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DID Awareness Day 2024
audienta March 5th
.

Hello everyone,

Today, it's DID awareness day!

dissociative-identity-disorder-awareness-day-2024_1709646913.jpg

In this post, there will be a short explanation of what DID is, 5 myths about DID, links to other posts about DID, and then questions for you to answer.

What is DID?

DID stands for dissociative identity disorder which is a disorder that is caused by childhood trauma. The trauma causes the forming identity to split into multiple parts, also known as personalities or alters. These personalities can have their own preferences, dislikes, names, ages, etc. and the person with DID, also called a system in some cases, switches between these different parts. Due to these switches, the person might experience amnesia (memory loss). DID can also correlate with other disorders, for example with PTSD which stands for post-traumatic stress disorder.

Myths about DID

There are a lot of misconceptions about DID, therefore here are 5 myths and their explanation.

1. DID is rare

As DID is quite unknown and can feel strange when you first hear about it, a lot of people think that DID has to be a rare disorder. However, about 1.1-1.5% of the population have DID! That's 1-2 people in a group of 100. (source 1)

2. DID makes people violent and dangerous

Due to misrepresentations like the movie "Split", some people think that DID makes a person violent and dangerous. While some systems do have parts that are there to protect them, people with DID are not more prone to violence than people without DID. (source 2)

3. DID is a personality disorder

DID was previously called "multiple personality disorder" and this leads to people thinking that DID is a personality disorder. However, DID is a dissociative disorder which is a reaction to trauma, while personality disorders are characterised by fixed patterns of personality traits that make the person's life more challenging. (source 3)

4. DID is the same as schizophrenia

People with DID and people with schizophrenia both experience voices in their heads, therefore some people think it's the same or related. However, in people with DID, the voices come from other alters, which are real, fully-formed personalities and parts of the system. In people with schizophrenia, the voices come from delusions and hallucinations. Therefore, it's not the same and not connected. (source 3)

5. It is obvious when a person has DID

As DID causes a person to have different personalities, a lot of people think that it's obvious when a person has it. However, DID is formed to protect the person. Therefore, a lot of systems are covert which means that the different parts are hidden from the outside. This can for example be done, when the host, the personality that's out the most, isn't even aware of the other alters, or when alters pretend to be the host so that other people don't recognize the switch. 

Posts about DID

The trauma support writing team has already written a few posts about DID. Here they are:

Questions for you

To spread awareness about DID, feel free to answer the following questions in the comments:

1. Do you have DID or know someone with DID?

2. What is a myth about DID that I haven't mentioned?

3. What do you want to know about DID? Or what do you want others to know about DID?

Thank you for reading and answering the questions.

Take care,

audienta

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mytwistedsoul March 5th
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@audienta Hey Audi :) 

Yes - I do
One myth is That complete integration or final fusion is absolutely necessary or the main goal in therapy. It's not. Many of us just want to heal and have better communication and cooperation

Another myth is that parts can't have different health and mental health issues. It's normal for parts to have different vision and hearing. Even allergies. I have a part that's allergic to bee stings

Myth 3 - that persecutor parts are bad and need to be gotten rid of or ignored *ignoring them will only make things worse and all you'll end up doing is enforce all the every negative thing they believe*   

I'm approachable lol. Some people seem to think they need to be a professional in order to talk with me and help me work through things 😕
WendyBird14 March 5th
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@mytwistedsoul

Im currently experiencing your last thing, I cannot speak of my DID to anyone but my therapist according to my therapist ;-; because other people aren't professionals, it's such bs lol 

mytwistedsoul March 5th
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@WendyBird14 Wow that is BS. Seems awful big headed of your therapist and to me sends all the wrong messages 😕

WendyBird14 March 5th
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@mytwistedsoul yeah they kinda a poopy T she also said I just have to show healthy adult behavior xD for whatever that means 

mytwistedsoul March 5th
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@WendyBird14 lol define healthy adult behavior. Most of us have never even really seen healthy adult behavior and for her to say that is basically telling you to fake it. Don't we already hide enough things? I'm really sorry she's telling you these things 

audienta OP March 5th
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@mytwistedsoul

Thank you for your valuable additions! I think the last one is very important - people with DID are also just people. As it's not rare, you've probably already talked to a person with DID without even knowing it. 

mytwistedsoul March 5th
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@audienta Thank YOU for helping to bring awareness to it :)

audienta OP March 6th
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@mytwistedsoul

It's my honour to be able to support this topic.

underapinetree March 5th
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Cool post, and thank you for the extra posts with info and such. To answer the question, we have DID. Additionally, our current boyfriend has a dissociative disorder as well. So I'm not sure if it's a myth, but I think people forget that dissociation is on a spectrum. Some people for example don't always have distinct alters, or they might have excellent memory or struggle with other things. Even DID looks very different between two people who both have DID. I wish more people knew about that spectrum of experiences.


A lot of what I want to know about DID is about getting along with other alters and finding a balance in life. I think there are a lot of discussions about discovering your system and all, but I wish there were more discussions between people who have been dealing with it for a long time. It gives me hope when I can hear from people who have a lot of experience dealing with these things and that have seen improvements in their lives. All this is from someone who has been told I have DID by professionals, but who doesn't know where to go from there. Again, nice post, thank you.

WendyBird14 March 5th
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@underapinetree

I always say dissociation on its own is a symptom that can be seen in many disorders not only limited to dissociative disorders :) so yeah its a spectrum and I agree DID is too just as no person is exactly the same. It gives me hope too when I see people speak about their journey and how far they have come within their journey, im still in the phase of learning about my DID and parts but my social worker said I already know alot about them :D which made me hopeful 

audienta OP March 6th
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@underapinetree

Hey tree

Thank you for the reminder, that dissociative disorders are on a spectrum. I'm aware of it, but didn't think of adding it to the post, so thank you for your comment. 

Regarding conversations with people with DID who have more experience with it, we do have weekly discussions for people with DID/OSDD-1 or dissociative disorders in general. Here's the link to the schedule. Also, you might want to check out the list with links to YouTubers with DID - it's in the post above.

I wish you all the best!

audienta

wontwakewontsleep March 7th
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@audienta

Incredible post with so many resources. Thank you! Big accomplishment and the community can reference it for years to come. 

audienta OP March 9th
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@wontwakewontsleep

Thank you! That means a lot to me. 

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@audienta

It is my understanding that DID is caused by structural dissociation. The theory is that we are all born with separate action systems that integrate together as we grow up so that we can fluidly switch between them. With DID these integrations don't occur and we remain disintegrated, as well as have difficult experiences that may stop action systems developing further. Rather than saying we 'split' it is more accurate to say that trauma is a failure to integrate our experiences. There were development stages we didn't complete in the past, but if we can access new resources in the present we can integrate (I don't mean fusion) and heal in the present. I think that is a wonderful and hopeful view of recovery as living with our systems in harmony can greatly improve our quality of life!

audienta OP March 9th
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@CompassionateArtist

Thank you for your comment. That's a helpful way to look at it. 

daydreammemories March 31st
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@audienta

Thank you so much for sharing and raising the awareness! 😊

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