Dissociative Identity Disorder and diagnosis

Willie is the team's 'parent' and resident 'psychologist' and is one of the most serious, certainly the most clinical of the selves. Here Willie takes over the discussion as they confronting the Team's reflections on a DID diagnosis.

DID is an identity disorders but is commonly considered 'emotional disturbance' in children. Where DID occurs in a child with a developmental disability it could easily become one part of a range of issues that child has and so the child's DID may appear to be secondary or irrelevant until the child has overcome enough of the other issues for their to be some attention given to the DID.

DID may commonly present as other conditions including mood, anxiety, compulsive disorders and attention deficits. This is not to say the child has none of these things and only DID, because DID is essentially one of the most severe stress related disorders a child can develop so it is common to see it MANIFEST as a range of stress related co-morbids.

Those with DID may also suffer health disorders which can be exacerbated by severe chronic stress and high energy expenditure that occurs in DID. Those with health disorders significant enough to cause regular dissociation from the body may also be more prone to DID.

I have had diagnoses of being psychotic (age 2 in 1965), emotionally disturbed (school psychologists assessments through mid childhood in the 1970s), medicated for mood and anxiety disorders and juvenile arthritis (1972-73 aged 9-10), language processing disorder (age 9 in 1972), gut immune and metabolic disorders and atypical epilepsy (my 20s), autism (my 20s), on bipolar medication since my 40s (originally Risperdal then Seroquel).

After 44 years of I was finally formally diagnosed with Dissociative Identity Disorder when I went for a routine appointment with a new psychiatrist to have my Seroquel reviewed.

(Core Self in a team of 13 that includes Katrina, Willie, Anne (branch 1), Esby, Marnie (branch 2), Foosh, Ning, Opie, Polly Carol, Da, Rose (branch 3) and Addie.

for more information please visit http://www.donnawilliams.net

Category:

Education

Tags:

• dissociative identity disorder
• did
• mpd
• trauma

[1210donna]

I'm not American so awareness of Americans of any race was really not on my family's radar. Saying that my abuser was an extreme and open bigot with constant spouting of how X, Y, Z should be put to death... which included people with disabilities, overweight people, people of certain races. Having an abuser who was such a 'Nazi' likely caused me to develop one of my teams alters as an African American drawn from news footage of MLK and what he stood for in terms of equality and anti-bigotry

[ysimies]

Would you to tell a little bit more of how the hypnosis helped you? I'm thinking of trying hypnosis but my main wish would be to get someone else to hear me saying something that would prove that I have some sort of dissociative disorder. As my system has worked very tightly over the years (no lost time), I guess it would be safe not to disclose my view of me having a DD and just be open to whatever result.

[1210donna]

@xdarksamurai11x There are also many who suffered extreme abuse since early childhood and because they had no inherited tendency toward dissociation did not develop the protective responses of DID. I also don't think any one human being can be blamed for hurting all of those with a particular diagnosis.

[1210donna]

@xdarksamurai11x

I am formally diagnosed with DID.

If you check the most recent literature you'll find they've found an inherited tendency to disocciation.  The medical literature also cites there are some with DID who did not experience extreme abuse, but inherited a tendency to disocciation. Those with autism and other developmental disabilities have a higher ratio of child abuse than children without developmental disabilities so there will be those with the complication of DID.

[springrobin]

Thanks Donna! I too am familiar with that same old story that nobody wants to know about or talk about the Other Selves, like so many of us experience I'm afraid. I hope now that you have the diagnosis, if you haven't already, you will find that it fills in some gaps of your understanding of Self(ves) and you can find new and helpful ways to both cope and bloom as a result of the literature etc out there.