DID Can did be provoked by suggestion?

[Ronin]

No, & my offense would be my problem had it occured, so no worries :D.

I'm more concerned about therapists & wrong info not misleading about conditions.

Basically, you've lived through trauma already - its effects known or unknown, you've gotten through the worst (the trauma when it happened), realizing the complexness of it won't break you, there's more to gain than lose IMHO. Not saying it will be an easy journey but hey, getting things together never is.

 

[theshadowoftheliving]

I'm relieved that you aren't mad. (I hate making people mad).

I'm more concerned about therapists & wrong info not misleading about conditions.

This is hard. I don't think my therapist is misleading me at all, if that is what you mean .... she acknowledges that I'm struggling with dissociation, but won't term it anything other than "dissociative processes".

This idea of a dissociative disorder is completely on me.

 

[Sideways]

I'm pretty sure admin posted an article in the Research forum just a couple of days ago about this exact topic.

Heads up: anyone kind of hoping that it is just an overactive imagination being manipulated by a suggestive T, you're going to be disappointed!

 

[Ronin]

This idea of a dissociative disorder is completely on me.

Ah so :) Thanks for clarifying what was the exact phrasing of the therapist, & what you've taken from it, and where you're moving in terms of figuring things out. It definitely helps to see what was it that was said, and what's your search through.

 

[theshadowoftheliving]

Self-diagnosis is a hard thing, and I know that we resist it on this forum. So, I don't know what is happening with me. Not officially. And I know that.

But, I just hope that my experiences aren't discounted just because I don't have an official diagnosis to corroborate them. I really worry about that - my experiences with PTSD and its symptoms were always discounted by past therapists (because I'm so functional, it can't possibly fit the stereotype) until a little over a year ago when I finally was diagnosed. Then, several other clinicians in other places over the last year have independently diagnosed me with PTSD. And looking back, the signs were so obvious, but no one would accept them.

This has happened with other physical and mental concerns, too.

Sidetrack, my apologies. I just worry that by saying I don't have a diagnosis, others will immediately discount all my experiences.

 

[DharmaGirl]

I also have parts. I was terribly afraid of having DID, because I didn't want to believe it existed. My therapist told me that in therapy, when we talked about different things, my voice changed, my demeanor changed, my body language changed. It changed consistently when we talked about different things. Like when I talked about abuse as a 4 yo, I would suck my thumb and talk like one. I was horrified since I had no idea. He said DID is very rare, and he knows I was afraid of having it, but I didn't have it since I was aware of my parts. Actually only the 4 yo. He said I was high on the dissociative spectrum, but I didn't have DID.

What's really weird is that when my brother came to live with me, he would tell me I wasn't acting like myself sometimes. I missed a lot of time when he was here. Anyway, what I'm trying to say is that your experience is real to you. You have parts, and you may or may not have DID. I have a diagnosed dissociative disorder that is not DID, close but no cigar.

 

[theshadowoftheliving]

Anyway, what I'm trying to say is that your experience is real to you. You have parts, and you may or may not have DID.

And I know this ... trying to just let it be whatever it is. Definition doesn't change my experience. It is what it is.

Definition does, however, change treatment, and that is where things get tricky and slippery. I guess I'm trying to define things because I'm sick of being treated for the wrong thing. I'm sick of every therapist making a different diagnosis (depression, anxiety, eating disorder, ADHD, Borderline, really, anything they can dream up) and having it feel like it doesn't fit. i'm just tired of feeling like I can't solve whatever it is that is happening because I keep running around the problem instead of dealing with it directly (how does one deal with it directly if they don't know what it is that they are dealing with?).

 

[BlueOrange]

Dissociation is normal. Every healthy person does it from time to time. Having 'parts' is normal, this is where the concept of 'facets of personality' comes from. People tend to think differently and behave differently at the workplace and in the bedroom (for instance).

You have a dissociative-type disorder if your parts are frightened of each other and/or refuse to share information with each other. You have DID if you have multiple parts that are able to operate in society that also refuse to cooperate with each other.

Using that framework, I can answer the question. Can suggestion be used to identify parts that were already there (uncovering them)? Yes it can, by increasing a person's wilingness to perceive those parts. Can suggestion be used to make new parts? Yes it can, by stating or implying that a part should exist, and by getting a cooperative response from the person. Can suggestion be used to create a case of DID that wasn't there before? Yes it can, by communicating that the parts being identified are frightening/evil/hostile/dangerous.

This answer leads to my advice: It is not dangerous to have parts, to identify parts, or even to manufacture parts. It is dangerous to turn someone against themselves. It seems likely that the therapist thinks that you have parts that should be identified and encouraged to communicate with each other. So long as you feel safe, and your ability to function improves, then it doesn't really matter whether your therapist is right before the fact (because the parts are already there) or after the fact (because the parts are manufactured in response to the therapist).

 

[rainy_daze]

Are you able to find a different T that can treat you long term, or have someone lined up for when your current T leaves, @theshadowoftheliving?

Do you believe that the person helping you recover from your trauma or traumas needs to label you in order for their treatment to be effective?

You've said you're sick of being misdiagnosed and think you're not facing it head on. I would argue that if you can find a good enough therapist, who may at some point give you the dissociative label or not, then you will be able to face your whole life better. [It is not as simple as this, but in my experience I needed a decent therapist to get the ball rolling on actually FACING my trauma, and not simply deflecting at sessions by obsessing about the diagnoses or who was pissing me off the most that month. My stuff there, not yours shadow.]

I do not intend to come across as ignorant of DID or whatever you are going through [I'm actually a little scared by how many of these posts sounded like me], I'm trying to help calm your thoughts so you can engage with a therapist. How different is treatment if the diagnosis is DID versus a dissociative disorder versus the disgusting rainbow of shit caused by trauma? [That is a question you might be able to answer as you have said you have done a lot of research. What kind of treatment do you want? I think my T followed a treatment plan for complex trauma/CPTSD, for example, but it wasn't only the therapy that has helped me start to heal. I also did not get to choose my treatment plan, I trusted my T knew what she was doing, eventually. And my dissociation was at high levels during sessions. And it did frighten me, and sometimes it still does, but dissociation protects you @theshadowoftheliving even if it causes huge issues in your life]

As always, take anything that might be useful in this post and ignore the rest. I wish you recovery from this problem you are trying to solve very soon.

 

[theshadowoftheliving]

So long as you feel safe, and your ability to function improves, then it doesn't really matter whether your therapist is right before the fact (because the parts are already there) or after the fact (because the parts are manufactured in response to the therapist).

And, even though this talk about parts is scary, I do feel like, in a strange way, identifying them does help. Like .... sleeping is always hard. And it's scary to have these flashes of a small girl where I should be, and it's scary to have images of another woman reaching out to rub her back and comfort her (even though I also know that it is my body making the movements), but then somehow I settle quicker and sleep better. Past therapists who disowned the idea of parts and just had me trying to breathe, etc instead. So, I know that I need to let go of these ideas of diagnosis in favor of just doing whatever it takes to be more functional.

Are you able to find a different T that can treat you long term, or have someone lined up for when your current T leaves

Still working on this one. It's always such a long and painful process to find a new therapist. But, I am working on it. And I can stay with my current therapist through the summer, so I have a little bit of time. (not to imply that I'm being complacent about this process .....)

I'm trying to help calm your thoughts so you can engage with a therapist. How different is treatment if the diagnosis is DID versus a dissociative disorder versus the disgusting rainbow of shit caused by trauma?

I actually haven't brought up diagnosis at all with my therapist, which is why everyone here is bearing the brunt of my panic. I've been trying really hard to use my sessions to engage, not to worry about these things.

I think the pressure I feel is less about the current treatment I'm receiving and more about the fact that I have to find (yet another) new therapist. I just want to make sure that the new therapist doesn't spend (another) six months with me fighting conventional treatments (CBT and DBT stuff .... which I've tried. and tried. and tried. and it just doesn't work) before a lightbulb goes on in their head and they realize that, just because I'm functional on the surface, doesn't mean that anything underneath the surface is functioning at all.

 

[Justmehere]

I have strong dissociative symptoms and while I don't have DID, I do have dissociated ego states, and a "fractured" personality. My "parts" are not separate full personalities and yet not also fully integrated.

I went to a therapist years ago, who was a trauma expert and really focused on DID. She had just opened up a new practice in my town, and my old therapist don't know what to do to help me with the PTSD symptoms. So she sent me to this trauma expert. We later found out she was terribly unethical.

This one expert thought I had DID at the time. She asked me to give my parts a name. Like to give my angry feelings a name... She not only suggested it, she implored that I do this. She even said if I couldn't get in touch with my parts I would need to be hospitalized to do the work. I was so freaked out and I tried to do what she wanted. My family and others were pressuring me to see her or else... I tried to do what she wanted. I was young and very confused. She asked if they were big or little and what my angry feelings liked to do and etc. she wanted the all the info on the full dissociated personality. She was convinced I had DID.

She did all she could to talk me into it.

Didn't work.

She even wanted to do hypnosis (ericksonian relaxation) to help my DID parts surface.

Didn't work.

Because I didn't have DID.

So even in the hands of an unethical therapist, she couldn't suggest my dissociated self into having DID even when she pushed and pushed for it to happen.

And no one suggested me into having the dissocitative symptoms and fragmented parts now, and no one could suggest me into further development of full DID.

If that was possible, the all the attempts to suggest me out of it would have worked too.


(Btw, what your therapist is doing sounds very reasonable and different.)

 

[BlueOrange]

I think the pressure I feel is less about the current treatment I'm receiving and more about the fact that I have to find (yet another) new therapist. I just want to make sure that the new therapist doesn't spend (another) six months with me fighting conventional treatments (CBT and DBT stuff .... which I've tried. and tried. and tried. and it just doesn't work) before a lightbulb goes on in their head and they realize that, just because I'm functional on the surface, doesn't mean that anything underneath the surface is functioning at all.

Ouch.

It would seem desirable to have the current therapist talk to the new therapist, to at least shorten that process. Or perhaps you can get a letter from the current therapist describing what their strategy is, and talk to the new therapist about the letter? It definitely seems worthwhile to talk to the current therapist about this concern and see what they can do to help.