DID systems need every single everyone in the system. Everyone has done an important job and has had a specific role that has helped with your overall functioning. Everyone in your system is valuable. Everyone in your system has made their very own unique contribution to the survival of your life events.

Dissociation — complete dissociation — is an emotional protection strategy that totally and completely removes painful realities from the mind and body of the survivor.

Lots of people with dissociative disorders are so used to losing time that they don’t even notice it anymore. Switching and the coming and going are so normal for them, and the covering for a “bad memory” are just natural parts of the day. In fact, it can be so natural, that many people with DID/MPD are firmly convinced that they don’t lose any time at all. However, a close examination of that belief can usually prove otherwise, but that is not an uncommon initial assumption.