Dissociative Identity Disorder

[error-dot-tar]

Araelis

It exists, someone very close to me has it, but DID doesn't always involve the personalities taking over. I know three people with it, and two out of the three of them have the personality take over. When I first heard that this person had it...I was okay with it, but after awhile I began to resent it, because some of the insiders had personalities I really do not like, but I eventually got over it. The person is also getting better.

I'm sorry that you have to deal with this, but there are ways to deal with it that are hard, but very effective. If you need any help let me know. PM, or you can e-mail me.
I'll be praying for you.

If there's no one taking over, it's not DID. The alters taking over is how it is diagnosed.

[Golden Shirohana]

In regards to the debate over the Sybil case:

Yesterday afternoon I actually went out and bought the book 'Sybil', and while I find some parts far-fetched a lot of it makes sense. Perhaps the case was exaggerated, but certain things lead me to identify with it.

They're also things that I would like to bring up, also for discussion:

- The fact that the personalities can be of different genders, ages, and appearances
- That they have complete awareness of what they are, as different personae
- That they can interact with each other

In the book, these things are the case...but they are also the case in my own situation, which is what led me to believe in the book's credibility.

[Captain Verd]

error[dot]exe

sleeping when the switches happen throughout daily life with no real trigger.

This. DID isn't always about coping with stress. Sometimes, without warning or explanation, people can just become "someone else" so to speak, and wander around doing whatever.

[error-dot-tar]

Captain Verd

error[dot]exe

sleeping when the switches happen throughout daily life with no real trigger.

This. DID isn't always about coping with stress. Sometimes, without warning or explanation, people can just become "someone else" so to speak, and wander around doing whatever.

Exactly. Extreme stress is how it's formed - without it, it can't really develop because dissociation is a coping method. After the DID is already formed though, it can just sort of come and go, almost at random unless the system knows how to control it. The idea behind DID is that the mind is so disconnected from itself that it cannot connect back into one whole. Which is also why there is such little success rate for integration.

[error-dot-tar]

Golden Shirohana

- The fact that the personalities can be of different genders, ages, and appearances

To the point of having dysphoria because the body is so out of sync with how they view they should be physically.

There are DID systems that have transitioned from one sex to the other because some of the alters had GID.

Quote:

- That they have complete awareness of what they are, as different personae

Self-awareness/self-identity. It's also why they identify as people.

Quote:

- That they can interact with each other

Which is exactly how DID is controlled, through the interacting with each other, communication and learning to come and go as they please. Working together to make life functional, and thus themselves a functional system.

[Golden Shirohana]

error[dot]exe

Golden Shirohana

- The fact that the personalities can be of different genders, ages, and appearances

To the point of having dysphoria because the body is so out of sync with how they view they should be physically.

There are DID systems that have transitioned from one sex to the other because some of the alters had GID.

Quote:

- That they have complete awareness of what they are, as different personae

Self-awareness/self-identity. It's also why they identify as people.

Quote:

- That they can interact with each other

Which is exactly how DID is controlled, through the interacting with each other, communication and learning to come and go as they please. Working together to make life functional, and thus themselves a functional system.

Thank you very much; that actually answered even more questions than I'd remembered to ask.

[Nonesuch Solo]

Elrin_02

Given the FBI investigation and the indictments of many shrinks who handed out MPD diagnoses... Given the absolutely absurd claims of Satanic torture made by many of the victims...
Given the way the brain *works*...

I simply cannot believe that people contain multiple personalities.


Now, DID may be somewhat different, as the name suggests. While I do not think that you could have two separate 'people' living in your brain, with separate memories, abilities, personalities, etc., who have no knowledge of each other, (the structure of the brain simply defies this,) I do think that it is possible that, under conditions of high stress, certain aspects of your brain might turn 'off' or 'on'.

To draw a benign example, let's say you smell strawberries, and suddenly remember picking strawberries as a child. Up until you smelled the berries, you had no recollection of picking berries as a child, but the scent awakened the memory.

Let's say that you are normally an outgoing, friendly person, but under stress, you become withdrawn and hostile. While under stress, you act differently than you would normally.

Later, when you are not under stress, you act the way you normally would. You might even actively try not to think about the things which happened while you were under stress.

Still later, things get stressful again, and your memories of the past resurface and come flooding back.

It's not that you have different personalities, but that your one personality has different coping strategies for different situations--thus, disassociation.

This.

Some of the people I know with DID endured some awful trauma at a young age. For example, I heard a talk at a CSA (child sexual abuse) conference a few years back who described repeated rapes as a child, where her young mind could not deal with the present events so it would disassociate, and a different personality formed to "cope" with big problems. To this day, when major problems occur, this person has "blackouts" where she's told she acts differently, talks differently, etc.

[error-dot-tar]

Nonesuch Solo

This.

Some of the people I know with DID endured some awful trauma at a young age. For example, I heard a talk at a CSA (child sexual abuse) conference a few years back who described repeated rapes as a child, where her young mind could not deal with the present events so it would disassociate, and a different personality formed to "cope" with big problems. To this day, when major problems occur, this person has "blackouts" where she's told she acts differently, talks differently, etc.

I'm actually surprised she was able to remember those at all. Most don't.

[Araelis]

error[dot]exe

Araelis

It exists, someone very close to me has it, but DID doesn't always involve the personalities taking over. I know three people with it, and two out of the three of them have the personality take over. When I first heard that this person had it...I was okay with it, but after awhile I began to resent it, because some of the insiders had personalities I really do not like, but I eventually got over it. The person is also getting better.

I'm sorry that you have to deal with this, but there are ways to deal with it that are hard, but very effective. If you need any help let me know. PM, or you can e-mail me.
I'll be praying for you.

If there's no one taking over, it's not DID. The alters taking over is how it is diagnosed.

The reason they don't take over is because she is very close to closing them off completely, she's been dealing with this for many years.

[error-dot-tar]

Araelis

error[dot]exe

Araelis

It exists, someone very close to me has it, but DID doesn't always involve the personalities taking over. I know three people with it, and two out of the three of them have the personality take over. When I first heard that this person had it...I was okay with it, but after awhile I began to resent it, because some of the insiders had personalities I really do not like, but I eventually got over it. The person is also getting better.

I'm sorry that you have to deal with this, but there are ways to deal with it that are hard, but very effective. If you need any help let me know. PM, or you can e-mail me.
I'll be praying for you.

If there's no one taking over, it's not DID. The alters taking over is how it is diagnosed.

The reason they don't take over is because she is very close to closing them off completely, she's been dealing with this for many years.

I'm not entirely sure how successful that's going to be, but if she gets it to work for her, more power to her.

[Araelis]

error[dot]exe

Araelis

error[dot]exe

Araelis

It exists, someone very close to me has it, but DID doesn't always involve the personalities taking over. I know three people with it, and two out of the three of them have the personality take over. When I first heard that this person had it...I was okay with it, but after awhile I began to resent it, because some of the insiders had personalities I really do not like, but I eventually got over it. The person is also getting better.

I'm sorry that you have to deal with this, but there are ways to deal with it that are hard, but very effective. If you need any help let me know. PM, or you can e-mail me.
I'll be praying for you.

If there's no one taking over, it's not DID. The alters taking over is how it is diagnosed.

The reason they don't take over is because she is very close to closing them off completely, she's been dealing with this for many years.

I'm not entirely sure how successful that's going to be, but if she gets it to work for her, more power to her.

She was really close about a year ago, but something happened and she "relapsed" for lack of a better word. She had some very traumatic experiences growing up from her best friends family, and something triggered it pretty badly.

[error-dot-tar]

Araelis

error[dot]exe

Araelis

error[dot]exe

Araelis

It exists, someone very close to me has it, but DID doesn't always involve the personalities taking over. I know three people with it, and two out of the three of them have the personality take over. When I first heard that this person had it...I was okay with it, but after awhile I began to resent it, because some of the insiders had personalities I really do not like, but I eventually got over it. The person is also getting better.

I'm sorry that you have to deal with this, but there are ways to deal with it that are hard, but very effective. If you need any help let me know. PM, or you can e-mail me.
I'll be praying for you.

If there's no one taking over, it's not DID. The alters taking over is how it is diagnosed.

The reason they don't take over is because she is very close to closing them off completely, she's been dealing with this for many years.

I'm not entirely sure how successful that's going to be, but if she gets it to work for her, more power to her.

She was really close about a year ago, but something happened and she "relapsed" for lack of a better word. She had some very traumatic experiences growing up from her best friends family, and something triggered it pretty badly.

The relapses are what I'm worried about. They're also why integration so rarely works.

[Nonesuch Solo]

error[dot]exe

Nonesuch Solo

This.

Some of the people I know with DID endured some awful trauma at a young age. For example, I heard a talk at a CSA (child sexual abuse) conference a few years back who described repeated rapes as a child, where her young mind could not deal with the present events so it would disassociate, and a different personality formed to "cope" with big problems. To this day, when major problems occur, this person has "blackouts" where she's told she acts differently, talks differently, etc.

I'm actually surprised she was able to remember those at all. Most don't.

She spoke of being taken to a child porn factory many weekends between the age of 6 and 16. I think if it happens often enough, you might start to pick up on it.

The whole deal with "repressed memories" is really sketchy, if that's what you're getting at. Planting memories because you can't remember if something happened but your shrink wonders if something might? I don't know, man. Never been in that situation.

[error-dot-tar]

Nonesuch Solo

error[dot]exe

Nonesuch Solo

This.

Some of the people I know with DID endured some awful trauma at a young age. For example, I heard a talk at a CSA (child sexual abuse) conference a few years back who described repeated rapes as a child, where her young mind could not deal with the present events so it would disassociate, and a different personality formed to "cope" with big problems. To this day, when major problems occur, this person has "blackouts" where she's told she acts differently, talks differently, etc.

I'm actually surprised she was able to remember those at all. Most don't.

She spoke of being taken to a child porn factory many weekends between the age of 6 and 16. I think if it happens often enough, you might start to pick up on it.

The whole deal with "repressed memories" is really sketchy, if that's what you're getting at. Planting memories because you can't remember if something happened but your shrink wonders if something might? I don't know, man. Never been in that situation.

Sometimes, not always. DID is typically combined with dissociative amnesia. I don't fully believe the concept of repressed memories as they've been previously portrayed myself. However, it is possible to fabricate memories. A lot of my memories I cannot guarantee are true because I'm prone to fabricating them or my mind exaggerates details of it because I cannot remember them fully.

[Golden Shirohana]

This may only be true in my own case, but...there's also a deep fear of getting better. It's a difficult thing to grasp, being alone in your own head when you've become so comfortable with not being alone.

I honestly don't remember anything before hearing voices in my head; my first memory starts at nine years old, then it black out until I'm ten years old. From there on, memories are very scattered, but I still recall having the comfort of other presences to rely on.

...Which now makes me wonder that, if this is DID, am I my true personality?

It's a comfort issue that makes it difficult to want to get better, unusually enough.

But that reluctance could also be from a lack of belief in DID; I still have a lot of trouble thinking this is much more than my imagination at work. I don't want to kill my imagination - it really is my only outlet, helping me write and partake in other creativity-based hobbies.