Happy New Year! And welcome to 2024.

I was recently encouraged to start a YouTube channel and to discuss Dissociative Identity Disorder on that channel; not because I’m an expert in psychology, but because I happen to deal with this condition. I might do it – I’ll have to see what I can do for a camera and lighting and such, and see if my old laptop is up to the task, but it’s a possibility.

Before I do that though, I thought I’d briefly discuss it here, and that’s the point of today’s post.

Most of you have heard of Dissociative Identity Disorder – if not under this name, then under it’s older moniker, Multiple Personality Disorder. I was first diagnosed with this condition over 20 years ago. This is a condition which many therapists are hesitant to offer as a diagnosis, in part because there is quite a bit of stigma surrounding it, and in part because it engenders a bit of controversy with some schools of thought suggesting that the phenomenon isn’t real. There is another camp that admits it’s real, but suggests that it’s over diagnosed. I can put the second objection to bed, at least for myselfMN b z, because my own case is a textbook example of the DSM criteria.

So, what is Dissociative Identity Disorder? According to Wikipedia, dissociative identity disorder is characterized by the presence of at least two distinct and relatively enduring personality states.  The disorder is accompanied by memory gaps more severe than could be explained by ordinary forgetfulness. The personality states alternately show in a person’s behavior; however, presentations of the disorder vary.

Dissociative Identity Disorder results from trauma experiences in childhood, and that trauma must have occurred before a child’s personality was able to completely integrate; you can’t develop dissociative identity disorder later in life.

In dissociative identity disorder, different personality states will be present and in control of the body at different times. Because of this, not all parts will be aware of all that the body is doing, which can lead to a great deal of confusion. Sometimes an individual with DID can be accused of lying, of doing things that they legitimately have no recollection of doing, because the personality state answering about the action may not be privy to the knowledge of the personality state that performed the action in question. This also implies another of the diagnostic criteria for dissociative identity disorder, namely, amnesia. Those of us who deal with DID will have periods of lost time.

It is a fair question to ask about what can cause this condition, but please don’t ever press an individual to go into specific details about their specific trauma. Suffice it to say that the trauma was of such an impact nature that it resulted in the mind’s prevention of the unification of a singular personality in order to defend itself against unspeakable trauma. There are come common themes though among survivors, some sorts of trauma that seem prevalent. These include religious trauma such as cult abuse, medical trauma, sexual and physical abuse, and other types of long term abuse in which there is no chance of escape.

Dissociative identity disorder will present differently in different individuals. One problem that I ran into at one point was comparing myself to others and thinking that because I was different, that I mustn’t have DID. That’s just not the case; we’re all different people, with each our own unique set of circumstances, and it’s not very likely that we’re all going to turn out alike. Having a diagnosis of DID doesn’t mean that we’re all going to have the same level of communication and cooperation among our parts. It doesn’t mean we’re all going to be able to have alters show up at will. (Alters refers to alternate personalities.) What it does mean is that we’ve each likely experienced some sort of overwhelmingly traumatic event during the early years of our lives, and finding a lack of sufficient support outside of ourselves to handle what was happening, our brains found this unique and creative way to deal with an otherwise intolerable situation.

This is the briefest introduction to DID, and if folks want to know more, let me know – I’m happy to write more about it, and I’m happy to consider doing some videos. Let me know.