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Dissociative Identity Disorder
Biology 202
1998 Second Web Reports
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Dissociative Identity Disorder
Rachel Kaplan
Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID), formerly known as Multiple Personality Disorder (MPD) is considered by the American Psychiatric Association to be one of 4 main kinds of dissociative disorders (DSM-IV): "The essential feature of dissociative disorders is a disturbance or alteration in the normally integrative functions of identity, memory, or consciousness" (8). If identity is the main function affected, the person is said to have DID.Most non-DID people have one identity comprised of many parts that work harmoniously together. They have only one I-function which consists of a conglomeration of thoughts and feelings formed from connections between many different brain areas. People with MPD, however, have a decentralized, internal network of 2 or more I- functions or "alters," each with its own physiology, behavior, and cognitions.
Dissociation often enables victims to maintain a relatively healthy level of functioning because traumatic memories are disconnected from other information in their minds. A multiple presents her view of DID: "We do not SUFFER FROM MPD. We SURVIVE because of MPD" (6). Living with this disorder is often an extremely lonely, confusing experience. Luckily, there has been much success in treating this disorder thanks to the extensive research conducted into DID etiology.
The etiology may be explained by the diathesis-stress model. There appears to be a biological component given the fact that most people with DID have a family history of the disorder. It has also been found that people who are easily hypnotized are more susceptible to DID (5). The stress is known to come from severe physical, emotional, and/or sexual abuse at a developmentally sensitive stage in childhood (3).
When a person experiences extreme stress "endogenous, stress-responsive neurohormones, such as cortisol, epinephrine and norepinephrine (NE), vasopressin, oxytocin and endogenous opioids" are released (10). These substances induce glucose release and activate the immune system, enabling the organism to effectively deal with the stress. Chronic stress, however, such as repeated sexual abuse, decreases the effectiveness of this system. It has been hypothesized that when the system is bombarded with chronic stress, there is a malfunction in the negative feedback loop which goes from the neurohormones back to the hypothalamus and pituitary gland. As a result, the system begins operating in positive feedback mode; increased cortisol release, for example, leads to increased cortisol production. The desensitization of the system causes the person to have an intense stress reaction in the presence of even the smallest trigger. Abnormalities in the limbic system have also been implicated in this condition.
This desensitized state exacerbates the dissociative process. In order to survive extreme stress, many children psychologically separate "thoughts, feelings, memories, and perceptions of traumatic experiences" (2). This coping method becomes increasingly ingrained the more frequent the abuse. The resulting highly conditioned, hypersensitive survival technique leads to impaired functioning. A person with a young child as one of his alters might bring out that child whenever there is even the slightest threat of an anxiety-provoking situation. In this way, if a traumatic event occurs, the pain gets isolated to one faction, a storage space, of the overall personality.
Memories from traumatic experiences are encoded in a unique way. Pierre Janet has suggested that the emotional impact of the trauma prevents the victim from translating the experience into the words and symbols which would be stored in the semantic memory. Instead, the experience gets stored in a "somatosensory or iconic level" form which makes for vivid and accurate recall (10). For example, 4-5 months after witnessing a murder, subjects showed excellent recall for details about the event (Cutshall 1989) (11). Neuroimaging studies have shown that during the stimulation of traumatic memories, there is decreased activity in Broca's area, the part of the brain most concerned with the translation of experience into words, and increased activity in the right hemisphere areas, parts which are involved in the processing of emotional and visual information. (Rauch et al., 1995) (11). A person with DID has stored these emotional and visual representations of traumatic incidents in a whole identity that is as stunted as the memories themselves.
Storage in semantic memory is easier on the ego because experiences are tempered through their translation. Also, because semantic memory integrates input into existing mental schemata, the information is subject to learning effects (10). When recalled, these memories are subject to distortion because of their emergence in a new context. There is debate, however, about whether traumatic memories can ever be changed. It has been found that with time sensorimotor and iconic memories tend to become restored as words and symbols which can be processed in connection with existing mental schemes (10). LeDoux, on the other hand, has postulated that "once formed, the subcortical traces of the conditioned fear response are indelible, and that 'emotional memory may be forever'" (10). LeDoux's theory does not bode well for the ability of trauma victims to unload their burdensome memories. There is definitive evidence, at least, that memories may be recovered.
Research has shown that memory retrieval is "state dependent (10): "physiological arousal in general can trigger trauma-related memories, while, conversely, trauma-related memories precipitate generalized physiological arousal (10). This phenomenon might explain why the presence of a trigger for a traumatic memory may induce a "switching" of alters. The memory may induce a stress reaction which would ultimately produce a different physiological state. It seems possible, given that alters have been shown to have different physiologies, that a specific physiological state might correspond with a specific alter. The concept of corollary discharge may be used to explain why the actions of one alter may affect the mind-set of others despite the psychological separation of these entities.
People with DID are reluctant to integrate their separate identities because they use them to cope; however, patients' quality of life has been shown to increase following treatment. Therapy should involve a nursing, medical, and primary therapist component. Therapists may direct patients to increase the strength of the entire system through increased internal communication and cooperation, the build up of ego strength, and the increased taking of responsibility for internal actions (7). It is very important that the patient gain a sense of control over his current cognitions and past memories. The multiple may gain control by recognizing the abused child's thoughts and feelings and by altering negative self-images (8). It is also vital that both the therapist and the patient show equal respect to all the alters.
Hypnotherapy and nonverbal therapy are commonly used in the treatment of DID. Hypnotherapy is commonly used in treating DID because of its facilitation of memory retrieval, "calming, soothing, containment, and ego strengthening" qualities (4). It can be used to increase communication between the alters and between the alters and the therapist. This method may also help in "fusion rituals (when previous psychotherapeutic work has cause a particular separateness to no longer serve a meaningful function for the patient's intrapsychic and environmental adaptation and when the patient is no longer narcissistically invested in maintaining the particular separateness)" (4). This is interesting because it indicates that a patient's pride might serve as an obstacle to his convalescence. The danger to hypnotherapy is that it may cause a patient to believe in a fantasy which he creates while under hypnosis.
Nonverbal treatment methods such as art and play therapy have also been proven useful in treating DID. Art therapy seems to be a freer expression of thoughts and feelings than verbal methods. The right side of the brain is more involved with creativity and the imagination; whereas, the left side is more concerned with language. Stimulating the right hemisphere might bring up "sensorimotor and iconic" memories more readily than if the person needed to filter input through the left hemisphere (10).
In general, most people respond fairly well to treatment depending on their baseline comorbidity (9). It has been shown that 60% of patients who undergo treatment maintain stable integration, which is defined by Kluft as "3 stable months of continuity of contemporary memory, with the absence of behaviorally evident separate identities (9).
DID research raises a lot of questions about the nature of the I-function. What are the implications of its being able to be fragmented? Perhaps the other I-functions, or separate identities, are merely different centers of connections with some of the same and some of their own links to other brain areas. Maybe the mechanism of the "fusion rituals" during hypnosis involves the solidification of links between the most dominant I-function and the alters such that when one is activated, the whole system becomes activated. Another possibility is that everyone possesses different centers of connections and somehow after repeated dissociation episodes, some people's links become severed.
Findings from DID research may be helpful for DID and non-DID sufferers alike. Research into this area has shed a lot of light into what kinds of cognitions lead to healthy functioning, among the most important of which are the need for a sense of control and self-love and respect. The research also highlights the interconnectedness of the mind and body: the fact that the psychological has a very real affect on the physiological and vice versa.
Works Cited
1) Re: Multiple Personality Disorders "NOSSCR Online"
2) The Effects of DID on Children of Trauma Survivors "Sidran"
3) Dissociative Identity Disorder (Multiple Personality Disorder) "Sidran"
4) Guidelines for Treatment "ISSD"
5) About Multiple Personality Disorder and Dissociation
7) Clinical Case Study #2: "Hardscrabble Communications"
8) An Overview of Diagnosis and Treatment
9) Two-Year Follow-Up of Inpatients With Dissociative Identity Disorder
10) The Body Keeps the Score: Memory and the evolving psychobiology of post traumatic stress
11) Dissociation and the Fragmentary Nature of Traumatic memories: Overview and Exploratory Study
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Continuing conversation
(to contribute your own observations/thoughts, write Serendip) 11/28/2005, from a Reader on the Web Excellent resource about the topic. |
1) What are some of the day-to-day concerns or issues people with the disorder face or people they live with face.
2) also, what are the percentage of cases in the U.S. of the people who have this disorder ... Evan Norrgard, 8 May 2006
I was diagnosed with DID. I see alot of pictures and visuals in my mind. I take these and work with what I see. If I see a house that has has a storm come throught I talk to myself and the alters about the storm. I also talk to THe Holy Spirit and see his help. I will ask the parts if they want to come an be integrated into me. They ususally do after some talk. I always feel relieve after such a talk.
I function well and work and enjoy a full life now, But I know there is more for me and I want travel the world and experience more goodness in life.
A hard part of this is that my mother and sisters do not except that anything traumatic ever happened to me and talk as though nothing ever happened. It is really strange.
Thank you for you imput. I wish I could come for some treatment, however I do not think that your prices are within my price range ... Lena, 3 December 2006
I suffer with DID and now after years of therapy, I seem to be going backward instead opf forward. There are so many stressors in my life right now I cant cope...any suggestions to help? ... Sam, 28 April 2007
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| This paper reflects the research and thoughts of a student at the time the paper was written for a course at Bryn Mawr College. Like other materials on Serendip, it is not intended to be "authoritative" but rather to help others further develop their own explorations. Web links were active as of the time the paper was posted but are not updated. |
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Comments
D.I.D.
Dear Therapist: Not sure if you will read this as it has been almost 2 months since your last post. I feel a lot of sorrow for you and for this unwell woman and hope that someday you will have some kind of closure and possible reconciliation with this client that you have bonded with. I am DID and have been in process for about 2 1/2 years with a very caring therapist. We have been working hard and the goal for me is integration. It is what I want. But I can tell you that it is not what all of my alters want, there is a great deal of fear and distrust. And although you may not have done anything to betray the trust of this woman, that doesn't mean that it hasn't been seen that way by an alter that you may have never even met before. I just had an incident where I was triggered by something I read on pastoral abuse (which is in my past) and what I saw in my mind was my therapists face. And there was such a strong reaction internally to this, so strong. But I was able at that moment to touch base with him, let him know this had happened, and we worked through it. But this may not have turned out so well if it had been an alter that we had not already worked with. There are so many variables, so many pitfalls. My heart really does go out to you, all that you have invested and it goes out to her as well, for I'm sure that she hasn't any idea herself what has triggered this fear in her that is causing a severe acting out of anger toward you. It seems as if there is a very strong alter that has come out and come out raging at the person who appears to be caring, but may be seen by this alter as someone who will betray in the end. It may require that she build trust with another therapist in order to work through this tranference issue that took place with you. I pray for both of you, that neither of you will allow this to stop you from moving forward to other trusting relationships within the therapy room.
Dissociative Identity Disorder
Thank you for your kind comments. I too believe that something went haywire in whatever level of integration she did, and somehow I am now seen as some kind of threat. My sadness is that in the past we could always process anything, and yet she could never give us the change to process this, and I have no idea what "snapped" inside of her. Another level of grief for me is that I put so much at risk and sometimes had to sacrifice to walk this path with her, which often meant standing up for her against other people who would have invlidated her. I was willing to risk this way if I could be part of helping this amazing woman find some healing, but now I question whether any of it was worth anything. This question arises because the person/people I knew for so long was never so ill that she couldn't chose to be kind. But now I see someone who can be unkind on a regular basis, so I wonder if I really left her in any better place than she was. I saw much healing along the way, but since I don't know what caused the "snap" or how she perceives things now, I wonder if her life is really any better off. I do pray for her regularly. It would be nice if she and I could experience a healing of relationship, but it matters most that she continue on her own journey to healing.
DID
Thanks to those of you who have been trying to help me make sense of how my client could suddenly make such a change within a matter of hours to our relationship being fine to somehow seeing me as the villain. Since this happened last February, there has been much time for me to mull it over and try to make sense of it. It doesn't follow any recognizable patters I know, and I still remain confused and at times hurting. Probably what I wasn't real clear about was that although we met because I was her therapist in a formal sense, my employment changed some years back, but our work together was good enough with a good rappport and sense of mutual trust that we continued working together for years afterward even though it was based strickly on a commitment to her wellness, and did not involved being paid (due to the type of insurance she had). So most of the work we did togehter was just because I believed in her, and believed in trying to give her the best chance to heal that I could. For me it was also the sense that it felt like making that commitment to her and to God might actually be the most important thing I could do to ever make a difference in someone's life. So that is why there have been so many levels this has affected me. It's not only been about a client/person whom I dearly loved, but it has been about my own commitment to my integrity and spiritual beliefs in agreeing to walk a path with someone.
Time has not made this situation any better. Over the months I have occasionally heard that she has called colleages of mine to accuse me of strange things- (like using her social security number to steal money from her), and making false police reports on me. From people I have heard things through, the things she says are very paranoid. I know that something went wonky right after whatever level of integration she acheived, because immediately after she still was OK with me. Something seemed to develop within a couple days of that time. In addition to my own hurt, I feel so sad that she has found another place to retreat into rather than moving into wellness. As I've reviewed the many comments all of you have offered me, I a grateful you have taken the time to address my pain. Some of you mentioned the alters needs to heal more individually before the integration. Although there had been a lot of work on that behalf, when she/they chose to integrate they did so because she was experiencing a great deal of physical illness, and they believed that the only way to save the body was to integrate. She did get much better physically, but I had wondered if from a psychological level it was too fast and that is what has caused some of the disruption. There was already a lot of healing going on, and meshing of the alters that was good, but I did wonder if that final step that they decided to take was out of desparation because there was a need to "save" the body, but it led to more complications psychologically. I continue to pray for her healing.
I have worked as a therapist
I have worked as a therapist and also have DID. I had a therapist for 17 years who was with me as you were for this person. When she retired we were devastated even though I realized it was a natural part of life. I continue to struggle through this journey so am not "well" as is your former client. It is possible that life after DID is not all that she expected. It's even possible that she is lonely now that integration has occurred and she misses her parts. Some clinicians believe that DID is on the same continuum as Borderline Personality, so perhaps she is reacting to the transition by demonizing you. If you have not transitioned, you can either refer her or use her rage and distance as therapeutic fodder. Perhaps you inadvertently crossed the line in your mind between therapist and rescuer. While therapists definitely have feelings, try to remember that it's her illness talking. Best of luck to you.
The Switch
I am writing a paper and it seems that the only information about this disorder that I can't find is, what exactly happens when switching personalities? do you cough, or get headaches or space out? How do other people know you switched? I watched a few movies and they all were different in one it was just when people called her by the different names. Anyway, thanks for any help.
For me, the switch depends on
For me, the switch depends on who I am switching into. Sometimes, there is no physical trigger at all. I just switch over and become someone new. Other times, such as when I switch into my alter: Duty, I get nauseous and have a minor stomach ache. This is how I always know that I am about to switch over to him. Sometimes, I will get headaches, but that's more when I WANT to switch, but cannot. Or when I am partially switched. (Yes, it is possible to not completely switch into another alter.) When I am about to switch into Freedom, my heart rate picks up and for some reason, when I am about to switch into Power, I feel feverish.
I'm sure it all depends. I will say that the movies quite exaggerate it. It's not like a dramatic seizure or anything, it's usually just a small difference in some physical function.
As for other people, they usually are entirely unaware of the DID person's switch. In more extreme cases, it will be evident that a change of personality has definitely occured, and others may pick up on that, immediately. For higher functioning cases, the alters are incredible actors, able to seem almost normal to the surrounding people. There are still things that can be picked up on, of course. A change in vocal tone or idiosyncracies, for example. A person may go from sitting legs spread, spacing out and totally comfortable, and then might suddenly become rigid and nervous with the tendency to rub his hands together or scratch a certain place on his arm. It's all very circumstancial.
unlike the movies, switching
unlike the movies, switching is usually seamless. For some there may be headaches, stomach aches, dizziness, and a host of other symptoms just prior to the switch. For me, it depends on which alter is trying to come out that determines the physical sensation I may feel.
In public or around people who do not know of my DID the switching occurs without others noticing, this is a protective mechanism, after all, when I developed DID it would not have been safe to suddenly "become" someone else in front of an abuser or it could make them angry.
So the alters have always been seamless enough that no one knew they were there except maybe thinking that "I" had changed moods or expressions or something.
Now that I have a therapist and a couple of other people in my life who know of the DID, my alters will come out and be themselves rather than trying to pretend to be me.
When this switch occurs it can be almost instant if there is a trigger that causes it. I have noticed that there is usually a deep breath and a relaxing of my body just as the switch is about to occur.
For each person it is probably different.
I hope that helps you understand the complexities of this disorder a little better. I have been DID for over 40 years but only discovered that I was DID a year ago. I am in therapy and am working toward integration.
Hello Everybody
I was diagnosed with PTSD and Paranoid Sczephrenatic. I get lots of nightmares and being a male went through five rapes from the ages of 12 to 16 and alot of physical and sexual abuse from 13 to 16 years old. I pretty much draw a blank to everything that happened to me even though I know it did. I got heavily into drugs and alcohol since I was fourteen years old but stopped drugs about a year before I went into the US Navy. I was medically discharged from the US Navy, after spending three years in there. (What is amazing to me is I can speak the terms raped and sexually and physically abused and prostituted without feeling, but when somethings brings back the experiences to me I have no idea what to do are say I just break down and feel like I'm gonna tear apart)
The reason why I am even making a comment is because I go through alot a times where I forget the things I do and places I go alot. I hear people tell me I present myself different to them many times with different names and characters. I came on here looking for answers but feel more confused. I have my next therapy meeting at the beginning of March. I surely intend to bring these things up to him but it might be nice to hear from somebody, with a little medical knowledge -- I guess -- to maybe make the things I've been reading more understandable to me, if possible. I am actually terrified about my actions at times I used to drink alcohol to black outs and I expected them then but after over a year soberity I have no idea what's really going on but cruel people joke that I have this MPD or DID but I just want to be normal... Bye for now
WH
Not that I have any medical
Not that I have any medical background! But if I am not mistaken, DID is often diagnosed as many thingsbefore they come up with the right diagnosis. I would definatly say something to your doctor.... I am just on here to do a paper and just getting started. I hope that might be of some use. :)
My boyfriend may have DID
Hi please help me. I'm the same girl who posted above "How can best help a friend with DID..."
Firstly let me tell you that I've since posting actually discussed it with him. He said he was diagnosed with DID when he was in hospital. Then he told me several days later that actually he wasn't diagnosed with it, it was Dissociative Fugue, but they mentioned DID in some other context. But I - obviously with very very limited knowledge! - am certain I see too much evidence of DID to ignore it. And when he said he had been diagnosed with it, he talked about it in detail, the syptoms, never feeling like "himself", not sure who he really is, etc. So could he be now in denial saying he doesn't really have it?
I need to know if I'm - sorry to put it so harshly - wasting my time on this guy and being foolish. No-one understands what is going on inside him (I think I understand a lot but certainly not everything) and I am finding it so hard to just keep on having faith that underneath it all he really loves me and isn't just using this illness as a way to distance himself and not commit. I don't believe it about him, but there is so much inconsistency in his moods and personality it is hard to trust in him or know how I am supposed to be feeling. My moods are getting yanked around following his and it's making me so stressed and tired. Sometimes he wants extreme closeness bt sometimes he says he can't handle a relationship. I know he doesn't want to commit to something he can't handle and I respect him for that and I also care for his health and don't want to damage him with forced closeness or integration! But he wants us to be exclusive... although he sometimes encourages me to hook up with other people, then sometimes sulks about it, and sometimes get incredibly paranoid about random guys and accuses me of sleeping with people who I've never even looked at.
He says he is scared that it will go wrong and he will lose my friendship, and I will hate him and "end up just screaming and screaming at him..." I think he is remembering scenes from his childhood, or past relationships, or both. But a close friend recently said she thinks it is probably just sex to him and he only sees me as a friend. She is a nice girl who is friends with us both but I feel like she doesn't understand him at all. Am I being totally naive? Isn't that what people in horrible relationships, even abusive relationships, believe - "they just don't understand him"? How can I know for sure?
I would give anything to have a future with him and make him happy forever - even just for a little while if that's too much for him. But it is a lot for me to be giving and exhausting myself for if he doesn't even want to be with me in the end. He says he is just scared. My instincts and my heart tell me to be patient and keep offering him love until he is maybe ready to commit to more. I know it could be years and I feel that it would all be worth it if I have a chance to be with him. But logically a voice in my head is nagging that he should want to commit to something more concrete than this by now (we've been seeing each other for about five months). Is this just expecting him to behave in the same way as people who don't have his problem? Am I expecting too much or too little, I sometimes feel it is the former and sometimes feel it is the latter. I sometimes feel like I am actually having five different relationships with five different people. I am so frustrated and confused and I feel so lonely because it seems like no-one understands how complicated this is or believes me that he is worth it. It hurts me so much for people to think he's a bad person. He's so much more caring and respectful and loving than anyone else I've ever known. But I am so insecure anyway and I feel that he is much better than me, and I just want some sort of 'proof' that he really does love me and wants to make this work otherwise how can I know? I also wonder if this is normal, or an awful thing to say, but I feel horribly jealous of his therapist sometimes, who I believe is a man not a woman. It's just that he gets to see so much of him that he's hiding from me and maybe even gets to meet alters or even his inner child. I would love to be involved in his therapy but I don't want to upset him and I wonder if it's a reasonable request or not?
Please help!
I would like to have contact with
Some one with [DID] i have had an instrest in it and plan on using the things i learn from other people to help people with [DID] someday. I'm writing a paper and would really love it if some people would tell me there stories.
thankyou. =]
Do I have DID?
Okay I think i might have DID. My friends say i change to quickly. Like Im someone different everytime they see me. I already have other problems but I cant get help. I dont have the money ro get the help I need. So I need to know how to find out if I have it or not.
I wont metion my name but I will say I'm only 13.
I cant tell my mom because then she'll feel bad for not being able to help me.
Your 'feelings'
With the information you have given it is to hard to say but (save up) and get a refferal to a psychs point of view. It sounds unlikely from the scant details given but believe me if you think it might be 'fun' to have it, you haven't got it nor would you want it.
Tommy diagnosed (2years)
Do you remember everything
Do you remember everything that happens when your friends say that you change? It could just be hormones. If you're thirteen years old then this could be explained my puberty. If you remember what happens every minuite you're awake of every day then you don't have DID. Often people who have DID have blackouts and when they come to they are in a new place with no recollection of how they got there. As for your mother. You must talk to her becuase if you don't things could very easily get worse. When you're older you could be prone to substance abuse and chronic mental illness, it's also more difficult to keep your personal life in balance. So tell your mom and although she may not be able to get you the help that you need at the moment, at least she'll be aware of the problems so that if in the future she can sare for you, she'll know that she needs to :) Good Luck
-A.C
How can I best help a friend with DID?
I'm sorry to write this here but I don't know where else to go to and I don't want to tell any of my friends out of respect for him, because I know he would hate that, but I am concerned that the guy I'm involved with has DID. He was in hospital a year ago with a dissociative illness. (not DID, I think amnesia or fugue, I get confused between the two.) I've been trying to learn more about dissociative illnesses myself so I can understand and help him because he doesn't like to talk about it much. I think he feels ashamed, he said he's scared of losing his job and going back to hospital - I know he had a horrible scary time there. At times he's very open, caring, saying he loves me,saying we're a couple,telling me he wants the relationship to develop, tells me I'm wonderful... Sometimes he's almost like a child, sulky, frightened, craving love and upset at the most irrational things which he perceives as rejections. Then sometimes he is cold, disrepectful, and he talks differently. He admitted the other day he doesn't always remember conversations either. I thought I was imagining it until he told me that but I do see him struggle trying to remember when I mention conversations we've had, but he won't talk much about it, so I wasn't sure until he said so himself. He has also described what sounds like derealisation, basically saying people seem unreal around him. He gets frequent headaches, and fairly minor, manageable bouts of depression. He has also recently become very focused on his body image and lost loads of weight very very quickly. I recently read that eating disorders are also sometimes secondary symptoms of Dissociative Identity Disorder. But even if that isn't what it is, it worries me in itself. It really doesn't seem healthy, he looks pale and stressed a lot of the time, and I know he has trouble sleeping sometimes too. I love him very very much and I only wish he would trust me enough to talk about it. Because he is obviously troubled by something, if not DID then something else, perhaps just struggling with the childhood traumas he faced which he has touched upon but not told me about in detail. I see him flinch in pain when it comes up in conversation and I'm certain it wouldn't be kind to force him to talk about these memories yet.
But what should I do? Can I help him? My friends who haven't met him basically just think he's screwing me around by switching how he feels, saying we're together and wanting extreme closeness one minute, then this other side of him comes out and he just doesn't want a relationship, it's like the affectionate conversations never took place. But they don't know him, and I can't tell them about his time in hospital because he doesn't want it talked about, even though sometimes I find it difficult not to tell my friends about the things he has faced and confronted because I'm so proud of him. All our mutual friends who do know him and have seen us together believe he cares for me and say we're a great couple. These people are honest and I trust them, and I'm sure they wouldn't encourage a relationship if they believed he was just playing me. It's still incredibly confusing for me, and it must be for him too - I wish we could deal with it together. It is also painful and humiliating for me if people think he is just jerking me around and I'm buying his excuses. But I don't believe that is the case. He's so considerate, and I don't believe he wants to hurt me. If anything he is distancing himself because he doesnt want to hurt me. But I love him so much, and I love him unconditionally. I would do anything for him. It's worth any amount of complications if he truly has the feelings he says he does. I just wish he could trust me enough to let me love him and share a little bit more of what he's going through.
Respond to: How can I best help a friend with DID
I too like you am struggling with a similar scenerio. I have only started research the past 24 hours on the internet. It is hard to weave through all the different sites. I found one and am waiting for the morning to pass to call some numbers. Try going to National Alliance on Mental Illness website. The address is www.nami.org - they list helplines by state. I have been with my boyfriend for 6 years and deal with you similar behaviors. He can be really depressed, then angry, then craving that love. Mostly I have been dealing with a feminine alter lately, which has increased my concerns how to address that he may have DID. I think he already knows, but like you, he is ashamed to share with me. I feel if you really love each other you can help him with this as long as he wants the help. I can tell that you do love him and it seems he loves you. It is easier for his friends to understand as they have known him verses your friends but I can relate to how your friends may perceive him. Hang in and keep searching - help and support are out there for both of you!
i am a year 10 student and
i am a year 10 student and have currently taken an interest in DID or multiple personality disorders and am planning to write a paper on it for english. i would much appreciate it, as i am trying to gather as much information as possible, if anyone would like to share something. I was wondering how many alter personalities one person could have; and what are such possible ones.
thank you.
[DID] how many idenities can one person have
As far as i know one person can have an infinant number of identies.i knew people that suffered from three or four, then other people that could have as many as twenty-six to thirty.
To 10-Year Student RE Personality Numbers
Hi Jordan:
The development of personalities is due to events in the DID person's life and also the need that each individual feels for each personality to develop. So the numbers fluctuate. Some people with DID have only a few personalities, some have hundreds, some have thousands.
For instance, my abuse began when I was in the womb and lasted until I left home at age 18. I developed over 200 personalities. Most of my personalities were developed when I was young but since I was totally unprepared for life as I grew older, some personalities also formed when I was a teen and young adult.
If you want to read a description of how and why DID personalities develop in the moment, read my e-book, "Sky Eyes" http://www.akwbooks.com/BookStore/product.php?productid=16
Love & Light: Kriss
Dissociative Identity Disorder
as some advice, i would suggest you buy or download the series United States of Tara. it revolves around the day to day issues of a mother of two suffering from DID. she has 4 alters that regularly pop out when she is stressed.
through watching this show, i have learnt a lot about the disorder and i am doing a paper on it for my psychology class in yr 11.
please feel free to reply if this helps you :D:D
hope this helps :)
Hi, I'll try to help you with that :)
i'm not actually diagnosed with it or anything, but i have read alot about it and couldn't possibly be more sure that i have DID.
so i'll help the best i can!
a few years ago i had ALOT of alters, and i mean ALOT!
i'd say 25 atleast, i'm not too sure though, my memory is a little fuzzy so far back.
a few months ago i began piling all my alters into several primary alters. all the simular ones were all grouped together and eventually made one for each group.
it was only a few days ago that i developed my fourth primary alter.
so i hope that helps with how many someone can have :)
now, my four i've taken the time to name them, give them an age, etc. i've pretty much gone the whole 9 yards with this:
Rusty (my favorite one) - Is an 8 year old child. rusty carries the optomism, and happiness, and luv for hugs... just like a real child. my best friend katie (my bestest friend ever) is always trying to help me with personal problems like this, and rusty actually sees her as a motherly figure... several times when rusty was in control he almost called her mom by , accident XD
Z (my inner good) - Is a very mature 16 year old. Z is like a gaurdian for my alters, he sees rusty as a younger brother, and is the only one who is able to contact one of my other alters, KOG. Z constantly warns katie of any signs of danger and does his best to not only protect me, but y friends as well.
KOG (my inner evil) - is probably about 24 years old. he is the result of all my pent up anger and stress, i fear that if he ever gains control again that he'll hurt my friends and everyone else. he controlled me alot as a child, but i wasn't able to do much so he wasn't a threat... but now, if he ever got control, he'd pretty much go on a killing spree. He and Z are at constant war for control of me.
Veritas (whom i assume is the true me) - a 19 year old. he's suicidal and is always miserable. he usually is in control of me at night when i'm alone in my bed, he usually just cries... someimes he'll try taking one of my daggers and drive it through my chest, fortunetly he can't handle the pain of it and automatically puts Z into control...
my worst fear is that KOG will control me and kill Katie and the rest of my very few friends...
anyways, i hope this helped u a bit :D
i'm 15 by the way, and no one in my family knows that i have it... just a select few of my friends, and the people online that i tell, like u and anyone else reading this
i didn't put my real name because i dont want someone i know to accidently stumble across this and use it against me (i already had someone threaten me with this before)
and by someone i know, i mean one of the kids at school that picks on me... which is alot of them
I actually cried when I read
I actually cried when I read this. I suppose now, you're 16 or at least around that mark, hmm? I felt it necessary to reply to your comment because your situation is nearly identical to mine. I have not yet been diagnosed with DID, but have suspected that I have it since I was 15. I'm 17 now, and the proof continues to become more and more evident. What stunned me the most about your comment was that you have a child alter and a protecter alter who guards the child. You also have a control-freak homicidal alter.
Tray- eight years old and completely innocent. He thinks he's a werewolf, or maybe a dragon. He loves to paint and hum, and I believe he may be autistic. When evoked, he pulls his hair, slams his fists, and mutters nonsence.
Zirk or Duty- This alters name has changed because he has adapted and changed to better suit me. He is the protector and lives solely to protect the child. I always know when he has been active, because I have stomach aches and nausea and find difficulty speaking. He is silent and sarcastic and completely dutybound.
Kize- (EXPIRED) Kize was my evil alter. She wanted to murder my friends and family and caused me to often have suicidal thoughts and self mutilation. I would hear her voice, always condescending and hateful and I would bang my head into the ground or scratch a K onto my arms or pull out my hair. I managed to seperate her into two relatively harmless alters as listed here.
Reuben (Power)- Reuben took up the controlling part of kize. He is a sociopath, but mostly harmless. He is extremely fit and active and prone to quick bursts of rage.
Freedom (Faith)- My least favorite alter. She is the sex fiend airhead. She came from Kize's longing to be free. She is unpredictable and wild and loves to have fun. She loves to dance and sit in boys laps. I love to never be her. But it happens.
Anyway, I wanted to see if you still struggle with this. If KOG is still a problem, I will gladly give you advice to get rid of him. It took much effort and prayer to eliminate Kize, and often, she crawls back into the edge of my mind and begs to be let in. But there is no better feeling than to know that she is gone. I'd like to help you, if this message is still valid. :)
All that's happened since my first post
Well, alot has happened and i've learned so much more since then...
last February Z was eliminated by a new alter: Dastis.
i've also learned that KOG is the real me.
how Z was eliminated: well it was a confusing month, and there was much anger. KOG had nearly 30 lesser alters gang up on Z. while Z was distracted, KOG granted a large fraction of his power to a lesser and made it a full alter. that alter is Dastis.
recently i've been remaking Z... or should i say becoming him. I, Rusty, have found that i've matured and aged. i'm now 10.
also a few months back i lost control and Dastis was getting my friends to hate me. i had lost half my friends... and i remember now... this was before Dastis... i think... all i remember is Z telling my mom everything... i thought she believed me... but a few months later she accidently admitted she thought i was crazy.
... it's hard for me to think because i'm sick right now...
but yeah
i've also gained more friends...
so yeah, Veritas is still around i think... also i've found out 2 things about KOG: he's 16, and... he will soon break free from the chains that were placed on him several years ago. October 5th, exactly 8 years since he was locked up... that's what Z said before he was gone
hopefully something will happen to prevent this... i'm not ready to become a killer...
Dear Rusty,
I am very sorry to hear that you have gone through so many trials. I can only hope that I can somehow be able to help you in this time of hardship. I may not know the specifics but I can generally relate to what you are experiencing. Your KOG is the equivalent of my Kize. She, too, had a deadline. I felt that day ticking closer all the time. And with every moment I watched pass, Kize became stronger and even more hell-bent and smug.
At first, I thought it was manageable. But as the weeks turned to months and Kize became ever more ruthless, I started to see the danger. It came to a point where she was hurting my friends and myself. She would scream obscenities at me and shout about the day when she would at last be free. I became so frightened that suicide was a topic of debate frequently in my mind. Kize told me I was a coward and could never do it, and she was right. So instead, I practiced self-mutilation and considered running away, while every secound of indecision she spent growing stronger.
She was a demon. My personal Lucifer. She was a monster of destruction and had every intention of taking down as many people as she could into the grave with her.
Finally, when that day was iminent, I had a nightmare. I'd call it more of a hallucination, really. Or maybe a vision in which Kize was set free. I was her and she was me and we ran like a beast on all fours, our mouth foaming and our eyes wild. She killed a man in a wheelchair, stole a gun and killed an officer. I tried to fight her in the middle of an intersection, screaming and pulling my hair. I almost won... but then she saw the three people dearest to me, and she smiled widely and said simply, "They're next," and she began to chase after them.
It was this dream that turned the tables. I finally realized how real this all was and how I was the one responsible to stop it. If I failed, I would be a murderer.
It took every ounce of strength in my being to fight her off. I was completely alone in the battle. Every second of my day was spent trying to overrule her every thought. I took a lot of that time to think about how much I loved the people closest to me. How I appreciated even the smallest things about them and how much it would hurt to lose them. The more I loved, the weaker Kize became.
It also helped to never spend too much time deep in thought. Whenever I was bored with nothing to do, she would creep in. So i made an effort to keep myself busy. Artsy things really helped. Drawing, painting, even just cutting up a paper into a million little pieces was helpful, or at least a good distraction.
I cannot lie and say that it was my efforts alone that finally put her to rest. I will admit that I spent some moments desperately crying out to a God that Kize kept me from. I actually only prayed once, since she restricted me from being devoutly religious, but nonetheless, I feel it was He who made the final strike. If you are religious, Rusty, then I suggest some requests for Divine intervention. If you are not religious, then perhaps my other advice will suit you and you can be sure that I am requesting Divine intervention on your behalf. In other words, you are in my heart and my prayers.
Rusty, you have the power to stop KOG. You will not resort to murder because there are people that you love. Never stop thinking about those people and all the good that they've ever done for you. That will give you the strength to overpower this monster. I have faith in you and I will be here every step of the way if you wish for my assistance. I know what you're going through and I don't want you to be alone. You can do this. It may be hard, but you are strong enough to win.
i'm back after more suffering, and new found hope
well gee this'll be a long story (but aren't they all long?)
ok, well i'm not exactly sure where i left off. i was going to reply earlier but i never had any time... then i forgot for a while, but i rememebred recently and was finally able to get back to this site!
well, i started my summer break with A-Kon (largest anime convention in texas). while there i did something really bad... i cheated on my girlfriend... on saturday nights at conventions i get really different... possibly DID, i don't really care... anyways, the night before that i saw a girl all sad and stuff sitting by herself. she looked like she as about to cry so i went to go see what was wrong and to try to cheer her up. she and i became fast friends. it turns out that her boyfriend, whom she had broken up with about a week ago, as being a total jerk to her... anyways, long story short (or atleast this part of it): i got her to change her mind about commiting suicide, the next night she and i... umm... did stuff alone together... *ahem* yeah...
anyways, she said that she didn't know what came over her (i also claimed to not know what came over me) and so she said tat she needed a few months before she could be in another relationship. so a few months passed, my summer vacation drew near its end and... wait, i left out a whole chapter of this story!
let's back it up to july!
ok, so me and my ex's best friend started a long-dstance relationship (so far that has been ALL i have ever been in... ). my ex was ok with it cuz we were all still a trio of friends like when we all first met. ok so yeah, i was at my aunt's house for 2 weeks and my phone broke about halfway through the 1st week... long story short (again, just this part): my girlfriend thought iwas unleashing my dark alters on her on purpose so she started to hate me... she said very unreasonable thigns which really hurt my feelings... my heart was completely destroyed after that.
i went to the girl i met at a-kon because she is very nice and she and i are good friends (i mean WERE good friends). she and i agreed to stay just friends... but i started hitting on her friend. a few days later her friend told me that FAKE NAME still liked me and wanted to be more than friends. i believed this... so when i tried starting something with her.. she kept saying that she wanted to stay jsut friends, but her friend kept telling me different. so i thought that the girl was just playing hard to get. so a few weeks passed and... well
(oh btw, we're back in august)
she posted on her facebook that she went from single to complicated... i thought that i was said "complicated" so i felt rather flattered. so ia sked her about it... and that's when my heart became destroyed... again...
long story short (yes, like the last 2): she and i got mad and didn't talk for weeks.
what really bothered me, and still does, is i did ALOT for her and she said "a need a few months"
a few months later she's with some f***ing jack**s she hasn't even nknown for a day and hasn't done s**t for her!!!!
so yeah... after that... i was terrafied of getting close to anyone for fear of 3rd heart break (this all happend in less than a month's time)
i sorta became like cloud strife in the beginning of ff7 when he's a total jerk.
some people i randomly became friends with on facebook were trying to help me, but i didn't do much to help them help me because i didn't want to get close to anyone at all (i even got further from my friends).
after a few days, i started to open up. one of the people who helped me i got into a long-distance thing with... she took the shattered pieces of my heart and put them back together... she even encouraged me to improve my very poor hygiene.
anyways. some abd stuff happened, that girl and i are seperate again and she hssn't talked to me in a few weeks...
anyways, this is all leadng up to my new found hope btw.
a few days ago, the person i've cared about most did something to hurt me very badly... my friends know me as a very apologetic person... and... she said that she thinks people who are apologetic are very weak...
normally i wouldn't mind that... but this person is someone i've loved more than anything in my whole life (i was afraid to start another relationship with her for fear of hurting her again).
when she called me weak, i snapped.
it took a while to calm down... like a few days (in fact it was last monday 9/13/10) that i calmed down...
since then... i've brushed off things that would normally make me miserable.
so yeah... hopefully i can defeat KOG with this...
also i found a new alter who i'm trying to merge us aoll into. his name is Zyvaks.
all of the alters have meaning to their names.
i wrote down the alphabet, took out all the letters i dind't need to spell Zai, RustyShuriken, Veritas.
then i added the duplicate letters i'd need to spell them all.
then i took out the letters that spelled the name given to the physical body.
there were some other things done, and i took the remaining letters to spell Zyvaks.
he doesn't come out much... he's still a little shy.
most of the time it's just me in control...
so yeah... sorry it took so long to get back to this.
btw, in case i didn't say this before, i found out the day that KOG is supposed to come back to power:
February 18th, 2011
on that day, KOG's time of control and Z's time of control will have been exactly even.
dark is made of anger, sadness, and hatred... that's all i ever feel... and it's all kog lives for... yet he and i are so different...
it amazes me how many sides there are to a story
DID
I want to offer this comment very gently because I am not one of you brave people who has had to live a life so traumatic to result in DID, nor have I had to live with your type of internal chaos. What I have done is walk beside those who do. So with utmost respect I just want to offer something. A big part of healing from any trauma (which includes DID) is to learn to love and accept all parts of yourself and all parts of your experience. That doesn't mean you have to love the way alters act, but they are doing what alters do- trying to protect in some way, and they hold so much of the feelings and memories. It is hard on those alters too because they are stuck in this feeling state- even if it be a murderous rage. I have met so many alters that held the legitimate rage of the past and could be extremely aggressive and violent. It may be hard for you to imagine, but it is even more necessary to love them. I have seen this over and over again, and the alters are only free to heal and transform if they are offered love and acceptance. This is not that different than in the external world. Offering love and acceptance to another also helps them to heal. I've known alters who were violent toward the person with DID (the host), and even toward me. Love and acceptance- and even humor helps to heal them, and amazing things happen.
I simply offer this from the perspective of someone who has walked the path toward healing with many people with DID and other forms of trauma. If this seems irrelevent to you to hear from someone who doesn't not have DID, I would refer you to include Faith Allen's website/blog as you attempt to make sense of things. She is a person recovering from DID who understands the importance of love and acceptance of every part of yourself and your experience. Besides reading her blog, you can interact with her either through the blog or email. I just offer you that as an additional resource in your healing. Her website is:
http://faithallen.wordpress.com/about/
Blessings
Therapist, I agree with you.
Therapist, I agree with you. In most cases, acceptance of alters genuinely helps. Understanding that they are not powerhouses and that they have their strengths and weaknesses can really do wonderful things. However, I believe that the ability to love and accept alters is a difficult skill to attain, and cannot be done in the early stages of something like Rusty is experiencing.
My Kize experience was very overwhelming and down-right terrifying. I was far too scared to accept or learn to love her, since I felt from her only hatred and rage. My first step was to overcome her. To prove to myself that I was stronger than she. Only then, when I had proven to myself that I was a strong person, could I start to build love and tolerance within myself.
As I previously mentioned, Kize became two seperate identities. Reuben and Freedom. In actuality, they are the same rage and hatred that she was, but I broke them down into pieces that I could manage. I was afraid of them for a while, too, because I recognized that urge from within them that I considered evil. Now, I have learned to love them, and even find amusement in some of their antics. I have learned that rage and hatred are human emotions, ones that we cannot avoid. I have also learned that it is not neccessary to act on the emotions, but completely okay to feel them. The same goes for Freedom's sexual desires. I was terrified that they would get out of control, but I have come to terms with them as well, having realized that this too is part of being human and does not make her, or us as a whole, a terrible person.
If Rusty can learn this at the KOG stage, then Rusty has accomplished something I could never do. I find it more likely that Rusty will have to follow a route similar to mine, first, but yes, the end goal is to understand that the alters are a part of the person and are not in any sense, evil.
Thank you for bringing this up. Sometimes I have a tendency to forget some of the steps I've taken thus far in my recovery. You've reminded me of perhaps the most important one. Love.
thanks, but no thanks
i appreciate the help offer... but i need to do this myself.
also... last night i did some new calculations because i kept forgetting to include the number of days that passed between my 8th birthday, and when Z was first created.
the new deadline is Feb 18th, 2011; exactly one year after Z was... you know
anyways, i googled the date to see if i could find anything significant about it... and i found something
i stumbled across a 2012 survival site and i started browsing through some comments
in a comment by someone named Chris, he mentioned that he feels something will happen on Feb 18th 2011
so yeah...
The DID experience as told by a survivor
Jordan,
If you want to see DID from the inside, read Sky Eyes by Kriss Erickson. The book chronicles her life from infancy to her cure. It's told in story form with the names changed to protect the guilty (some are still alive and might sue).
You can find it at http://www.akwbooks.com/BookStore/product.php?productid=16 in eBook form.
It's a very powerful story and you should make sure you can handle the details before you decide to read it. But it should make writing a paper on the subject a snap.
Help for the partner of a DID suffer
Can anyone please give me any advice or help with better understanding DIDs and how it affects onlookers and the person suffering?
I want to be there for my partner and help support her through everything, therefore i want to learn and prepare myself as much as possible.
any help would be appreciated.
Thank you and your all wonderful and so courageous!
DID
Hello,
I don't have DID but I am doing a paper on it. I am in school for a Masters in Counseling. I would love to speak with someone who has been diagnosed. I would like to know what it is you are experiencing. I will not judge nor question what you tell me. I will listen with an open and honest ear...
Maybe we can chat through email...
I have DID. I would be
I have DID. I would be willing to help if I can. Please do not write if you are just playing games. I am willing to share my story for those who want to learn to help others or themselves. I have been in therapy for many years and even volunteer at a mental health facility as a peer counselor. I am basically computer "challenged", but have finally given in to the need of them.
Face to face communication is safer for us, as I can read people well. Had to do that to survive. Anyway, reply if you think I might help.
Hi, a relative of mine whom
Hi,
a relative of mine whom I've been close to most of my life has recently been diagnosed with DID. She hasn't seen much support and therefore hasn't told many people. She also lives in a different state so I have been as much support as I can by email and chat. I've been learning and reading as much as I can and am trying to come up with some support for her. I don't know if enough is being done to help her, she sees a therapist once a week, doesn't seem like enough when this is all so new. I would like to either speak with you about what treatment you found most helpful, or possibly connect the two of you (as I see you do peer support) so that she could have someone who understands as an email buddy or something? I'm not sure if it gives you my email address here, but if you are willing I can post it for you to contact me privately.
Thank you.
DID Research
I have been diagnosed to have DID. I am a 54 year old white male and have been struggling with complications of child abuse my whole life. I've been seeing a therapist for years but I still suffer from this condition quite a bit. I'd be glad to share any information about my condition with you.
Tom
DID
The topic would be a good one from the standpoint of counselling. After all, success for a multiple is measured by the ability to compartmentalize relationships so that no one ever catches on; those who know one persona never encounter the people who know another. When people start comparing notes you are well and truly caught!
It's quite possible that someone would marry a gentle, sweet, caring person and then, long after, call them at work or meet their past friends and stumble across another personality that was nowhere near what they had bargained for. Allusions to Jekyll and Hyde can be pretty realistic characterizations of the situation and this can be hell for a marriage.
That said, what you ask strikes me as dangerous. The multiple (Dissociative Identity is such a hideous clinical neologism and unrelated to how the multiple thinks of themselves) is, by definition, a pretty fragile character. Asking them to correspond with a stranger over the internet might be risky. Anyway, unless they had pretty much been successfully through the drill of re-integrating the personalities, who would you actually be talking to? How much would they really know about what the other guys were up to? How much of the compartmentalization/secrecy/you-can't-find-me game would they be playing with you?
help
I would really like to be in contact with someone who knows about DID. I know I have it and am getting some help, but would really like to be able to talk about it. I'm still waiting for an appointment with my Psyciatrist, but it may be a while and I don't really trust anyone around me any more. It's really frustrating. If someone could send me and e-mail to a professional so i can discuss my issues that would be greatly appreciated.
D.I.D.
I am a therapist who has dealt a lot with DID. I'd be glad to be of help if there is anything that I could do, but I know this work really needs to be done in person, and I doubt if we are in the same geographical area. I also don't know how to share private contact information on this public forum. Which I am not posting on this website to nib into other people's lives or find new clients. I connected originally to help deal with some of my own pain regarding some unexpected changes in a DID client I was dealing with.
new
I'm new to this. I know I have DID but have never spoken to anyone else who has it. Just trying to find my way.
Curious
I'm doing a paper on DID, and I was just wondering what it's like. I've done the ends and odds of research and i know all about it, but you can't really know something unless you know it personally, so I was wondering if you could help me.
hey
are you a reputable doctor?
if he was he wouldn't be
if he was he wouldn't be posting here :D
Research
As someone who fits almost all of the symptoms for DID for the past few months, except the not remembering what my alters have done, and saying "we" instead of "I" (and yes I realize those don't happen to everyone with DID), but has not yet been diagnosed, I'd probably offer a fairly unique background and would be gald to help with a research paper.
I HATE DIDS
This is so hard for me. I don't know who I really am. Sometimes I'm who I was as a child and my regular self Robert. But other times I take on the alter ego of an agressive woman named Roberta. Other times I am a passive woman named Anita and other times I become Donald. The worst one is Donald, because I am constantly committing crimes when I am Donald. I need help, someone please help me before I take on another identity!!! I just wish this would just go away and I could go back to being Robert!
hi
my name is justin and i am 17. i think i may have DID. I have been seening a someone for it for about a year. The only problem is that i know they people tat take over me. This alters that I have been reading know me as well as i know them. My problem is that i dont know if that would make this a different from of DID. I have alot of the syptoms but seem to be able to remember so of the things that my other alters did well they were in my body. I also some to get flash backs of my and some of my alters lifes. I am not sure but i think i have it. If someone would reply and answer my question it would be nice.
thank you for your time
Justin
Justin, It is difficult to
Justin,
It is difficult to know whether you have DID or not. Mostly because while many people identify with some of the symptoms associated with DID, DID remains a very controversial entity. Many other, better understood (and more easily treated) conditions may appear like DID, such as bi-polar disorder, schizotypal personality disorder, as well as other personality and factititious disorders. Depending on the therapist, some who claim to treat DID use hypnotherapy to actually suggest to the patient that they have multiple selves. There is also a belief in some of the practitioners that DID stems from chronic and severe abuse, but this too is often suggested to the patients and can run the risk of creating false memories in patients.
So, while many people may identify with DID, there is in fact some question as to whether this is an actual disorder, or whether it is a variant of other mental illnesses.
I would consult a physician, and also a cognitive-behaviorally oriented psychotherapist. Beware of people who claim to treat DID as a specialty and especially those who claim to "treat" DID and the effects of supposed abuse with radical therapies including hypnosis
research paper
Hi I was wondering if some one might be whiling to tell me about the treatments they have recieved and if they feel like it helped? I have a few more questions to ask all regarding treament.
Thanks ATH
Therapy for DID
Regarding treatments, in my opinion, and it is only my opinion*, the majority of therapists will have no personal experience of what I am about to say, because they may never have tried it themselves.
*I think that my opinion counts for something, since I have actually seen my friend with DID through to almost full recovery... we are not quite there yet, but things are going very well indeed.
The best and most effective treatment is prayer. Not just passive prayer, but prayer which results in encounter with God directly, and by God I mean the Lord Jesus, who is God. God is the only person who actually has the answers, who actually knows how to fix things effectively and correctly and safely. He plans and organises the therapy programme and activities, he provides safe places in the mind, he resolves trauma, lifts anger and pain, removes spiritual things that make you feel bad, and he answers any questions you or anyone might have, at any time. To put it plainly God is very handy to have around when helping people in need.
Unfortunately, the problem is several orders of magnitude more difficult than most therapists realise, and requires a lot more support and commitment than is available from most professional sources.
Therapy needs to be on demand, (so your best bet is to get your friends and or spouse to learn to be your therapist) If a panic attack can be addressed within 10 minutes that specific source of that anxiety can be addressed, in order that the specific trigger never occur again. If this immediate help does not happen, then a simple panic attack will escalate, and spiral out of control, resulting in headaches and exhaustion at the very least, or a year or more in hospital at worst.
Typically those with MPD/DID have several thousand specific individually identifiable issues that each need to be resolved to a peaceful and calm state. Each of these issues can be further broken down to between 2 and 10 specific contributing factors. Each of these can be summarised as a statement which is in its essence not true. e.g. "There is no hope for me", "no body loves me" etc etc. So you are looking at a total of between 1,000 and 20,000+ individual "negative emotion-generating lies". Each of which can be investigated, measured, resolved and remeasured in meticulous detail. Through prayer Jesus can speak directly to resolve each and every one of those lies, to perfect peace and calm. The healing for each lie takes less than 10 seconds, and in my own experience, the healing is 100% effective. We have never seen an unsuccessful therapy session, when looking at lie based issues.
So even with 100% effective, and effectively instantaneous therapy for each specific issue. The size of the problem is still so big it will possibly take about 5 years to work through all of this stuff. However with MPD/DID that is only the start of the overall problem.
Once all of the trauma issues have been resolved the "littles" can become co-conscious, and share their experiences of life. They need to do this for several years to grow together naturally. Each of the parts needs to be able to come out, and fully flourish and express themselves as a person, however as these parts are still emotionally young, a 2 year old may be unable to cook, or cross the road. So in this nurturing stage, the DID person will need the option of 24/7 supervision, just like any emotional toddler would do.
The levels of trust and emotional safety, that are required for all the "littles" to come out and be in the conscious mind, to flourish and emotionally grow is extreme, very extreme indeed. In one situation I have in mind, it took 7 years of development of trust, in order to meet all of the "littles". I very much doubt if any doctor or psychiatrist could ever develop that level of depth of trust, with any of their patients, it probably would not be allowed anyway.
Once all trauma issues are emotionally unstuck, each of the littles can begin to emotionally grow up once more. This can be relatively quick, for example, once unstuck, a 1 year old part can grow up to be emotionally 15 in a year, if everything is favourable, however, if there are 50 parts, it will still take several years for them all to grow up fully to the age of the adult.
Integration should not really be encouraged, until it feels 100% safe. In fact nothing at all should be undertaken unless it feels 100% safe. To be honest most therapy basically does not feel safe, but people tend to be desperate and are willing to compromise in the hope of getting better, therapists and doctors really need to raise their game.
The prospect of integration will not feel safe, until all the parts have been co-conscious for several years, sharing many experiences and life fully for a long period. By this time all of the parts should have grown up to be the emotional age of the adult, and only at this stage should integration even be considered.
I will put my opinion out there, that psychiatrists as a profession are not qualified to treat MPD/DID. What I mean by this is, that they are not trained in the areas needed, and do not have the practical experience that would qualify them to help a patient with DID. The reason for this is that there is no formal training available which would qualify someone to help a patient with DID.
I am myself, by training, an engineer. I take my car to someone who has experience of actually fixing cars. The criteria which qualifies a therapist to be able to treat DID, would be that they had effectively facilitated someone through to complete 100% healing, over the full course of the recovery.
If I had the resources myself, I would fund a foundation to study and recognise successful therapists, with a series of awards. If a therapist was able to see someone through to complete 100% healing, I would award them the highest honours, the "golden butterfly award" would be the equivalent of the nobel peace prize.
The only training that I know of which teaches how to help those with DID effectively, is "Theophostic Prayer Ministry". I am in the process of developing my own course materials over the next year or so, which will be available via my website.
best regards
Keith
College student
Hello
my name is Hillarie and i have been touched by the experiences i have heard and read about concerning the survivors of DID.
I am a Psychology major and writing a reserch paper on Dissociative Identity Disorder.
If any are willing i would deeply appreciate an(can be anonymous) interview through email to better understand the victims.
You choose the information you give me
Thank you for your help and God bless.
r u still writingn your paper
r u still writingn your paper on DID?
college student
I am willing to answer questions. It is nice to think that there are those who want to learn about DID, hoprfully making life easier for future patients. So I am open to answering questions from those learning and those living with DID.
Carol