What is Rapid Switching?

[Shadows]

I'm not sure I understand this all the way. I feel like maybe we are doing this sometimes? But everything I look up has to do with bipolar, not DID.

We switch out like a roladex spinning sometimes. Other times, one of us gets stuck in the front for days on end.

[Cammy]

While rapid cycling is in reference to bipolar disorder, many of us with D.I.D. can experience rapid switching. It simply means quickly switching from one personality to another. I have experienced this from time to time, and it often is in relation to severe triggers like an emotionally charged situation. I once rapid switched through four personalities in my therapist's office within a matter of a few seconds between each switch. At the end of this, I looked up at her and in amazement asked, "What the heck just happened to me?" She explained that I had skipped through multiple personalities in less than 30 seconds. At the time I was emotionally very upset, and it was almost as if I was trying to find a personality that wasn't feeling the negative emotions. I do not know if this term is used in the professional literature, but it does accurately describe the phenomenon. I also recall that this occurred during those first few tentative years when I was newly diagnosed, and still had a poor understanding of my internal world or a clear feel for my alternate personalities. As you are newly diagnosed, it is possible that you may be experiencing what I did at first. For me, this settled down as time went by and I became more familiar with myself. Hopefully this will be the same for you.

[The People]

I don't do it as much anymore. But it used to happen early on when we we coming forward.

[nats]

exactly as explained by others, different people take over and retreat in rapid succession. normally happens when we're upset or triggered.

[FreyasSpirit]

This is one of the best articles we have seen on this:
https://sarahkreece.com/2012/10/20/multiplicity-switching-and-relationships/

For us, involuntary rapid switching is a sign that we have let our stress levels get too high and almost always means that we made many self care mistakes to get to there (ie. continuing to see a therapist we should have left, not taking a day off work, trying to do too much outside of work) over at least a week. It's a very forceful signal which tells us to self care more strongly when we have ignored the subtler signals our system is sending to us.

[Shadows]

Thank you, everyone. I read that article and it seems like it fits us well in some ways. In other ways I think sometimes we switch and only part of us know.

That's maybe the hardest part - I don't think we are all aware of all of us, and so we end up making decisions based on partial information.

[nats]

hi Shadows, we probably all make decisions based on partial information - even non-multiples do this all the time! in our years of dealing with multiplicity and 'healing' and looking at how other non-multiples tend to deal with things, we'd say that our big advantage is at least we are aware that there is a lot we don't know while so many people seem to assume they have the full picture when they don't.

go easy on yourselves. if you're rapid switching there is always a reason. if you keep trying to learn, you'll learn a lot more than those who never try!