Put up the definition of dissociative identity disorder,
and you, of course, know this,
'cuz you've been dealin' with it a long time,
but it's a severe form of dissociation,
and it's characterized by identity division.
And it's rather than a creation of separate personalities.
So, individuals also experience recurrent,
extensive episodes of memory loss
that's not explained by just forgetfulness.
So,
this is not to be confused with
split personality or multiple personalities.
What it is is the individual identity,
there's one identity, but it's fragmented
into different parts and what happens is,
necessity's the mother of invention.
You've heard that old saying, right?
If you get in a situation where
the stress is overwhelming your coping skills
then you will escape that situation
by leaving that part of your identity
and just going to another part of your identity.
You vacate that awareness.
You often see it, if somebody's been in a terrible accident
or something, they will,
they'll have no memory of it, whatsoever,
and you ask 'em about it and,
"See, I know I was in an accident, but I don't remember it."
And you might know that they saw a loved one killed
or something but they'll say I don't remember it.
They have that memory loss and sometimes,
if that trauma is recurrent,
this is too painful,
this is too stressful,
so I just vacate my consciousness
and go somewhere else,
and when that stops then I'll come back.
What I'm saying is
that's what's at the core
of almost every dissociative identity disorder
that I've ever encountered.
I think it's at the core with you,
and I don't think that it's ever going to change
unless a coupla things happen,
and I'm gonna tell you what I think those things are
'cuz I wanna help you with it, okay?
(audience applauds)
