New and multiple

[DJStrangers112358]

Hi all. We've been lurking on the forums for some time now and have decided to introduce ourselves. Firstly, I am Kahlia the host, a 32 year old university student with schizo affective disorder. I was originally diagnosed with DID in 2007 apparently caused by events in my childhood that I won't bring up here.

In 2008 I received my first ECT treatment which robbed me of all memories prior to the beginning of the year. This both saved my life and caused me great pain, and allowed me to quit self harm. As you would probably expect I did not want to ever have the treatment again. Unfortunately, after trying every other option we were forced to submit to it again. Thankfully there has been no memory loss from any but the first course of treatment.

My alters were almost invisible until my memories began to return, and I'm still not 100% sure how many of us there actually are. Right here and now I am aware of six others but my husband believes there are more. For this I have to accept and respect his count as he sees more of them than I do.

The alters I am aware of range from 3 years old to 16. Jessie, my 6 year old comes to the front most often and really enjoys her colouring in and kids movies. She has actually been signing the pictures she's been colouring and gets really excited because I bought her a stack of twistable crayons and colouring books. My husband has also told me that all he has to do if he wants me back is to ask her (Jessie) to please give me back the body and she does, quite happily.

We're still learning with the others and have, quite probably, not met them all yet. I count myself (and ourselves) very lucky that I/we have such support. We are very aware that family support is a luxury not shared by everyone.

I'll shut up now, but we will hopefully talk to some of you soon. It's good to be in a place where people understand the challenges us multiples face each day.