Taking the reader through an extraordinary world where the very nature of reality is different, this personal narrative tells the story of one woman’s terrifying battle to understand her own mind. From the desperate struggle to win back the child she loves to the courage and commitment needed to make sense of her life, this account recalls Kim Noble's many years in and out of mental institutions and various diagnoses until finally being appropriately diagnosed with dissociative identity disorder (DID). Described as a creative way some minds cope with unbearable pain, DID causes Kim's body to play host to more than 20 different personalities—from a little boy who speaks only Latin and an elective mute to a gay man and an anorexic teenager. Sometimes funny and ultimately uplifting, this brave illumination of the links and intersections between memory, mental illness, and creativity offers a glimpse into the mind of someone with DID and helps readers understand the confusion, frustration, and everyday difficulties in living with this disorder. If two’s company and three’s a crowd, what’s a hundred? Mayhem. In her astonishingly understated biography of life with dissociative identity disorder (DID), Noble tells a few of the more than 100 stories of her life. Born south of London to working-class parents who could not afford proper child care, Kim was left with unfit caregivers who repeatedly and brutally abused her. She gained a reputation as a chronic liar and a discipline problem of the first order. For Kim, life was a dizzying wheel of inexplicable mysteries as personalities would waltz into and out of her interior life, each making his or her own changes and keeping them a secret from the others. Even the child Kim had was news to other personalities years after her birth. Perhaps most surprising of all is that Kim (who prefers to be known as Patricia, the currently dominant personality) lives a normal life with her 14-year-old daughter. This is the best multiple-personality biography in a long time. --Donna Chavez "Though I cannot even begin to imagine horrors Kim faced as a child, I am struck that neither the abuse nor its devastating consequences have destroyed this woman's spirit, humor, or capacity to love. [S]he is one terrible, exquisite, and beautiful work of art."  — Independent "[A] fascinating, moving, and frequently funny life story; we couldn't put it down."  —Sheerluxe.com "Kim Noble is the . . . gold standard for the extreme end of dissociative identity disorder."  —John Morton, fellow of the Royal Society and professor at the Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience at the University of London “A remarkable portrait of a fractured world slowly pieced together by a tenacious set of people.”  — Publishers Weekly “[A] powerful memoir . . . deeply moving.”  — Kirkus Reviews "This is the best multiple personality biography in a long time."  — Booklist Kim Noble is an artist whose work has been exhibited around the world. She appeared on the Oprah Winfrey Show in October 2010 to discuss the disorder. All of Me How I Learned to Live with the Many Personalities Sharing My Body By Kim Noble Chicago Review Press Incorporated Copyright © 2012 Kim Noble All rights reserved. ISBN: 978-1-61374-470-3 Contents Acknowledgements, Prologue: Shattered, PART ONE, 1 This is crazy!, 2 It wasn't me, 3 Where am I now?, 4 My pilot light is going out, 5 There's no helping you, 6 You're in the system now, 7 Lights out!, 8 What's it got to do with me?, 9 The elves and the shoemaker, 10 Can you fix it?, 11 I'm not one of them, 12 You've got ink all round your mouth, 13 My own place, 14 The psychotic shuffle, 15 It's a crime scene now, 16 Please help me, 17 This is Aimee, PART TWO, 18 Pandora's box, 19 That's not Skye, 20 Where did they all come from?, 21 I am not Kim Noble, Epilogue: Action!, Useful Resources, The Artwork in All of Me, About the Author, CHAPTER 1 This is crazy! Chicago, September 2010. I never imagined the day I would find myself sitting in a television studio on the other side of the Atlantic. I certainly never expected to be invited by the most powerful woman in world media, Oprah Winfrey, to appear during the final season of the planet's leading chat show. But here I am and, as I take my seat facing Oprah's chair, I can barely contain my nerves. The most-watched programme in America is about to be filmed and I am that episode's star guest. And yet, as soon as Oprah sits down opposite, my inhibitions disappear. Oprah's studio audience is here to see her. I don't kid myself that I'm the draw. The hundreds of people packing the auditorium reserved their tickets a year ago, months before I was even booked to appear. But the reason they love Oprah is she asks the questions that the normal American man and woman want to ask. I watch her lean in, gather her thoughts and build up to asking the Big One. 'Do you remember what happened