DID Is dissociative identity disorder real?

[JEKBreatheandBelieve]

What's confusibg for me is that there doesn't seem to be a solid language used. Plus, definitions vary. Then there is the media representation, and the diagnostic representation, and then what it might actually feel like to have it.

There is a book out there called "Coping with Trauma-Related Dissociation". It deals with the varying levels of dissociation that can accompany trauma including dissociative identity disorder. One of the things I liked about this book was the beginning where it is explained that everyone's experience with what DID feels like can be different. This was a huge relief (oddly enough) because what I experienced did not seem to fit into what I had read previously even though my therapist told me people's experiences were different. I did not read more than the first 6 chapters of the book, but that is only because my parts interfered with my ability to focus on reading the rest (I guess "we" weren't ready). It is a confusing journey and I wish you the best on your path.

 

[Powder]

(Venting some anger at the folks for FB's at the moment) Back in WWI "shell shock" wasn't real to the public, only to those forced to deal with it. Remember, even then, they simply shot them for "cowardice."

Everything that is happening is more or less "real" even if no expert is there to weigh in. (Anger vented enough to move on.)

Thank you, @shimmerz I'm humbled by your post. (I'm also not feeling myself and am processing what is surfacing for me, some very young baby unmet needs and massive fatigue with that, along with young childhood depression and hopelessness/abandonment. I don't have words right now, but it means a lot.)

 

[shimmerz]

but it means a lot.)

As does your post @Muse. I so hope that you are feeling better VERY soon. You have made tremendous strides. I just want you to know that someone is noticing.

@HappyJock, there is also a few postings out there on structural dissociation. It speaks about dissociation and how it affects us; how the brain splits off into parts and the differences between structural dissociation and DID. It is really long but I think the first two pages speak to how DID is actually distinguished.

 

[Ellabella44]

Its real

 

[Sideways]

I think that one of the things that confuses a lot of people is that pretty much everyone on the planet can relate to the sense of having "different personalities".

Eg. Jack talks/walks/dresses/thinks/behaves differently, like, completely differently depending on whether he's at work talking to his secretary, at home alone with his wife, having dinner with the in-laws, helping out at a motor vehicle accident that occurred just up the road. That's not just helpful, it's totally normal. Home-with-wife Jack would get fired if he didn't switch into Workplace-Jack and would be useless at the scene of an accident if he didn't switch into emergency-Jack. Soooo normal. Soooo not the same as DID.

When of the big tell-tale signs is your memory. If Workplace-Jack only has memories of those times he's been at work, and Home-with-Wife Jack can remember the whole of his relationship, but no idea what goes on at work, that's a sign that the personality states are dissociative, rather than normal adaptive behaviour.

Small sign. But a big big difference.

 

[mytai]

It's very much real, and quite harmful to those of us that have it and seek treatment for it and are shot down because of personal beliefs. I've been officially diagnosed by a psychiatrist for years... since 2012 I think. It can be hard to find professionals who believe in it, even more so difficult to get an accurate diagnosis. Most people spend upwards of 7 years in the mental health system before being diagnosed with DID. And there are conflicting views on how to help treat DID.

 

[theshadowoftheliving]

@mytai so good to see you again! I've been worried about you. I hope things are well.

I agree with what you post here ... I'm constantly frustrated by the amount of one I've been in Psychiatric care (now six years total) and it's finally being discussed that I might have a dissociatice disorder. How much progress could I have made if anyone had considered this before?

 

[mytai]

@theshadowoftheliving yeah I kind of fell of the face of the earth for a while.

It's true once you have a diagnosis you can start seeking for the right kind of help. I was lucky in the sense that I found a therapist that had the experience and knowledge of it (I didn't know that about her) even though I hid that diagnosis from her for years. It had been the reason I was dumped by other therapists because just hearing the diagnosis overwhelmed them. My therapist "knew" long before I told her about the DID, she brought it up in our first year of therapy and I shut it down and she let it go for a while, and then gently brought it up again and I shut it down and she backed off of the topic. She let me reveal it in my own time, which is what helped. It gave me and the others time to witness her process, if we could trust her with something this important and it turns out we could. She is amazing with all of us that front. The main part (for forum purposes we will call her mytai) has been completely gone since July last year.

 

[theshadowoftheliving]

@mytai I'm so glad that you have an amazing therapist. I've also had a lot of therapists drop me for not being well enough, and I'm lucky that I'm finally with someone who seems to know and trust me that I'm not completely exaggerating - although, in a way, it was more comfortable to be with therapists that disavowed my different parts (like I do). Not helpful, but definitley a mimic of my desire to "just stop being crazy" by trying harder.

 

[JEKBreatheandBelieve]

Not helpful, but definitley a mimic of my desire to "just stop being crazy" by trying harder.

I really like the way you stated that- it's so true "desire to "just stop being crazy" by trying harder". It's how I feel sometimes. I am very lucky to have had a very supportive and helpful therapist from the start of my unraveling this- she won't let me "get away" with saying that but she does accept that I will feel like that.

 

[Powder]

In Pierre Janet's and his followers definition of Structural Dissociation, DID is nothing more than the most severe form of PTSD on a continuum.

On days when I wonder if I have it, I console myself with this, somehow. I say "it's just really bad PTSD."

 

[theshadowoftheliving]

@Muse. Thank you for that.

I think my own confusion comes from the terms Structural Dissociation and Dissociative Identity Disorder. The latter is spoken like a dirty word, and the former just seems like PTSD. BUT, aren't they actually the same? How do I tell the difference?