Published on 12, July, 2020
Hi,I have a question about multiple personas. Do you think this could be related to ASD or ADHD? Is it something anyone else here does?
I’ve got a diagnosis of both ASD and ADHD and for as long as I can remember I’ve created personas for myself. And then I act out as these personas, say when I’m shopping, or when I’m having to go out of my comfort zone for whatever reason. I don’t think it’s that dissociative identity disorder. . . I’ve looked up the symptoms and I don’t suffer memory loss or anything like that. I’m aware I create these personas and know exactly what I’m doing. It feels more like when I was a child pretending to be someone else as a game. When I do this now I’m aware of it, aware of my personas, I just imagine I’m this different person. I guess it makes me feel better, less anxious when I’m out of my comfort zone.
So maybe it’s a comfort thing? I have suffered mentally previously after losing a loved one but I never had issues with personalities or anything like this.I was thinking about it today and put it more down to ASD or ADHD as I suffer with both. I’m curious if it’s something anyone else has experience of.
I would highly recommend cosplay and theatre groups. Theres room to further experiment.
if you were not autistic, and loved playing with psychological facets of the self, this is where you might find yourself.
I did this when I was forced to get a job at 15 and couldn’t cope. I turned it into a game. I was more curious how people would respond to my different behaviours. But I didn’t really separate them from my self as, having tried a bit of theatre I had been taught that we have all these different ways to express different parts of our being, or different emotional states. Essentially it’s a part of Meisners Method Technique- allowing “play” to help us listen to what expressions might lie within us.
Now I can recognise, as Autistics, we’re not always helped understand ourselves (most NTs struggle with a sense of independent Sense of Self, but mirror the world). I think this can be a bit of turning mundane things into a trip of imaginary play that can make life a little more enjoyable.
JFG, Thats the sort of thing that absolutely terrifies me, I'm a terrible actress, my eyes run the momment I start, the idea of stepping onto a stage fills me with fear and I look like an overcoat on a wheelbarrow at the best of times, so I can only imagine what I'd look like in some sort of period costume. Yet I'm quite good at speaking in public as long as I know what I'm talking about.