. Parts can also have huge power struggles over who gets to be out and known, who’s identity is the public one, and who gets to choose partners or lifestyle.

Being able to make your inner world safe and respectful can be hard if you haven’t had many of those experiences yourself. Diversity can be celebrated rather than just a cause for fighting. People with multiplicity, families, cities and nations have at times been amazing examples of valuing diversity and supporting each other. It can be done and many of us are doing it.