Changing Perception, From Potential and Capacity, To Our Futures
Dissociative Identities, Talents and Careers
To change the perception of the potential and capacity for success of those living with Dissociative Identities, we are showcasing talents and careers from the community. Sometimes, our only limitations are the belief that we have them. If you have dissociative identities and are asking if there is hope, let us tell you that you have a future; reach out and take it.
Melissa C. Water
Author, Podcaster, Founder of Causes, Mental Health WARRIOR
School years proved to be a dissociative blur with failed grades and cognitive dissonance to return home to. However, through discovering and understanding our life as multiple, the struggles became goalposts to solve achieved and together.
With years of mental health advocacy, three published books, and a podcast, I thought I was equipped with toolsets, but with a new diagnosis in 2019, I found myself at square none. We sought, though, found few resources for our new reality. I found myself in a dark wood, set down my tools, and built up what I envisioned while the light began to grow. While it may feel like I became my own structure, I hold up this space that isn’t a place, craft it, and my future interweaves into the roots.
As the founder of Multiplied By One Org, we build websites, write magazines, host support groups, coordinate members and volunteers, and oversee every department. Now, a symbiotic life is entwined in a community we serve, and that saved us.
Rowan
Social Worker, Artist, Musician, Volunteer
Rowan earned a Master’s degree in Social Work at the beginning of their recovery journey, in the midst of personal trials. They spent a lengthy career helping people with severe and persistent mental illness and addiction to improve their lives. Supervised forensic systems and non-profits and worked within specialty dockets for the court system. Volunteer in several capacities, currently in clinical and non-clinical positions. Fight legislatively for the rights of the LGBTQIA+ community and comprehensive addiction and mental health program funding.
They create meaningful and beautiful art, as well as cartoons and undersea murals. Classically trained in opera and contemporary vocal music, and plays piano and guitar. They support friends who work within the foster care system and their kids.
Zephyr System
Self-Help & Fiction Writer, Survivor Advocate, and occasionally, Woodworker
Our high school teacher said we were a natural writer; one of the few encouraging, validating things ever said to us during those years. Despite many detours over the years, the talent and interest remained. Now, thanks to a DID writer’s group, we’ve discovered that several of us enjoy writing, each with our own voice and perspective.
Among other things, we love validating and encouraging other survivors. We especially like sharing how-to’s for navigating CPTSD and countering stigma by offering candid views of the mindscape of someone with DID. Sometimes, fiction is the best way to make certain points, and as is our tendency, it allows us to be both seen/heard and invisible simultaneously.
Steven Shelton
Memoir of a Mangled Mind: How Concealing My Dissociative Identity Disorder Unleashed Multiple Personalities
A child in trouble. An adult in distress.
And nobody is safe.
And nobody is safe.
When sexual predators target Steve Simmons as a child, his mind fractures into multiple personalities—alters—who give him blackouts as a protective shield.
The abuse ends when he’s fourteen, but two alters begin hijacking his consciousness to live their own lives as a thief and a gay prostitute.
Steve discovers he has multiple personalities but keeps the mental disorder a secret for fear of being institutionalized. That decision grants his doppelgangers free rein to drag him down the paths of crime and debauchery.
To maintain his freedom and reputation, Steve discards his ethical compass in order to conceal his alters’ criminal activities—even after becoming an attorney at one of the world’s premier litigation firms.
This deeply personal memoir lays bare Steve’s childhood sexual assaults and the poor judgment he exercises to hide his mental disorder caused by the trauma.
How will he navigate the road to redemption?