Where Did All The Multis Come From? [Me]

Before I knew that I had multiple personalities, I really didn't know anything about the condition - and I didn't know anybody that had it. At least, not to my knowledge. It was something other people dealt with. After I realized that I was multiple, it seems like I know more multiples than I do singletons. I was talking about this with a friend the other day (who is also a multiple, of course), and briefly hit upon a few theories.

The New-Car Effect - When you get a new car, suddenly it seems like there are a lot of that make and model car on the roads as you drive around. It's not that there are more of them, really. It's just that you're primed to notice them now, because that car shape is familiar to you. When you're multiple, you listen more intently when someone says something about MPD/DID.

Multiplicity Is In - There seems to be a cycle of diseases that become popular to diagnose. It's cool to have this condition now. A lot of times, it's a psychological disorder, because those are harder to prove that you have or you don't have. ADD/ADHD were hot for a while, then it was Bipolar; now it's Asperger's. It seems like DID is on the rise as the 'hot' condition to have. The condition is mentioned more in the news or on TV shows, then everyone seems to popping up with it. Some are legit, but some are just seeking attention or convince themselves that they have it when they hear about it.

Association Of Dissociation - People who do have mental conditions can feel isolated, embarrassed to be 'out' about their issue, or afraid that coming clean means getting locked up in a mental ward. When one person comes out and is open about their condition, others with the same condition feel braver about saying, "Hey, me too!" If the first person isn't ostracized, the next person feels safer.

You Find What You Look For - If you hang out on forums about MPD, you end up talking to people who have MPD. And because you both have it, it's easier to form a friendship. So I have a lot of multi friends because I purposely hang out with multi people.

I Wanna' Be Like You - There are lots of things about being a multiple that other people will recognize in themselves. After all, everyone dissociates sometimes - driving on boring roads, sleeping, doing mundane tasks. And when a multi talks about how it feels to them, singletons recognize some of that and then wonder, "Am I multiple?"

Awareness - A lot of multiples have been diagnosed as other issues. Lots of other issues, often stacking on top of each other. Even in the psych-eval community, DID is way down on the list of things they consider when they're trying to figure out just what's wrong. As mental health pros learn more about DID and how to recognize it, more people are being correctly diagnosed with DID instead of something else.

So there are a lot of reasons that I'm hearing more people say, "Hey, I'm multiple too." Some are legit, some just think they're multiple. But the label is being used more.