Author with Multiple Personalities Hopes to Bring About Change

Andera Ryan, a Napavine author, has experienced a life full of challenges.

As a kid, she suffered through extreme child abuse, lacked a stable home, and later fled across the country from an abusive husband determined to kill her and her children.

The struggles she faced in life caused her to create a coping mechanism out of her control, and at age 35, she was diagnosed with multiple personality disorder or dissociative identity disorder. 

Now 61 years old, Ryan has self-published a book that she hopes will give the medical community and education professionals a glimpse into the disease that has shaped her life.

Growing up, Ryan said, she experienced large gaps in her memory. Later, through intensive counseling, she discovered the gaps were pinpointed to her disorder. 

“It was like a total blank,” she said, reflecting on her memory. 

According to Ryan and her fiancé — and business manager — Frank Hinojosa, the blank spaces in memory happened because her alter personalities filled that role to help protect her mind from the abuse she had endured.

“For people to acquire (the disorder), experts say it’s because of severe child abuse and child rape before the age of 5,” Hinojosa said. “That’s because the little child cannot handle what’s going on so another personality develops to protect the primary and then if the abuse continues, another one appears.”

Ryan said her therapist has estimated her to have over 450 alters, or personalities, although many of them do not surface.

Her book, which is written by her alternate personalities, aims to shed light on a disorder that is often times misunderstood. The book, “Child of Innocence,” chronicles her father’s various escapes from mental institutions, a double murder, and fleeing from her abusive husband.

It depicts the shortcomings of the system of social workers, law enforcement and doctors, at a time when information on the disorder was sparse.

“This book shows betrayal after betrayal after betrayal of the system,” she said. “I want to get this book in as many hands as I can, especially doctors, psychologists and colleges, because to me, it’s not just a story; it’s an insight into a world that most people don’t get a chance to see.”

Hinojosa said although Ryan at first did not want to write the book because of the painful memories it dredged up, he said his fiancé overcame the fear to help others. As she allowed her personalities to take over and write the memoir, Ryan said, she learned more about her childhood than ever before. 

In the end, the goal of the memoir is simple: Hinojosa and Ryan hope it will help stop child abuse, and bring awareness to domestic violence.

“That’s what she wants it to be — a message,” Hinojosa said.