Renee Ridley
When Columbus author Renée Ridley first opened up about her dissociative identity disorder (DID) diagnosis, a friend encouraged her to write a book about her story. Ridley’s initial response was dismissive.
“Why would I? Nobody wants to hear that. It’s just me,” she says.
But when Ridley reflected on current representations of DID, she decided she wanted to bring more accurate depictions to light.
“The media portrays us so negatively. People with dissociative identity disorders are usually the ‘murderers’ or the ‘psychos.’ Maybe this is a good chance to open up people’s eyes and realize we’re not,” Ridley says.
Once Ridley sat down to write, she finished the first draft in only three weeks. The end result, Times Five, was published on April 8 – a novel that blends fiction and nonfiction as its chapters follow the perspectives of Ridley’s five alternate personalities, who come together to help one of them cope with trauma.
Chapter one
Ridley’s first alternate personality appeared after she experienced a traumatic event at age 7.
“I (was) thinking, ‘I’m going to keep this to myself. People are going to think I’m crazy,’” Ridley says.
With the stigma around DID, and many inaccurate and harmful representations of DID in media, Ridley did not receive her diagnosis until she was nearly 40 years old.
“It’s a lot more common than people realize. They just don’t get diagnosed because they don’t know what’s going on,” Ridley says.
Ridley recalled her therapist recommending Frankie and Alice, a film she believed was more accurate. After watching it, Ridley came to her next appointment in tears.
“That was me. That’s me,” she says.
Renee Ridley
Educating early
When writing Times Five, Ridley wanted to create an accurate and unifying representation of DID so she could give others what Frankie and Alice gave her.
She also drew from more than 20 years of experience working as a school principal for kindergarten through fourth grade, as sharing her story with children became one of her main motivations for writing the novel. She saw first-hand the trauma her students were going through, sometimes even having to watch after children when their parents didn’t pick them up from school.
“That’s very devastating to children, and they don’t know how to deal with it,” Ridley says.
Even after retiring, Ridley still has a passion for helping children like her students. She explained that if children learn about DID through her book or other resources, they can better understand how to deal with trauma going forward.
“If it’s identified early, you don’t have to go through what I did. And that’s the main point I want to get to people,” Ridley says.
Writing in Columbus
So far, her mission has thrived far more than she ever imagined it would. Ridley recently sold out of her first round of books. When asked about the success of Times Five, she laughed.
“This is just blowing up so quickly, I wasn’t ready,” Ridley says.
Even organizations such as the The International Society for the Study of Trauma and Dissociation (ISSTD) have reached out to Ridley saying they would buy her book and add it to their resources page.
The larger Columbus community has helped promote her novel as well. Ridley has held book signings in libraries all over Columbus, as well as social hubs including local coffee shops.
Ridley is particularly excited to be invited to Juneteenth Author BASH (Black Author Spotlight on Heritage) taking place on Sun., June 22. She will have her own table for Times Five, and she can’t wait to talk about it.
After all of the support Ridley has received from the community, she’s giving back in her own way. When she published Times Five, others asked her how to publish their own books. Ridley created Renee Ridley Books, where she edits manuscripts and prepares them for publication, then turns them over to Zip Print & Copy to produce them.
Turning the page
Ridley is thrilled to announce that her next book, Wandering the Dreamscape, is on track to be published by the end of the year. But events for Times Five aren’t over yet – and neither is Ridley’s mission to end the stigma surrounding DID.
Renee Ridley
Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID) is defined by Cleveland Clinic as “a mental health condition where you have two or more separate personalities that control your behavior at different times. The identities are usually caused by living through trauma.”
Ridley wants the public to read her story and start doing the necessary research. For those with DID, she wants them to know they are not alone.
“This is not a bad thing. This can be dealt with, you just have to identify it,” Ridley says.
Mental health resources shared by Ridley:
- An Infinite Mind
- National Alliance on Mental Illness
- Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services and Administration
- 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline
Ellie Keehn is an editorial assistant at CityScene Media Group. Feedback welcome at feedback@cityscenemediagroup.com.
