United States of Tara is about a married mother who has multiple personalities. She has three alters: T, Buck, and Alice. (And yes, Buck is a dude — a redneck dude, at that.) T is a fifteen-year-old, Buck, as I said, is a redneck, and Alice is a fifties homemaker with attitude. I watched three episodes over at Sandy’s and her sister Mary’s (it’s on Showtime so I’d never see it otherwise), and it quickly became apparent that Tara’s alters come out to handle certain situations in her life that she thinks she can’t handle.
Whether you believe in multiple personality disorder (my mom doesn’t), I think that we all use different “personalities” to get us through the day.
Sounds crazy, right? Let me explain, before you call the men in the white coats.
I sometimes get really shy in new situations. I don’t really talk much unless someone speaks to me first. So I’ll “invoke” someone I know who is outgoing and pretend I’m as outgoing as they are so that I can strike up a conversation. Obviously, I know I’m still me, but I take the quality that I really like and need at the moment and put it on like a tee shirt. It’s actually helped me a lot; I’m not as shy as I used to, though I still have my shy moments.
Does anyone else do this, or am I truly crazy? 
multiple personality disorder is an actual thing! people who have the disorder show different brainwave patterns and also different activations during fmri’s. believe it, baby. anyway, what you said you do is totally common! it’s like when people have ‘stage’ personas, like beyonce’s sasha fierce and all that. and i totally do it, too. so you’re not crazy. or we’re both crazy in the exact same way.
It’s entirely possible that we’re both crazy in the same way.
I do believe in multiple personality disorder. It drives me crazy when some people call it schizophrenia — I’m looking at you, Stephen King! — but I do believe that some people have it. My mom’s a psych tech, so it amuses me that she doesn’t believe in MPD. She says there’s no concrete proof, and I can see how some people could fake it, therefore mucking up statistics and stuff.
“United States of Tara” is great, just like mostly everything written by Diablo Cody (coz Jennifer’s Body wasn’t THAT good…) and multiple personality disorder is an actual, real thing. It can be diagnosed…but I wonder whether it can be faked? Anyway, the trick that you do when you get shy is actually sth that many therapists advice to do (so I’ve heard. Because mine didn’t. hah) and you’re not crazy
I had this really silly book once (but it claimed to be worlwide bestseller) about how to be more confident and they suggested doing something almost exactly like what you do 
I tried this. It didn’t work for me, though 
So I’ve been subconsciously using a therapist’s trick? Hmn, I’m not sure how cool I am with that…
I’ve found that the more often I do it, the better it works. Hell, I did it tonight, at a professionals’ networking meetup. At first I didn’t think I’d be able to talk to anyone, but I did strike up one conversation on my own (the rest were initiated by my aunt/business partner). You should try it again and do it a little more often, and see if it starts working.
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