Marcela Del Sol to speak at Charlestown about dissociative identity disorder

It was about a woman suffering from dissociative identity disorder, which involves having multiple personalities.

Australian actress Toni Collette starred in the lead role.

This TV series shone a light on a mental illness that, up until then, hadn’t received much attention in mainstream media.

On Saturday, further awareness will be raised about this condition in a barefoot bowls event at Charlestown Bowling Club.

Author Marcela Del Sol, who lives with dissociative identity disorder, will share her experiences and sign copies of her book, Kaleidoscope: My Life’s Multiple Reflections.

Marcela has six different personalities, two of which are male.

She said stigma was an unpleasant and dangerous side effect of her mental health condition, which led her to feel isolated.

“It is so important to stamp out stigma, because it is cruel and isolating,” she said.

Many times she had found herself at a McDonald’s drive-through ordering a meal she didn’t want, just so she could talk to somebody.

Compeer Hunter, which is running the event, is a volunteer program that uses the power of friendship to help people with mental illness to live happier, more satisfying lives.

“Compeer is so important to people like me,” Marcela said.

“The program actually helps to create friendships between people in the community.”

She said Compeer was about “empathy, kindness and inclusion”.

Compeer Hunter co-ordinator Sarah Adams said “mental wellness and inclusion were two things that really need to be spoken about more freely in the community”.

Dissociative identity disorder used to be known as multiple personality disorder.

It is believed to be caused by traumatic events.

People with this condition receive two or more different personalities that take over their body. When their personality changes, they experience memory lapses. 

This can wreak havoc in a person’s life.

Marcela encourages those who live with a mental illness to show their capabilities.

“There are so many talented people in the world who do amazing things and they live with a mental condition, too,” she said.

“We are warriors, we are strong, beautiful, compassionate and creative. We are mothers, fathers, government officials, teachers, doctors, philanthropists, artists. Treat us with respect and pro-active inclusion. We are humans like you.”

The event runs from 11am to 2pm. Details are on the Facebook page, Grass Is Greener: Bowls, BBQ and ‘Kaleidoscope’ Book Launch.

Newcastle country rocker Morgan Evans has posted a photo of himself on Instagram smooching Kelsea Ballerini.

Kelsea is one of the hottest young female stars in the country music business.

Morgan said the photo was taken in Paris a few weeks ago.

“So proud of this one, after the CMT Artist Of The Year awards,” he posted, referring to his sweetheart.

Kelsea was named “breakthrough artist of the year”.

As for Morgan, he’s still working hard to crack the big time in Nashville.

Given it’s cricket season, we thought we’d ponder the etymology of cricket and wicket.

Indeed, we could even ponder why poncy wordsmiths use words like etymology, instead of just spelling out its meaning – which is “the origin of words”.

A learned colleague of ours wondered whether the game was called cricket because the thing you hit was a wicket?

Or, was the thing you hit a wicket because you were playing cricket?

We’re not sure. But our head is in a spin.

Anyhow, we decided to join in. We replied to our colleague that “the thing I hated was when we were playing cricket and the ball missed the wicket and got lost in the thicket”.

Send your observations about the origin of words to topics@theherald.com.au.

Q: Why couldn’t the sesame seed leave the casino? A: It was on a roll.