About
Shirley J. Davis
My name is Shirley and I live with a condition known as Dissociative Identity Disorder (once known as Multiple Personality Disorder). From birth to the age of fifteen, I was the victim of severe and repeated abuse people whom I loved very much. I entered therapy in 1990, and began the hardest part of my life after surviving the trauma in my childhood.
Therapy for DID is a long and very difficult journey and it took me almost three decades to gain control over my life. I had always depended on alternate ego states to handle the hard parts of my life. Now I found that I needed to take control and utilize all of my inner selves to learn how to deal with the world.
I began writing about my journey in 2015 and became a published author later that year. I have written three books on recovery from DID full of facts and tidbits to help others in their travels which are available from links on the homepage. I began giving speeches in 2016 about my recovery story and continue to do so to this day.
This blog is dedicated to all those who live with dissociative disorders. It is my sincere hope that the people who come here will learn important information to use not just in their personal lives, but to help educate professionals, and others who live with this dynamic and misunderstood diagnosis.
Important: I am not a mental health professional.
Dear Shirley,
I hope you are well. I was trying to contact you through your email address, but I was unable to copy it from here. Could you please send me your email address? I started dating someone who has DID and I really need some clarity, please.
Thank you so much.
I know, that email link is broken somehow and I haven’t been able to fix it. Sure, I’ll speak with you. My email address is sdavis8966@hotmail.com Looking forward to meeting you. Shirley
Shirley, I’m so extrenely grateful to you for all you continue to do for so many of us! I love your new site…thank you!
Honestly, you have helped me and my system so much. We have and keep learning..understanding … and getting much needed tips! Often we find the words you post a lifeline when the chaos comes and we begun to scatter and falter to hang together.
We aren’t doing the best at keeping structured at this time…EXCEPT when it comes to faithfully checking our email daily for yours!
Here in Illinois hanging on and staying home. Sending our thanks and lifting our prayers of protection and blessings for you!
Aww, thank you for your helpful comment. I have been trying for these past several years to help others and it warms my heart to know I have achieved that in some small way. You live in Illinois too? I live in the capital city of Springfield. Shirley
I’ve not been getting any emails updates from your new site. I also know someone who would like to sign up. I see a “login” on here but my email address says not found…NOOOOO!!! We want to stay connected so would you please advise on what we need to do?
Here in Peoria, IL …Hello to you in Springfield!
WooHoo!!!! Thanks so much for all you do!!!!
Congratulations on this, Shirley!!!!
Hi Shirley,
Love the site, your creativity, insights, and polished presentation.
Do you have a newsletter that we can sign up for?
Best,
SN
I currently only send out a newsletter about once a year as I am so busy. If you sign up for updates from this site you will go on my email address list and receive one. Thanks. Shirley
What do you suggest someone do if they think they may have DID but they are not sure? I’m in therapy and have shared my concerns with my therapist but she wants to take things slow and I’m running out of patience. I want to know what’s going on and I’ve already gone too long wondering without answers. How do you approach them? This is scary stuff. I’m not scared OF them I’m scared of finding out there are there . But not knowing what’s going on is scarier. I have resolved that if they are it’s time to know and time to heal. How did you reach out to them? I think I made contact but it started out pleasant and ended up triggering something scary. Can I talk to you about this? I understand if you chose not to, you might get a lot of requests. Anyways email me back if you are open to some questions.
Sure, you can email me if you wish. I’ll do my best to answer your questions and to allay your fear. Shirley
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Hi Shirley…I live with DID. I was diagnosed about 30 yrs ago. I am nearly 68 yrs old. I am still in therapy, though not with the psychologist who first diagnosed me. I have made tremendous strides with my present therapist. I am so glad you wrote the NAMI article. It was so refreshing to hear some of your story and how you presented DID. It truly isn’t something I tell others unless there is trust and understanding on their part. Thank you, Thank you, Thank you!!!!
No, thank you for reading my stuff! I appreciate it very much. Shirley
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Thank you and best of lucк.
Hi Shirley. Your blog feels like a life-line. Most of us with DID feel so alone because the only person that really knows the story is our therapist. Even my therapist doesn’t feel it’s safe to tell those people in my life. Your work is critical for us — like I said, a lifeline. It really is challenging living in this world with absolutely no one in our lives having a clue out the DID, even adult children. Thank you for all you do to raise awareness. Gracie
Do you have any suggestions for parenting a teen who believes they have DID and clearly doesn’t?
This has become a real problem. Youth believing they have DID when they don’t. Sometimes they pretend other times they sincerely believe it. One thing you can do is to limit her time on social media. YouTube is especially bad because on it are lots of videos of people who don’t have DID. I’m afraid that’s all I can offer. Shirley