The title and content of this post is written by a member of a Dissociative Identity Disorder system. Both the author and the system wish to remain anonymous.
i’m going to tell you something that might not sound like a very nice something. but i’m going to tell it to you anyway and hope you understand. Continue reading
Posted in Guest Blog, Struggles
Tagged DID, dissociative identity disorder, guest bloggers, interpersonal relationships, isolation, loneliness, suicide
I write about what Dissociative Identity Disorder is like for me. But DID doesn’t affect just those with the disorder. DID impacts the lives of friends, family, co-workers, etc. We don’t often hear from those people. Today I’m honored to share with you a guest post written by my partner, Tracy.
I met this woman by accident.. I wasn’t looking for new friends, definitely not looking for romance, yet that’s how it happens right? It didn’t take long to realize I was rather enamored with her. She’s brilliant. Beautiful. Compassionate. It didn’t take long to realize that I had strong feelings for her and it didn’t take long after that for her to disclose, very painfully, that she was diagnosed with Dissociative Identity Disorder. I didn’t know much about DID at the time. I had read the usual “literature,” seen a movie depiction or two. I resolved to learn all I could as we entered into a relationship. Continue reading
Posted in Guest Blog, Struggles
Tagged DID, dissociative identity disorder, guest bloggers, interpersonal relationships, intimacy, tracy
I’m thrilled to share with you the following post, written by RMJ and originally published on her blog, Deeply Problematic. This terrific, insightful piece has also been published at FWD/Forward, a group blog written by people with disabilities, as part of their Ableist Word Profile series. RMJ (aka Rachel McCarthy James) is a writer and tutor living in Virginia. She blogs about feminism and stuff at Deeply Problematic.
Like every ism, ableism is absorbed through the culture on a more subconscious level, embedding itself in our language like a guerrilla force. Crazy is one of the most versatile and frequently used slurs, a word used sometimes directly against persons with mental disabilities (PWMD), sometimes indirectly against persons with able privilege, sometimes descriptive and value-neutral, and sometimes in a superficially positive light. Continue reading
Posted in Guest Blog
Tagged ableism, crazy, guest bloggers, rachel mccarthy james, stigma
Hearty thanks to Natasha Tracy for writing the inaugural Don’t Call Me Sybil guest post. Natasha Tracy is a professional writer, a cat lover and entirely crazy. Read more from Natasha at her award-winning blog, Bipolar Burble.
Hello, my name is Natasha, and I’m bipolar. Well, technically, bipolar-type-II-ultra-rapid-cycling, part of a cluster of disorders sometimes known as crazy.
Yes, I understand some people find that offensive, but honestly, why?
Crazy has a lot of meanings, most of them slag. Crazy is formally defined as insane. Insane is formally defined as not sane. Sane is defined as free of mental derangement. Derangement is defined as disordered, disarranged. Continue reading
I admit I sometimes use the word “crazy.” Just today, in fact, I was in my car headed home from an appointment. Along a certain stretch of road there was a driver in front of me repeatedly revving his engine and swinging aggressively from lane to lane. I watched his erratic driving incredulously for a moment and then muttered to myself, “Are you crazy?” See? I do that. I admit it. And I further admit that I get defensive, even hurt, when people refer to me as crazy because of my Dissociative Identity Disorder diagnosis. A bit hypocritical, no? Or is crazy just a word, like so many other words, that derives its meaning largely from the context in which it’s used? Is it fair of me to blithely spout words like crazy in situations like the one I described from this morning when I chafe at others describing my mental illness as crazy? Oh and that’s another thing – it’s ok for me to refer to my DID as crazy, but it hurts my feelings when others do. Continue reading
Posted in Guest Blog
Tagged crazy, DID, dissociative identity disorder, guest bloggers, natasha tracy, rachel mccarthy james, stigma
