rambling...no ranting, just confused rambling

in a response to a post, [livejournal.com profile] cirape said:
I view nonfunctional multiplicity as something with missing time and system members being unable to communicate and the like.

conveying in words i could not find, exactly what i have been going through...
talked w/my psychologist this week about it and he's suggesting we keep track of this and asked about letters written, emails sent, things bought, places gone w/out my forefront knowledge...
i told him this had been happening for years, but i blew it off as "forgetting" because people DO forget things from time to time...i mean, after all, don't most people talk to themselves in their head, right?
heh, it's only when my daughter tells me "you know you have a british accent, right?" and "umm, when did you forget to know how to make coffee?"
cuz that happens to everyone, right?
uh, no...
it's only been within the past 3 years that it has become more and more prevelant, which confuses and scares me to no end...people at work have said things of concern and i brush that off as having a bad day, or i'm feeling emotional or whatever comes out of my mouth that makes sense to them and they walk away - satisified w/the answer they've been given only to leave me befuddled as to just exactly what was said...

system members being unable to communicate and the like.
i read this and thought - oh yeah, well, THE LIKE part got me in the emergency ward w/about 3 stitches on one wrist and bandages on the other because apparently there is a sullen 16 yr. old boy that gets angry quite easily and then gets self destructive...most of the time it's contained and curtailed, but sometimes - well, sometimes it just happens...
i was there in the hospital all day...then i saw my psychologist that afternoon...

so he asked for copies of things that had been written and/or sent and such and i asked my friend to help me w/that because the last time i thought to do that - the paperwork got lost and my friend said,
"maybe there's someone who DOESN'T want anyone to know at all"
and i brushed it off as "forgetting"...

i've come to find that when i "go" somewhere else or however that can be explained, i get this bone-chilling cold shiver, and it's slightly numbing and not all that pleasant...usually happens when i feel stressed and/or threatened...
what happens to you when you "change"?

i've taken a break from posting in my personal journal because every time i put in the attempt, it's gone...nothing gets posted, not even jokes or pics or whatever - so i took a break...someone wrote a nice note and that was that...sometimes it bothers me, but i'm going with it for now...i've been in other communities and lj's of friends, but nothing like being here where i feel better...well, as good as i can feel...

anyhow, i don't know where i'm going w/this - but thanks for letting me ramble...

[identity profile] crystalseraph.livejournal.com 2007-04-28 06:09 pm (UTC)(link)
Well, I am confident and comfortable because, in my experience, it was much harder being alone and walled off from the others than being connected to them.

When I was cut off, I had depression, anxiety, 'ghosting', and had wierd reactions to anything that reminded me of the others...like the reverse of the classic splitting model, almost.

Now I'm plagued by anxiety and uncertainty, but am much healthier than I was a few months ago. The fears will pass, and we are learning to work together. We are lucky in that none of us have any complications - no one here is really depressive, or has any serious issues beyond the normal life stuff, and we support each other as much as we can. All members will keep up to date on each other, and we sort out any fights/disagreements before they get out of hand. We resolved to do this from the get-go, pretty much.

I would say that communication is the first piece of learning to live together and cooperate. I think the reason we were able to get off to a good start is because we immediately started talking, writing, drawing and expressing ourselves to each other. If you are too frightened to talk to them, then in my experience, you get anxious and depressed. Writing to someone who you keep feeling and not understanding for the first time is exhilerating, imo. I remember writing to Tahl the first time, and finding that he was left-handed...he wrote pages with the off hand when I couldn't write my own name left-handed. Since then, we have conciously built connections and bridges to each other so that we can talk easily and clearly, but it has taken a lot of effort.

If you want to know how we do it, I can go into a bit. I'm a horrible analyst/academic writer, so I've kept very detailed notes on the mechanics of us building our system into what it is now. I think every person's experience is unique, but asking and talking to others about how they got working is probably a useful way to go, no matter what your goal is in the long run.

I'm on msn if you need to chat ^_^ Hopefully I'm not being too happyhappy and misuderstanding what you mean...

[identity profile] crystalseraph.livejournal.com 2007-04-28 08:46 pm (UTC)(link)
Well, by 'walled off', I mean that I was stuck in control of the body, and able to only see and use a smallish part of the collective mind. It sounds like you might be a bit blocked off, but possibly not as much as I was.

Being 'cut off' had nothing to do with physical harm. It was just my words for describing how I couldn't feel the others. I also have a chronic illness, so I sympathise with the anxiety of that...I would think that any physical illness is affecting the body. The stress of being ill belongs to whoever is in the body at the time, I'd think. I wouldn't worry about it being 'not of you'.

'Ghosting' was what I use to describe the feelings of the others trying to contact me. I would get tactile hallucinations (hands touching hair, etc), sometimes hearing voices, or getting flashes of imagery, particularly in the dark. Just the presence of people. It was rather scarey and drove me to panic more than once.

If one of your group has been emailing your friends, then I'd say they probably do want to talk to someone. Maybe try leaving notes out for them, or starting a communal book or computer file? I agree with Gharveyn that resisting what's happening isn't really worth it. If they're there, then they're there. I had to learn that one myself. It helped a lot, for me and everyone else in the group.