# Are these symptoms familiar?



## firesea (Oct 17, 2009)

I think someone i am close to may have DP/DR and i wondered if anyone would be able to shed some light upon it as they will not seek medical help so it has not been diagnosed. This person believes they have a number of invisible friends that they talk to, he can talk to them verbally or mentally. These "friends" will inhabit his body for periods of time, varying from a few hours to months at a time. The "friends" each have unique personalities, handwriting style, sense of humor, style of talking etc. Each "friend" seems to tell him different things, so one will be very confident and supportive, encouraging and in general building him up, whereas others are extremely negative. He seems to have a good level control over when these "friends" inhabit his body, for instance it is nearly always the confident "friend" and only or twice have i come into contact with the more negative ones, although he talks about them to me. He can choose to allow them to inhabit his body and when they do it is like he goes away to another place. He has no idea what has been happening or what day/time it is when he comes back to himself and has to be told by his "friend". He nearly always allows them to inhabit himself when he is in a stressful or unhappy situation, it is a way of coping or escape. One thing i found interesting was when he learnt to drive his "friends" had no mastery of the skill, it was like the skill he had learnt they hadn't learnt.

He is depressed and suffers from other mental illnesses. Despite this he is a functional member of society and has many friends. They seem to be aware that he has mood swings and a darker side but it is not like he is alienated by these symptoms. If you met him in a pub for instance you would not be able to know he was ill at all. He is involved heavily in the paranormal and his "friends" have told him that they are spirits/ghosts, therefore he does not believe that he could be suffering from a mental disorder.

Does what i have described sound like it may be DP/DR?


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## DownTheRabbitHole (May 30, 2009)

no

but it does bring back a memory of something i watched...hold on il try find it on youtube..

cant find it, it was on bbc a while back.

it sounds like he could have something along the lines of 'DID disorder'
people make up different personaties in order to deal with things, and to keep the mentality together.
often comes from childhood trauma/abuse as a kid.

but you should read up some on that.

it doesnt sound like DP/Dr at all to me.


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## firesea (Oct 17, 2009)

thanks, i think you may be right.


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## no3one (Feb 23, 2010)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dissociative_identity_disorder

It sounds a lot like this.


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