Answering The Dissociative Experiences Scale

[sun seeker]

I argue with multiple choice tests all the time. Well, not always. But when I do, I know things are going to get interesting.

:D That made me smile, which I really needed. I'm imagining a multiple-choice test set up for you:
Do you:
a) argue with multiple-choice tests all the time
b) argue with multiple-choice tests some of the time
c) want to crumple up the test and throw it against the wall
d) actually crumple up the test and throw it against the wall
e) all of the above

I had to fill out some paperwork today, managed it after much head scratching but don't know whether to be:
a) disgusted
b) worried
c) somewhat proud
d) all of the above
of the fact that my life hardly ever fits neatly in any bureaucracy's tidy little boxes.

 

[Sandstone]

If you have amnesia about something, by definition you don't know about it so you don't know that you don't know, unless someone tells you, and if this has to do with any kind of abuse, how often does that happen?

Or, like me you believe you don't have amnesia about it because you know you were (abused/assaulted/raped).So it is only when a T asks you to recount the details that you try and realise they aren't there.

The I try to quantify all this stuff, the crazier I feel. I'm off to watch cat videos

 

[ghotiff]

Sometimes it helps me to think of someone I know who is an emotional personality type and not terribly intelligent and try to anwser how they would anwser (if they were me).

There is something about removing myself from the questions that seems to help.

 

[shimmerz]

Or is it not knowing you have a pain - in which case how would you know you are ignoring it?

This is so very true. Up until December, I wouldn't know pain if it hit me in the face. I didn't even realize until after I took this test that pain was something that I didn't feel. lol. It honestly took me forever to fill this in and the stress of it was unbelievable. I can see how working with data would have you get messed up about it. I am a data chick as well, so took my answers very seriously. I tried to do this test a month or so ago, as I am no longer feeling dissociative and wanted to take a measurement and I still have no idea how to answer it! lol.

I say, do the best you can in answering. Last month when I took it, I actually circled a percentage that related to how 'concerned' I was about the behaviours. So for instance, the one about not recognizing people....well that concerned me a bunch so I gave it a high rating. I only know it to have happened a few times BUT I don't remember people, their names, where I met them etc, so I kind of took the whole spectrum of the experience into consideration. Not sure if that helps, but thought I would throw that out there.

 

[Ocean5]

Uh...so if for education or health.I don''t support these test. I scored "far" below my classmates in standardized test, yet had MUCH higher grades at top university. They got all the scholarship money - Yet I was the "honor student" supporting myself.

My psychiatrist prefers to talk about things on a "range" than "specific." I think that's a better way to view things. Everyone dissociates at some level and degrees. Range is more logical way to view things... Focus on yourself, and improving yourself.. It's the only thing matters in end.

 

[Powder]

I was given this, or a version of this, test with the same questions.

Compared to other tests of this nature, this one is perplexing. I couldn't understand how to put a % on my time that way. I am not one to put percentages to my perceptions. I studied English.

Ask me to select a metaphor for each symptom cluster from a list, and I could understand that test! :)

@stenni You who have done data analysis also see how arbitrary the percentages are in light of the descriptors. I didn't think the descriptors were well understood, much less well written. Describing life on Mars might make more sense.

 

[amy4k]

And then there are the ones that seem to me to describe normality - looking in the mirror and not recognising oneself - my healthy husband commented on this yesterday. It's just part of getting older - who is this grey haired saggy person?

Not recognising people seems pretty normal to me. I've always been bad at recognising people out of context. The lady from the corner shop is called Bess when I see her there. But if I meet her at the theatre, she is just a face I think I ought to know. But I'd answer 0% for that because it's normal.

I used to think that other people heard voices and carried on conversations in their heads, and that was normal. I blamed my "forgetfulness" and losing things on my kids. Getting to the diagnosis took weeks of discussions and interviews because I had to learn what was normal and what wasn't and the T had to dig deeper and question certain responses I gave to fully understand what was going on. As someone who has dissociated almost my entire life, what seemed normal to me really wasn't "normal" in the general public. I've had PTSD so long that being hypervigilant and an active startle response was normal to me too.

I've heard some people just taking the questionnaire in to a T session and discussing the questions and answers with their T. That seems like a much better approach to use.

 

[Sandstone]

How can you NOT take it literally?

I think what she meant was that there was no question that said " Do you find pieces of furniture inexplicably moved? Or the cheese in the cutlery drawer? Or sooty finger prints high on the wall? " so I didn't respond to anything that roughly related to them. Just as I didn't to "Some people find that when they are watching television or a movie they become so absorbed in the story that they are unaware of other events happening around them" because that only happens with books, and in fact doesn't happen since the onset of PTSD as my concentration is shot.

I used to think that other people heard voices and carried on conversations in their heads

Well I don't hear voices, but I have a constant conversation / commentary in my head. I would assume that is because I grew up almost totally isolated so there was no-one else to communicate with.

It does seem to me that it would be more sensible to ask me "How dissociative are you?", and I'd say I was quite a bit more than I used to be , because it is a much safer defence for me than taking too many pills and much less painful than living with my fully present self. Yet I know there is only one of me, I don't lose time. I do have some derealisation and a bit of depersonalisation"

 

[Sammyiam]

had to take the test a while ago ( not sure how long maybe a couple of months ago ) and scribbled out the answers so many times it looked such a mess by the time I had finished. I just couldn't decide the answer to each question.

 

[Ocean5]

5. Some people have the experience of finding new things among their belongings that they do not remember buying,

I would have answered never, but I've come home to find things seriously out of place to the point I thought someone had been in my apartment. Yet nothing missing. I even set-up motion sensor camera to record apartment door when I left... LOL Yes now I can laugh about it since it makes since.

Instead of a "standardized test" they should ask things like, "have you had any experiences in past few years that didn't make since, or you couldn't figure out? Describe them."

 

[WhisperingUnicorn]

After all the above, I ended up taking the test after all. I still echo all the above multiple choice frustrations, but I think the results were interestingly indicative ..

As a point of possible interest, I scored a 31 out of 100 and though I'm reasonably SURE I'm not at all DID, I know I have high empathy for dissociation .. so much so, um, I didn't even remember this thread or the fact that I "liked" past posts above or my own reply, here! (say whaaaa?)

*shrug* Not sure that means anything but it's sure eeeeenteresting!

~S2B