DID How many parts do you need to have Did?

[SinkorSwim]

My therapist and I agree that I have PTSD and we briefly touched on dissociation. I was wondering if I had DID but didn't come out and directly ask her. She asked me how many parts I had or if I had known about more parts I wasn't telling her about. I know I have little Katie, teenager Katie, and Corey. These parts are stuck at their age when trauma happened. Corey just started to come out recently. They come out mostly in therapy to the point where sometimes I don't remember what was said. Sometimes I have a back seat to the conversation. She does think I dissociate but doesn't think I have DID and then mentioned another therapist that had a client with 27 parts. So if this isn't considered DID then what could I have? Or am I just higher functioning so it can't be considered DID?

 

[Ronin]

Two, as far as I know.

Not about the number of parts as much, as loss of consciousness and the parts having executive control.
She was probably thinking of more fragmented D.I.D. as a poster kid for that disorder, but that or polyfragmented are not critical to *be* D.I.D., just forms of it.

 

[Wendell_R]

I have five parts, Big Wendell, Little Wendell, Thomas, Nathan, and Baby. And there's lots of stuck development for four of them. Big Wendell never loses consciousness, but doesn't know what the others are going to say until they say it. I like your phrase "a back seat tot he conversation." I am very high functioning (high level scientist; community volunteer; involved parent). I've wondered what my diagnosis could be, but in the past year have settled on complex PTSD, with understanding that the trauma has led to my parts. From talking to my therapist, I get the same impression as you have--I'm not so fractured as to be diagnosed as having DID.

 

[whiteraven]

Yeah, I'm thinking 2. I have 21 that I know of, but in the grand scheme of things, it's just a number.

 

[ILoveLife]

It's 2, according to diagnostic criteria - they need to be "independent" (by means possible) identities.

 

[Reflections]

2 distinct states. So you can have 1 alter and yourself. The number of parts isn't what matters, it's that you have parts and have amnesia and a different diagnosis isn't a better explanation. People who dont quite meet DID requirements might be OSDD.

 

[SinkorSwim]

Thank you all for your help! I am glad I asked! This clears everything up a lot!