dissociative identity disorder

Featured blogger Rob Goldenstein

Note: I decided to feature WordPress blogger Rob Goldenstein, who suffers from dissociative identity disorder, because May is the mental health month. As always before I write about somebody, I study their work, whether it’s an artist or an entrepreneur.

Longtime blogger deals with alternates of the dissociate identity disorder to express himself

By Emma Palova

EW Emma’s Writings

Lowell, MI- I do not know Rob Goldenstein personally only from an interview over Skype and from studying his extensive work. Goldenstein mentions that quite often he cannot relate to his own writing, and that it has been written by an alternate.

Few themes keep emerging in Goldenstein’s blogs both on Flicker and on WordPress.

“The alternates describe the blog is an extension of second life,” he said. “I have all these different avatars.”

In his About page, Goldenstein writes about his passion for right of full access to health care for people with mental illness.

“By full access I mean access to all treatment modes regardless the prevailing myth of scarcity,” he stated. “In the About me, I express my intentions as they evolve as I continue to blog.”

Goldenstein has been blogging on Flicker since January 2010, and he has posted some 2,179 photos.

In his Inside Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID) page Goldenstein outlines his goals as to organize what he knows about himself in a single place.

“It is where I can see it while interacting with other people,” he said.

His therapist told Goldenstein that he didn’t get sick in isolation, and that he is not going to get well in isolation.

One of Goldenstein’s goals is to let the alternates like Sara or Peter tell their stories.

“It is the only way that I can think of to set myself free,” he stated. The writing of this blog is only literary to the extent that I bring to it certain literary sensibility acquired from the study of poetry, literature, and film.”

The alternates, according to Goldenstein, use different styles in the way they write, but they share a certain tone of voice.

“That singularity of voice is my true self,” he stated. “I do my best to keep up with the people in my network, but my best is a bit slow now.”

Goldstein is thankful to other bloggers like Andy Weisskoff, LCSW, whose blog, 90 Days to Change, helped to understand the political aspect being a person with dissociative identity disorder.

The little I know about dissociative identity disorder is that it happens as a defensive reaction when overwhelmed, typically starting in childhood under extreme cases of abuse, and then gets triggered when situations in the present seem like dangerous situations in the past.

As far as what the government might do about treating mental illness, I’ve gotten very specific on my blog. The federal agencies that oversee medicare and medicaid dollars could audit Kaiser mental health services to ensure that basic services are being provided.

Kaiser is the largest provider of mental health services in California and so it is a very good place to start holding physicians’ groups accountable for providing the same level of service for people with mental illness as they do for people with other types of illness.

Psychology professor at Cornerstone University Daniel Ehnis said about the mental illness:

“In my opinion, the reason that DID is so misunderstood is that

it is often confused with Bipolar Disorder and Borderline Personality. Others think that

the symptoms can be faked. DID is a creative way to prevent repressed feelings from surfacing.

As a result, this creativity shows up in various ways.”