DID Awareness Day 2024
Hello everyone,
Today, it's DID awareness day!
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:
- What are subsystems and how can they co-exist in harmony - Barltik2065
- The different types of alters and how they developed - a personal experience
- List of YouTube Channels for People with DID/OSDD-1 or those who want to learn about it - HealingTalk, Teacup8809, alex428
- Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID): Myths vs Truth - SunsetShone
- Dissociative Identity Disorder: A Case Study - starryCandy6123
- The Positive Sides of DID - Barltik2065
- How to develop a relationship with alters and communicate with them - Teacup8809
- My Personal Story - WorkingitThrough2
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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@audienta Hey Audi :)
@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
@WendyBird14 Wow that is BS. Seems awful big headed of your therapist and to me sends all the wrong messages 😕
@mytwistedsoul yeah they kinda a poopy T she also said I just have to show healthy adult behavior xD for whatever that means
@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.
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.
@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
@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
@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
Thank you so much for sharing and raising the awareness! 😊