sparkplug.... i dont know what to say ......except yeah, mate..... you have not just circled the candle.... you have touched the flame
these people are so much more than their diagnosis....theirs is a deep rich and complex reality ..... if ever any of us think " d@mn my life is complicated",( and whose isnt!!??) imagine THAT intensity multiplied by a factor of "X" number of "others" vying for their voice, their place in the sun
some systems are so chaotic, some are amazingly organized.... some supressed by disbelief of the core/birth person, some with actual timetables and schedules for appearances..... some are co-concious, others dont even know all the others in their own system...... male and female in the same system, variant sexual orientations........there is such variety it is impossible to enumerate
further complicate the chaos with a misinformed or ignorant public, a debating body of "authority" undecided as to the legitimacy of your reality, and kooks willing to tell you ( and all who are inside and LISTENING) that they should "burn the demons at the cross of jesus"...... oh yeah! if it isnt like me or mine lets bomb it, shoot it, torch it, kill 'em all and let god sort 'em out!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! arrrgh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
loving them is the easy part, summoning the patience to deal with their issues is what gets sticky/maddening/impossibly complex..... my involvement is marginal for most of these treasures, only one is actually part of my ongoing life... i live on a separate continent from some and know others only thru a support forum ..... i just offer what i can in terms of emotional support because there are no solutions, just strategies to cope
one shopping trip with my mate mentioned above, we split up and arranged to meet back at a certain time and place.... except she didnt show..... seems the 5 YO "saw" one of those chocolate fountains in a candy shoppe and just like sparkplug stated.... bam! a 5 YO in a candy shoppe.... i found my friend nearly half hour later, chagrined and flustered... seems the wee one called the husband just gushing over the fountain and the splendour of her surroundings and he "called" the wife back to herself ( after a treat was procurred for the wee one!)
imagine the nightmare of having a life..... and in late adolescence, coming out of an abusive teacher/student scenario, stressed in college courses, suddenly being told by an instructor they were taking you to an intervention facility because an alter ( a WHAT?) had sent an email about su!c!de..... how do you wrap your head around that?! finding notes to yourself from your "selves" ? learning that the you who you thought you were/are is NOT the birth person, not the core of the system, but a competent insider on the outside running the life..... (((((((((((d******))))))))))....... being terrified if you LET THE SYSTEM EXPRESS ITSELF YOU WILL DISAPPEAR FOREVER or learn about horrors of abuse so henious and evil that you are certain you will die from the knowing of them
it is at once a difficult and essentially simple concept to grasp..... out of one, many...... i do realize it is considered "a disorder" but it is also an elegant intelligence of incredible "order" that allowed for the survival of an entity that may or may not one day be whole again..... even as i sit playing a game or narrating a safe and cozy good night ritual of sailing to the shores of the dreamtime, fully invested in that moment and fully believing it is a 5 YO listening to the words, needing that moment of comfort...... always lurking is the realization that it was a moment of unimaginable, suffocating desperation and an unconquerable will to survive that allowed for such a one to exist
disfellowship THAT you pompous pox of a blight on the planet!! may god repay you in kind