The Sound of Madness
I spent two years living with a man, then my lover, who refused to seek medical help but almost certainly had something like disassociative identity. He had learned to cope with it by giving his voices distinct names, and adopting their personas over times, often in response to external stimuli. As an outside observer with no such symptoms of my own, I found this completely fascinating.<p>He&#x27;s very spiritual, one of his inner voices would often come out and sage the house, offer prayers, and perform personal rituals which he kept secret. Otherwise though, I found that his personas largely reflected his current emotional state. One persona would almost always be &quot;out&quot; when he was upset with a friend, or struggling with some stress. Another was more childlike and playful. He described them as always there, and even though he appeared to allow one of them to be &quot;in charge&quot; as he put it, he said the voices were always in the back of his mind, directing his thoughts.<p>The experience has opened my eyes, and allowed me to see these disorders in a more positive light. I never told him what I thought of his diagnosis and never felt the need; while his condition lent itself to occasional mood swings, he made a point of _respecting_ his voices, allowed them to become a part of him, and I feel had largely learned to cope. He could even switch his behaviors off for a while when needed, usually for work or when he felt the need to be professional.<p>I don&#x27;t think medication would have helped, not that he would have taken it. He had figured himself out for better or worse, and I just learned to accept him as he was.