My long-distance best friend (known since high school) has been having a
horrible time recently with lots of different situations merging and It
seems to have become too much to deal with. I was only informed about
his dissociative identity disorder ...
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My long-distance best friend (known since high school) has been having a
horrible time recently with lots of different situations merging and It
seems to have become too much to deal with. I was only informed about
his dissociative identity disorder earlier this year, and this has never
happened before, or at least not to such an extent that I've noticed
it/interacted with an alter (? I’m not actually sure if it's an alter
this time around or a result of stress-induced amnesia as I don't want
to pry). His condition has been somewhat inactive in terms of switching
because if he had experienced switches before, it was not for long
periods of time. I think it was more of an internal thing, but has
suddenly become more severe. His ‘usual self’ is said to have gone
dormant in a sense, due to the immense stress and lack of ability to
process everything that is happening, and has been overtaken by a
personality who has forgotten the details of the past year and lost
passion for all his recent interests. Prior to this switch, he was
EXTREMELY unstable, and I spent days trying to help him stay as calm as
possible but the episodes were uncontrollable. Yesterday, there was a
sudden change. He was being really incoherent and then asked who I was
to him. He says he remembers me, but our other friends are blurry, he
only recalls facts and not his feelings for them. He’s asking me all
these questions about what happened in the lead-up so he can relay them
to a psychologist he’s seeing next week. He's not cold towards me by any
means, but there is a veil between us even though we're talking to each
other easily. He's very analytical, trying to think through the things
that occurred etc and taking notes. I’m just not sure if I'm approaching
it correctly. I’m currently answering his questions and showing as much
support as I can while trying to wrap my head around the shock of the
whole situation. He says he doesn't know if the persona I'm familiar
with will ever come back. I'm just clueless and lost at the moment,
because he's my best friend and it hurts to see such a dramatic shift.
Truthfully, I was slightly sceptical before this but the things we are
talking about now would have caused endless arguments only a couple of
days ago. Whatever happened, there is a tangible divide between who I'm
talking to, and the friend I knew. Any advice is appreciated!
PTSD for Medical and First Responders
