I often feel like there are multiple Stormy’s. Each one has her own set of friends and interests that the other friends don’t know much about. There’s my open source personality, my mom personality, my massage school personality, my raise guide dog puppies personality, my ombudsman personality, my ice hockey playing personality, my karate personality, my emergency medical technician personality, … (Although lately the first two have been taking over the others – unfortunately as I like each of them!)
So it’s a good thing that multiple groups of friends and multiple personalities might be good for you. I had heard that having more than six social groups makes you healthier but today I read that having multiple personalities keeps you stress free:
People who report they are more "multiple" suffer less from
stress-related conditions. Say "Judy" has a sporty personality, A, and
an academic personality, B. If A loses a tennis match, A is annoyed,
which results in tensed muscles and a backache. If A was the only
personality Judy had she would be tense all day. But if she goes off to
college, switching to Judy B, her muscles relax because B doesn’t care
about the tennis match. So Judy suffers less than if she was only
personality A.
It looks as if normal multiplicity could prove useful in helping people function in an increasingly complex world.