DID What's so bad about did??

[joeylittle]

TBI is sometimes a difficult crossover issue, between neuro issues and what we’d class as mental health. The ways it can affect mental health are known, but not fully understood (from a treatment perspective).

The main point I’m reading is that it’s ultimately better to do ones best to seek the treatment protocol/team that is most likely to successfully address the symptoms. That can be a frustrating search.

Mental health is a much less precise field of medicine so the diagnosis - treatment - cure thing isn’t as clear cut, but looking for treatment for PTSD when I have an anxiety disorder won’t make things better.

Yep.

Some musings:
It’s a slippery slope - when we are sick and looking for answers, everything is a possible symptom.

I think ALL mental health symptoms could be described as being ‘normal’ cognition/neuro function manifesting to a degree that creates dysfunction.

To use anxiety: Do all human brains have the capacity to become anxious? Yes. A certain amount of anxiety is something we’d consider to be within norms.

Absolutely no ability to experience anxiety, or the proclivity to experience too much/debilitating anxiety - the presence of either of those would indicate a dysfunction - a symptom.

One person might be experiencing anxiety and believe it to be debilitating...but does their belief make it so? Right now, psychology says “not quite” - there are definitions of what is or is not inside the normal parameters.

And - the medical understanding of those definitions evolve.

Take all of that, and apply it to DID.

“Personality” is a concept that has an awful lot of intricacy to it, and a lot of theory and hypothesis. It’s one of the most interesting aspects of human development, IMO. Truly fascinating stuff.

Sometimes, I observe that people benefit from examining their psychology in terms of personality - persona - how they react differently with different stimuli. It’s all to the same end - relief, better functioning, a healthier self.

And sometimes, I observe people becoming mired down by examining their personas. It looks like it takes them off track, somehow. There are different manifestations of (and motivations for) this, I’m sure.

If someone is already prone to a dysfunction in their attachment style, and has traits that tilt towards the potential for a dysfunctioned personality (I’m being very careful with my wording, because this is all speculative stuff) - then, it’s easy to understand how an individual could manufacture DID-type behaviors.

The case of Sybil Pearson will always be the clearest example of how easy it can be for the wrong element in a patient’s history to be pathologized, and the more likely source of the dysfunction to be skipped over.

I’ve no doubt that DID is a real thing. I’ve also got great hope that the scientific community’s understanding of ALL things mental health will continue to grow.

While that’s happening, we educate ourselves, and we exchange ideas, and do the basic thing that I think is always useful: we challenge our thinking, and the thinking of others.

Just thoughts.

 

[joeylittle]

This post to @anthony might get me banned and that is not my wish but some things have been said here and I feel to be true to myself, I need to address it.

Anthony can address your points. I’d just like to say that we don’t ban anyone for challenging ideas.

We ban people for repetitive disruption, a large amount of which is never seen by the majority of users.

So, I understand where the perception that people are banned for disagreeing with the founder comes from; but truly, that’s not how it goes down.

No further discussion on that topic in-thread, please; if you or anyone has questions, open a help ticket and I’ll be happy to address them.

 

[UnKnown-Self]

Anthony can address your points. I’d just like to say that we don’t ban anyone for challenging

Fair enough @joeylittle
I'll edit that out. I don't want what I said to become about banning. That was my fear talking.

 

[Suzetig]

I don't think a therapist has the authority to make a diagnosis.

It very much depends on where you are, in the U.K. I’d agree - psychiatrists are the only people qualified to make a diagnosis - even psychologists (who are trained to doctorate level) will talk about formulation rather than diagnosis however in other parts of the world psychotherapists are also trained in diagnostics.

Psychology and mental health remains a new science, and therapists can hold significant sway over their clients - hence ethical codes which take issues of therapists fostering dependency very seriously. The psyche is very suggestible and actual DID is a very rare thing, clinically considered to occur following very early childhood trauma (eg pre formation of personality at around age 7) - inner child work and parts work can be helpful in supporting someone to understand different aspects of their personality and therapies which seek to help that understanding have, in my experience, resulted in people assuming a condition they don’t necessarily have.

I’m not at all dismissive of DID, but would argue it doesn’t occur commonly and many people who present as such have been poorly served by therapists who enjoy the professional status that can come with treating a complex diagnosis. It’s one of the many reasons I think diagnosis has limited space in therapy and in mental health care.

That’s not being dismissive of another’s experience but acknowledges the limits of our knowledge. There is evidence to suggest anti-depressants increase depressive symptoms, there’s evidence to suggest CBT isn’t the panacea that it was first purported to be. Both have their uses, of course they do, but not maybe to the extent that has been relied on by many patients.

Simply put, it’s complex and research shows new and conflicting evidence all the time - getting defensive about it doesn’t help anyone.

 

[UnKnown-Self]

getting defensive about it doesn’t help anyone

And so it begins...

 

[Suzetig]

And so what begins?

 

[UnKnown-Self]

What begins is the digs, like the line I quoted from your post @Suzetig

I feel I'm trying to be honest and speak what I feel to be true... You decide it's defensive and not helping anyone...

Really? How do you know what I am feeling or anyone else but yourself?
I'm not being defensive. What I'm not doing by My perspective and I can say for sure what that is... Is not being a coward.

You can judge... you have that that right. But that doesn't make it my truth.

 

[TruthSeeker]

@UnKnown-Self said "Picking out one line and turning it into a "let's make sure she knows she's not smart enough to voice here"
I certainly hope no one reading your words decides to go cold turkey off their meds. The need to be right at the expense of others is growing on this forum while tolerance or a simple courteous, "can you explain what you meant?" is disappearing."

I agree with this. Honestly, I believe that in life there is no gain in having to be right (unless you are balancing your checkbook, calculating taxes owed, paying bills, or taking an important test, etc.), but there is greater gain in being respected and admired when having an opinion about something and declaring it and it comes across in...a helpful perspective. This forum took on a righteous tone at times....a real turn off for me anyway. Public forum or not, it is more helpful to be considerate in posting.

 

[anthony]

I don't think a therapist has the authority to make a diagnosis.

A therapist is typically a Ph.D psychologist. Anyone referring to themselves as a trauma therapist, certainly should be at a minimum.

How can you be well versed on a topic we know so little about? Psychology is in its infancy. What is "known" by "experts" today in 20 years will look as ridiculous as Freud and the various envies he spouted.

You're talking about two different things, and even twisting them to suit your narrative. Past and future are vastly different periods of time, than the present. We learn from our past, we can not predict what the future will bring. Your statement about what experts know today being rediculous in 20 years, you do not know that. What we know today about certain things may be accurate. Inaccurate in other areas. Things Freud discovered in the past, are now the very foundations of present day treatments and understanding.

I have had "parts" ever since I can remember and many of them are children. I know they are not separate "identities" but they are the reason I survived.

Every person on the face of the planet has parts. We all have many many aspects to our personalities. You have admitted they are not identities. You know the difference. Many do not. Many are led and then agree with such approaches to change normal parts of our personality, into identities and slap a mental health diagnosis upon it. Very different things.

There is too much normal being mixed with abnormal, in diagnosis. Many experts state this surrounding the DSM controversies. It keeps getting thicker because doctors keep trying to add normal to what is reserved as abnormal, for diagnosis. Normal is physical health is no health problems. When you get a sore, blister, something, it is your body saying something is wrong. These are minor and insignificant aspects and do not require diagnosis in order to treat. We get some antiseptic cream or such, apply, all good again. There are extremes of both of these those, just Google some cases. That is where a diagnosis is applied in physical health. The abnormal that requires medical intervention.

but it's my America and it rubs me the wrong

Not my fault you personalise others opinion of your country. America has a lot of problems and is not looked well upon by the majority of the world. Just a fact. The world is much bigger than America. An insignificant spec that is part of a much larger population. Just like Australia, UK, Japan, so forth, as individual countries.

A community is not one person but a sum of all it's parts.

Again, you took a snippet of the something and took it out of its context: "I own a mental health community and have built it to the largest in the world for its field. That didn't happen by drinking the cool aid and following along the politically correct movements that happen, which are total bullshit the majority of the time, with little to no substance for validity" and attempted to turn it from what it was intended, to something else entirely, personalising it.

The point is? The very personalisation you added, I have said since the communities inception. None of that changes that I own it or have built it. You have no idea, considering you registered in 2015, I started this in 2005. There is 10 years of foundational work prior to you ever getting here, about eight of which I did near full-time building this place. Members and staff have always made the community. They do not own it or manage it at this level. Different levels of user and management.

You are still personalising responses that have nothing to do with my response you have gone to town with, which was all wrapped around DID discussion.

Considering the influence you have on this forum I found this a very irresponsible thing to say. While all words have power, in this community your words carry more weight than the average poster. If you've never had to detox off antidepressants, maybe a disclaimer is a good idea. I'm not debating the validity of antidepressants. You are far too intelligent in the ways of syntax and too well read. I know you can and probably will tear me to shreds. Picking out one line and turning it into a "let's make sure she knows she's not smart enough to voice here"
I certainly hope no one reading your words decides to go cold turkey off their meds.
The need to be right at the expense of others is growing on this forum while tolerance or a simple courteous, "can you explain what you meant?" is disappearing. I'm hoping it's just growing pains and something that will phase out as the ship regains balance. I guess that depends on your lead @anthony.

So you don't think I am picking one liners, as you elude. Ummm... anti-depressant withdrawal... yep, been there, done that. More personalisation? Tearing you to shreds? No. Responding about the personalisation you are taking and turning it round, twisting it, to suit a narrative that is not stated, intended, or otherwise in what was a DID response.

If a person looks to my words with any more authority than the next, then that is their problem. I do not ever claim to be anything other than knowledgable about PTSD and trauma, I am always learning, I am not an expert, I read experts and regurgitate. JoeyLittle and other staff members are far smarter than me about aspects of trauma today, which is why they run this place daily today, not me.

Maybe you should take your own advice "can you explain what you meant?" Your words. Right? Ask me to explain and I will. Start personalising your responses to suit your twisted narrative, as though I meant, said or claimed anything... then I will respond accordingly such.

You have been here two years and seem to elude along the lines you know me, or know how I think, or my thoughts in general. You don't. So back to your own advice... please feel free to ask a question and I will answer. Make statements, then all I have to respond to is your personalised statements.

What else do you want from me? I am a person with as much right to voice my opinion as another. People complain I don't post much any more. People complain when I do post, because I should apparently be posting differently, I should be posting more responsibly. Blah blah blah. I am the same as you and the next person. I have no upper responsibilities to my opinions or views. Please do not claim that I should, because you are bringing politically correct BS that may work elsewhere, with others, to me and this community, which do not fly with me personally or this communities aim.

Sorry about any mistakes, have not proof read. I don't often do that either...

 

[TruthSeeker]

TBI is sometimes a difficult crossover issue, between neuro issues and what we’d class as mental h...

It isn't the challenging of ideas of others....it is the how we challenge others ideas.....Challenging ideas can help people grow. Getting people to consider a different opinion or option requires a more feelings-based and maybe a subtler approach...not the bulldozer technique. I know I'm trying to work on this myself as people here, who have been hurt, are often sensitive and highly defensive. Just a thought.

 

[anthony]

I feel I'm trying to be honest and speak what I feel to be true... You decide it's defensive and not helping anyone...

About? This thread is about DID, dissociation, surrounding contructs. You are very close to now just wanting to argue on a thread about things that have nothing to do with the topic. If you want to discuss staff, raise a help ticket. Don't start doing it on threads. We do not allow administrative type discussion, which is about the community, how it is run, and such topics, on threads. Help ticket.

That is why people get banned. Members start confusing what they are saying, where they are saying it. Right place, wrong place. Then they try and blame me, or staff, for their actions.

DID thread.

 

[TruthSeeker]

TBI is sometimes a difficult crossover issue, between neuro issues and what we’d class as mental h...

It isn't the challenging of ideas of others....it is the how we challenge others ideas.....Challenging ideas can help people grow. Getting people to consider a different opinion or option requires a more feelings based and maybe a subtler approach...not the bulldozer technique. I know I'm trying to work on this myself as people here, who have been hurt, are often sensitive and h defensive.