Your true Identity

Identity is an interesting thing. We all struggle with our identity somewhere.
People will walk through life ‘knowing’ their identity to be a loser, fat, stupid, ugly, useless, crazy. Maybe their identity is steeped in being the best, a jock, cool or a class clown. In my experience, everyone has been saddled with an identity. If you are told that you are something long enough, that identity sticks, usually to our disadvantage.

This is why I think it is most unfortunate that the health profession chose to change Multiple Personality Disorder to Dissociative IDENTITY Disorder. Think about it, if you have been diagnosed with DID, someone has successfully placed an identity on you. Your identity is “DID”. At least this is what I often see in people who struggle with this disorder.

I must confess that my wife and I both have lived in this unhealthy perception of the state of things in our lives for too long. She and I both have lived in the perception that her true identity was DID. The truth is that this is not hers to bear.

Who she is, is my bride. Who she is, is a child of God. Who she is, is something spectacular and not DID. What she struggles with is DID, but even that is past. What she struggles with now is being integrated, but that is not her identity either.

I have a tendency to be an enabler, that is not who I am, that is something I struggle with.

So, the next time you share your story with someone, try not to start off with: “I am DID……” But rather start of with: “I am a wonderfully unique individual, one of my challenges in life is that I struggle with a disorder.” Shed your identity as DID, a multiple or even as a singular. Embrace your identity as YOU, uniquely created, individually shaped and developing into something incredible.

I wrote the following few lines to encourage my bride to rethink how she views her own identity. Please enjoy:

I can access my pain, but it is not who I am.
My pain is not my identity! 
Pain may be part of my history, it may be what shaped me, but it is not WHO I AM!

I can tell you about my pain, but that’s only because the retelling is useful for my healing. My story no longer holds sway over me, because God is reshaping me every day.

My identity, my true identity is that of a child of the King, not the object of those who tried to steal my soul.

My identity is that of the Champion!!!!


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