DID How to tell my pastor about my did

[Keen]

considered me unstable and not capable of participating in any capacity in the church community.

That is so horrible! I'm so sorry that happened to you!

 

[whiteraven]

DID isn't a personality disorder. It is listed in the DSM as a Dissociative Disorder, and is understood to be traumagenic in nature. It has the word personality in its name, but it has nothing to do with personality disorders.

Thanks for saying this. I've been wanting to say this on this forum for awhile and just haven't. Makes me crazy when people call it a personality disorder.

 

[Deleted member 8714]

Maybe its safer to just say PTSD, which is more understandable and acceptable to people.

That could be problematic as well. I'm not certain how I'd approach a pastor. Maybe they just don't need to know except that you were abused as a child.

Though to be fair, I disclosed that I was an abuse survivor to a pastor once. That jerk wad of a man declared I couldn't be on the praise and worship team until I was completely healed as God doesn't use anyone but whole people. I left that church and never returned. If it was true that God only used whole people the church would be empty! Please!

I've met some real messed up people who have become pastors and therapists.

 

[EveHarrington]

Thank you for these thoughts everyone. This is good stuff to think about.
I once heard or read something...

PTSD spectrum and dissociative spectrum are separate.....and I think the confusion may lie in the fact that PTSD often involves dissociation.

 

[EveHarrington]

DID isn't a personality disorder. It is listed in the DSM as a Dissociative Disorder, and...

Can you cite your sources?

This flies in the face of pretty much everything I've read.

BPD is NOT a lesser form of ptsd. The criterion for BPD is so different. It's not like one progresses through BPD before PTSD.

 

[EveHarrington]

Hi, I'm new here. I just got diagnosed with DID, I've been diagnosed with PTSD for a few years now.

It l...

I wouldn't tell anyone unless they are in a need to know relationship. That is, a partner or someone like that.

I do not have DID. I have two parts that have made splits of sorts from my "self"....fear and anger. Only two people know about it, my therapist and my boyfriend. My boyfriend knows because he is familiar with inner child work and he has seen both splits many times. I know I couldn't explain this stuff to anyone else.....although my mom can see the splits, she just terms my episodes in a way of knowing that I don't mean what I say.....and return to normal soon enough.

 

[Keen]

If it was true that God only used whole people the church would be empty!

SO TRUE! Everyone has something.

I've met some real messed up people who have become pastors and therapists.

Ditto. Makes you wonder why/how they ended up in the profession.

 

[theshadowoftheliving]

Can you cite your sources?

The DSM, for one, and numerous articles I've read. This site is a good one: http://www.empty-memories.nl/www_1.html. My knowledge is a distillate of numerous academic texts and books, as well as conversations with professionals (I have been in touch with numerous, both as a patient and as a non-patient).

The BPD as part of the dissociative spectrum point is new thinking by progressive therapists and trauma specialists.

But DID isn't a personality disorder, and is thought of as an extreme form of PTSD. That isn't new thinking at all.

 

[EveHarrington]

The DSM, for one, and numerous articles I've read.

But it's an error to put PTSD on the dissociative spectrum.

Dissociation doesn't arise only as a result of trauma.

The dissociative spectrum and the trauma spectrum are overlapping yet separate.

 

[theshadowoftheliving]

But it's an error to put PTSD on the dissociative spectrum.

Not a mistake. PTSD is considered primary structural dissociation. DDNOS / OSDD-1 is secondary structural dissociation and DID is tertiary structural dissociation. My thinking is largely informed by Ellert R. S. Nijenhuis, Kathy Steele, and Onno van der Hart and their collective book, as well as Bessel van der Kolk and Richard Chefetz. I've read and understood plenty of academic texts and dealt with them in professional settings.

I'm not about to get into a diatribe about how PTSD is structural dissociation, as I haven't gotten time, but trust me, it is. Or rather, trust the literature. The Haunted Self is a good read about it.

Resources:

http://books.wwnorton.com/books/The-Haunted-Self/
https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/313183/the-body-keeps-the-score-by-bessel-van-der-kolk/
http://books.wwnorton.com/books/Intensive-Psychotherapy-for-Persistent-Dissociative-Processes/

I'm too busy to argue more, too switchy and exhausted with too much to do, but I'm arguing this, right now, because I'm pretty upset at false information being spread about dissociation and trauma and their links. I'm checking out of this thread and not commenting more, but didn't want @Keen to get false information.

 

[Keen]

Hey everyone, I found the reference that had given me the idea that DID is a more complex form of PTSD, since a lot of people had comments and questions about it. That was basically what the authors wrote, and it was in the book "Coping with trauma-related dissociation" by Boon, Steele, and Van Der Hart.