My ex has Dissociative identity disorder stemming from abuse she suffered at the hands of her teenage brother when she was 8 years old. The condition is more commonly known as Multiple (or split) Personality disorder..
For most of our life together, I lived with two distinct personalities each of whom interacted with me differently and had separate memories. One was the mature woman whom I adored. The other by speech, gestures and behavior was a pouty and petulant 8 year old.who would come out when she felt secure such as bedtime or when relaxing around the house. I knew this before I married her, and I married her anyway. I loved her that much and figured after dealing with my mother's problems that I could take care of her as well as anyone.
Last fall I watched a third personality emerge and take control. I will always believe it was brought on by the onset of menopause This personality revealed itself to me on two occasions saying "it put the old (her) away because she was too nice ". It is this personality that cheated on me, left me and broke up a family to be with the man of her obsession.
The hard part is the personality that I loved and loves me is still there. She has been kidnapped. Even after the third personality emerged, there were moments, precious few, when the old her interacted with me. There was a struggle between the personalities. This why she wouldn't see me after she left and hid the time I took it upon myself to see her. Isuspect there still is. When I get emails like "pray for me and sorry I'm weak and needy", it is easy for me to believe that the personality that loves me is reaching out. Especially, when at the same time she sent that email, she posted a recording on the Karoake site of her singing "Unchained Melody". A song whose most memorable lyrics are "I need your love" and "I'll be coming home wait for me".
I know this all sounds crazy which is why I've not posted about it earlier discussing it only with Ian and PB12. But, it's what I've lived. I hope this helps explain why this has been so hard on me, why it had been hard for me to be mad at her and why I've wanted to stay in touch with her knowing it was better for me that I didn't..
Thanks to all of my friends( especially my Patsfans.com friends) and family, I have survived the crush of emotions and lifelong depression, that caused me to want very much to die. I am going to survive this regardless of what happens with my ex-wife. I've always looked at myself as being weak, but it turns out I'm a fairly tough bastard after all.
I do not know if I would take her in if she came back. I will pray for her always the rest of my life. And I would always help her as a friend. But, before I took her back as my life partner, I would insist on counseling for both of us. That's today's plan anyway.
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