Published on 12, July, 2020
Hi,
I'm writing with concerns regarding my adult son who has autism. I also have autism but my son faces greater difficulty with his diagnosis and struggles to function like most.
My son often describes himself not as one person but as lots of people. He's remained very childlike and hasn't matured like most people do. I asked him about those other people and he showed me a Word document he'd written about them all, thirteen different people with their own names, backstory and appearance.
I have autism too but this is new to me. I don't know what it means, whether it's part of autism or if this is simply a game he plays with himself.
He seems very happy, he's always happy and playing but his Mum is unwell so I wonder if this is his way of coping with the stress in our lives at the moment?
I would be inclined to get him seen by a mental health professional because what you have described here sounds to me like Dissociative Identity Disorder. While I'm not a professional myself I have had a friend with this disorder. My advice would be to keep an eye on him and watch out for a change behaviour to see if he starts to behave like this different people that he has described to you.