So embarrassed... is this an obsession?

[dusk26]

2 years ago I was diagnosed with DID (formerly Multiple Personality Disorder). A therapist I was seeing wanted me to try hypnosis. I agreed and while I was hypnotized, she said something like "Is there another person who wants a chance to talk?" It went downhill from there. She suggested that I had all these "parts" who needed a chance to come out and during hypnosis tried to talk to them, and "they" talked back. Soon these "parts" were coming out at home, too, around my family. I don't remember when they were talking though, my family has told me about it. My memory from around that time is pretty much shot. I remember bits and pieces. I constantly questioned my family if they thought I was just acting or if they believed I really had the disorder. They said they believed I had it. After several months, I started reading about the effect hypnosis can have on DID patients. It turned out that hypnosis can CAUSE DID to form. So I immediately stopped the hypnosis and my "parts" gradually left.

I am sooooo embarrassed that I ever "played" the part of a multiple personality patient, even though I know whole-heartedly that it wasn't my fault. The past 2 days it's constantly run through my head, I can't quit reading about it to make sure hypnosis can cause it and it wasn't just me role-playing or something. I can't stop thinking about it.

Could this be an obsession? I didn't recognize it at first as one, but now I'm wondering if maybe it is.

 

[gracealone]

Hi Dusk,
I don't know anything about DID or MPD so I'm not qualified to speak as to what the therapist did to you or whether or not they made all this happen to you through hypnosis.
I can tell you that, yes, you may have developed an obsession about whether or not you had or currently have this disorder. If you've already been diagnosed with OCD then the chances are even greater that this is what's happening to you. OCD means that a person can/will spend a great deal of time trying to gain certainty regarding a doubt or fear. The problem arises when all that attending to the doubt/fear makes the brain view it all as a valid and horribly urgent concern. So the brain kind of latches on to it in a real dogged manner and wants to keep on chewing on it over and over. Then when the sufferer attempts to find even more reassurances the OCD just gets worse and this makes the person extremely anxious. The anxiousness makes the obsession seem even more valid so they feel the need to do even more checking. It becomes a viscious/consuming cycle. I can't, of course diagnose you, a professional would have to do that. I can only tell you what an OCD obsession looks like.
Hope that helps a little.

Mitzi

2 years ago I was diagnosed with DID (formerly Multiple Personality Disorder). A therapist I was seeing wanted me to try hypnosis. I agreed and while I was hypnotized, she said something like "Is there another person who wants a chance to talk?" It went downhill from there. She suggested that I had all these "parts" who needed a chance to come out and during hypnosis tried to talk to them, and "they" talked back. Soon these "parts" were coming out at home, too, around my family. I don't remember when they were talking though, my family has told me about it. My memory from around that time is pretty much shot. I remember bits and pieces. I constantly questioned my family if they thought I was just acting or if they believed I really had the disorder. They said they believed I had it. After several months, I started reading about the effect hypnosis can have on DID patients. It turned out that hypnosis can CAUSE DID to form. So I immediately stopped the hypnosis and my "parts" gradually left.

I am sooooo embarrassed that I ever "played" the part of a multiple personality patient, even though I know whole-heartedly that it wasn't my fault. The past 2 days it's constantly run through my head, I can't quit reading about it to make sure hypnosis can cause it and it wasn't just me role-playing or something. I can't stop thinking about it.

Could this be an obsession? I didn't recognize it at first as one, but now I'm wondering if maybe it is.

 

[raven1]

How do you know they weren't really parts? What symptoms do you have?

 

[dusk26]

gracealone, thank you. Yes, I've been dx'd with OCD for over 10 years.

raven, I suppose it's possible, but the parts weren't coming out until I started the hypnosis, and they went away when I stopped it. I was having memory laspses, some of them would sob when they were out. I can't remember most of what happened.

 

[gracealone]

Hi dusk,
Well there you go then....I'd chalk the obsession up to OCD, especially if it's creating quite a lot of anxiety, then do your level best to just move on instead of attending to it.
God Bless,
Mitzi

gracealone, thank you. Yes, I've been dx'd with OCD for over 10 years.

raven, I suppose it's possible, but the parts weren't coming out until I started the hypnosis, and they went away when I stopped it. I was having memory laspses, some of them would sob when they were out. I can't remember most of what happened.