Noticed that since I heard about DID and when I started educating myself on the subject, lots of people tend to dramatize DID and are very theatrical. This is what makes me skeptical on 80% of the patients. Appearing on television like it’s a circus act.
if you are that skeptical of the validity of the disorder then you should not be treating them. We hear enough people telling us it's just delusions and attention getting , don't need another person in disbelief "trying" to help
schizophrenics have many delusions, when I was being diagnosed a theropist tried telling me that I had did, for one this caused confusion because the head doctor in the ward told me I was paranoid schizophrenic. I had never dissociated in my life but being that I knew nothing of did and what I knew of schizo from media was terrible and I didn't want to accept my diagnosis, focased on did and this caused a delusion, lol I actually did disassociate a few times after that but eventually I accepted my original diagnosis and boom never dissociated again in fact I'm living a pretty normal life aside from anxiety none of my family or friends or anyone around me thinks I'm crazy at all, so life's good
Frank Huston Dude, of all disorders someone with Munchausen might fake, DID would be by far the most difficult to maintain. Not to mention not beneficial since so many people think it’s fake. It’d be way easier to fake, say, schizophrenia, or... I dunno, BPD. Pretty much anything else would be simpler.
An estimated 2% of people have DID. That's one in every fifty. That's about as common as meeting a natural redhead. Of course the ones you see in the media are either going to be extreme cases or they're going to be drama queens. That's what gets them clicks and views.
I think there's a lot of fakers on UA-cam. They romanticize the disorder with a lot of their videos and love the attention and money they capatilize from viewings.
D. I. D. Is confusing to me in some ways...I do believe alters are created in the brain for coping ,etc, but I can’t subscribe to people being able to consciously switch back and forth, even on command, between alters , with full control and memory. That does not add up, seems a bit more like character acting. Trauma based disorders cant be that easily controlled, hence the disorder labels.
At some point, switching when you're aware it's going to happen (not fully on command switching) is going to appear. Sometimes, when a child alter of a friend talks to me, it can 'awaken' our little one and it becomes easy to say 'Hey, come out!' But it's still the alter's choice whether to switch or not. Perhaps even if the changing alter feels bad, they may switch because they don't understand boundaries or are still protecting others.
This is honestly complete pseudoscience, most of the people with the "disorder" are doing it for attention (although they may trick themselves into believing it) , the only thing they are trying to cope with is their narcissisticm.
They’re not that easily controlled. Getting to that level takes years of work. I have DID. I am nowhere near switching on command, but that is our current goal as a collective. It’s a goal to work towards, it’s not something that just sort of happens.
SpaghettiVEVO How about you do some actual research and learn how to spell “narcissism” before you try to tell an entire group of people that they’re faking for attention, mate. Have you met every single person on the planet who has DID? No? Didn’t think so. Also, learn what narcissism actually is while you’re at it.
my sister has DID, and what i was told about it was that it came from her abuse and that her brain couldn't cope with the stress. the 'alters' came as a front to make the body think that nothing bad is happening, and almost overtakes the problem because these 'alters' allow the body and brain to rest and forget about the stress. the amnesia created by the dissociation is to ensure that when the host (the 'original' or 'main' person) doesn't find out about the illness. the illness works in a way that the brain doesnt want to conscious to know about it, and that its almost shielding it from the truth.
Kenneth Bianchi, the hillside strangler 1977-79. At his trial, Bianchi pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity, claiming that another personality, one "Steve Walker", had committed the crimes. It was believed he had recently seen the film "Sybil," about a woman suffering from multiple personalities triggered by childhood abuse. He convinced a few expert psychiatrists that he indeed suffered from multiple personality disorder, but investigators brought in their own psychiatrists, mainly Martin Orne. When Orne mentioned to Bianchi that in genuine cases of the disorder, there tend to be three or more personalities, Bianchi promptly created another alias, "Billy".
i had a friend who lied about having did. Oh yes she also lied about having a brain tumor :'3 so sure there are always people who will lie about having a condition if its metal or physical.
It was controversial in the 1990's. Its controversial today. We need to discuss more about why a doctor decides to diagnose someone with this disorder. I just think we don't understand human behavior. There is more than what meets the eye.
As a DID system who's been working on a lot of recovery and coping tactics and acting as big sis or god-mom to other systems in their discovery and recovery stages, our answer is this: DID should be diagnosed as a means of identifying the overarching structure of the system's disabilities and pathologies. From there, you work with the system to form diplomacy, agreement and cooperative synergy between its constituent alters. This creates a foundation for a healthier internal support structure, and from there you can work on resolving the causal traumas and any current dissociation-inducing factors in the system's life and building new lifestyle features that can help reduce amnesiac and dissociative episodes. The principles of DID treatment aren't that difficult to grasp and formulate. You just have to understand that the disorder is nothing more than an out-of-control defense mechanism employed as damage control for early-childhood complex (long-term) trauma.
@@auralynn3862 wow! This is a fantastic response. Not only have you obviously done a lot of research but you also discussed treatment which I think is so important.
I refuse to understand the glorification behind DID, as it is a lonely and confusing. Constructed with countless life restricting measures just to not totally freak out over the tiniest impulse of stress. When there's a violent or self loathing alter, being alone with just those voices can lead to apathic and nihilistic state of being. Having them in an uncontrolled enviroment can lead to suffering new traumas for the measures that need to be taken to make it safe. Being prevented living a full and self dependend life, while being challenged in every choice and action you take by the ones that know everything to make you doubt yourself. THERE IS ONLY AVOIDANCE OF TRIGGERS, THERES NO CONTROLLING THE DISSOCIATION WHEN IT OCCURS. I could go on for ages, but I wish all who faked it really got it. Same for the clinicians. Even if it was just for experiencing how hard it is to find good treatment, being scrutinized on my symptons or suggested some anti depressents.
"I refuse to understand" is a huge red flag no matter how you slice it. Oh well, I can still leave this here for others. Hey there! Alter within a co-conscious DID system here! There's so much here to address! Re: "lonely and confusing" - Puberty is confusing, being trans is confusing, being gay is confusing... and all of those things can be incredibly lonely depending on your social circumstances. To any systems reading this, if you find yourself lonely, reach out. There are support groups, there are online communities, your friends and family might not be as mean and scary about it as you expect them to be and quite frankly we hear a lot of stories about people having already suspected the person coming out was plural to begin with because even if you *try* to pretend you're singular, the lot of you will inevitably behave differently because for all relevant intents and purposes you are different people. Re: "Life restricting measures; avoiding triggers" - So, this isn't actually related to DID at all. Instead, you're actually observing poor management of Complex-PTSD, which is PTSD's eldritch big brother formed by living in a traumatizing environment for an extended period (as contrasted against PTSD generally being caused by traumatic events). C-PTSD comes with "negative self-concept" and "affect dysregulation" symptoms, which means the patient 1.) views themselves as being any mix of diminished, defiled, broken, hopeless, weak, infantile, useless, worthless, invalid, incompetent, inferior, et cetera, and 2.) experiences overwhelmingly powerful emotions (such as seemingly uncontrollable anger) and/or deadened or obscure emotions, and can find themselves switching between these two extremes. - Oh, and by the way, we don't live like this. Our disabilities at this point have to do with our body, poor time management and executive functioning, et cetera. Re: "Violent/self-loathing alters; challenged in every choice" - These are generally called "persecutors" and they aren't necessarily what you might think they are. Think of them as unruly, rebellious teenagers. The violent ones lash out (as many teens do), sometimes in horrible ways, likely due to a subconscious drive to take back the control they were robbed of as a child (see the above regarding C-PTSD), or in the case of attacking others in their system might feel like the system's internal leadership (usually the "host") has failed them or that one or more of their fellow alters needs some "tough love" which we've all seen spiral into abuse. The self-loathing ones might feel crippled and defeated, or be internalizing abuse (*and keeping it from spilling out into the entire system, so be grateful toward them for they are face-tanking your worst nightmares for you*), et cetera. In general, don't think of an alter as a symptom or a broken piece of a person. Think of it as a full person with all the same motivations, hangups and failings. - How do you handle a persecutor, then? Or trauma holder? You extend an olive branch. You show them love. Go figure, they seem to calm down once they know you're not making them out to be some horrible monster or an undesirable to be tossed aside ASAP. -- In general, DO NOT DECLARE WAR WITHIN YOUR MIND. Do not put your headmates down as "bad," do not fight to become a singular person, et cetera. Nobody wins that fight, it just makes more trauma!
@@XxAshaWxX doesn't make fakeing okay tho. Cuz of fakers fictives and factives are seen as fake or scary. And i myself am a fictive I don't see the need in hiding but most people do. Fakers are not something to be sympathized with.
My father’s master’s thesis was on how DID is fake. I’ve never been convinced otherwise, especially with the people clearly faking and self-diagnosing on social media. There are a bunch of people who have made a community out of it and literally educate people about the disorder when they have zero formal education on the subject and are not licensed in any sense. Like it’s literally just kids who believe they know enough to educate people
I believe people can dissociate. Everyone can. I believe that people can dissociate in a way that create an alter personality that is intended to protect. To shield someone from perceived or real trauma. However. I start to question how or why someone would develop 45 alters, including children or non humans. I don't wanna belittle anyone, but I cannot believe that any person could function this well with so many personas battling for the light.
I graduated in 2016 with my BA in Psychology from a top Psychology program. In all my years of education I haven't seen any evidence to show that D.I.D. is anything more than a performance, which is too often diagnosed and rewarded by over-zealous mental health professionals. I'm curious to hear more about the brain scans you mentioned, but absent that, I do believe DID is just a performative disorder that people use as a coping mechanism for some other underlying issue. I also think it's incredibly dangerous that we now have social media stars who are becoming famous for having DID when the legitimacy of the disorder is so questionable. I think that we still are far behind in our ability to properly treat common disorders like depression, autism, and anxiety, and that the more sensational things like DID deserve to be on the back burner until evidence proves the existence.
KikiCatNovelties I mean, there are documented cases of alters having things like allergies that other personalities in the same body don't have. Like one case where all but one alter were allergic to oranges and would get a really bad rash upon drinking orange juice. But then the other alter who isn't allergic would come out and the rash would slowly go away and they could have orange juice just fine. There's also cases where one alter has heart arrhythmia and no other alter does. That's not something you can fake. Also I don't see how it can be "performative" if some level of amnesia between alters is a required symptom.
Most people with DID don’t talk about it or go public on multi media, UA-cam etc. It’s tough as it is to be different, not remembering and feeling ashamed
It kind of sounds like a more extreme IFS. We all have an Internal Family System. We all have different facets to our personality. I'm wondering if trauma in early childhood causes a persons IFS to go awry basically. I have a dissociative disorder. Was misdiagnosed repeatedly and over medicated, which did little to nothing in helping me get rid of or controlling depersonalizing and derealizing. Both of those are extremely frightening, and can last for moments to months. Working with a good therapist now, and he has been able to gain the trust of "parts" of me that are more willing to share info, some of which I don't recall and am not ready to hear. I do not have DID, but because of early childhood trauma, facets of my personality became very distinct and extreme. There was never a grey area for me until I found a good therapist. My emotions were black or white. Hope I didn't offend anyone. Just my opinion.
And now in Australia a lady with her acknowledged condition DPD has been allowed to testify against her father in a court of law while being in 1 of her other personalities ..wow this has come a long way in recognition...(he's now gone to jail)
I have DID. It's definitely real, and wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy. I just blackout during the day, and have amnesia for periods of time. The alters each have different strengths and weaknesses, likes and dislikes.
I'm interested in the racial demographics of this disorder, why does it appear more prevalent in western culture, specifically people of European descent? Some people claim that they have DID without having experienced consistent child abuse in their formative years, so how is that possible and what else can cause this extreme dissociation? There is also the fact that DID is a rare diagnosis, a majority of child victims that experience extreme abuse do NOT get DID, children of war, children of sex trafficking and sex crimes are not getting this, why?? What makes sufferers of DID more susceptible to this condition than any other victim of abusee, what is different? I am highly skeptical of people who claim to have multiple "alters" especially if the number is high above 5, I understand if a child unconsciously creates an alternative character to soothe themselves, but if a 23 year old woman claims to have a " new alter" every month, it does not fit in with the disorder because an adult is aware that they are creating a character and it seems to not fit in line with the description of DID and seems more like role playing. I do not have these disorders but I have dissociated before, I was severely depressed and i remember sitting in my bedroom and before I knew it 6 hours had past, I was shocked, one minute the sun was out and next minute it was dark outside, I have no memory of thoughts or action during that period, I was just lounging on my bed staring at wall, not sleeping but not quite awake either, like being on stand by, im sure if someone had walked in on me I would've snapped out of it. This experience is how imagined DID sufferers would feel during an episode, no recollection of what they'd done for the past hours, with tthe exception that they WERE actually doing something, exactly like sleep walking. This is why I dont believe you can trigger a DID episode on purpose because if it is a conscience thought to "swittch" then that is called role playing. A scenario I would find believable would be, A DID sufferer is stressed or triggered by something and they automatically revert to an alter that makes them more comfortable, for example if they are scared they may switch to a more protective alter and they would do this automatically WITHOUT being aware at all tthat they arre doing this
While I can't answer your question about the demographics of the disorder, I hopefully can answer some of the questions you have. If there is no severe childhood trauma, the person doesn't have DID. Everyone can dissociate, but the difference between people who don't have DID and people with DID is that people who have DID have been able to dissociate at a higher level. That's also why not all children who have been through sex trafficking and victims of sexual abuse have DID. These children have to have that ability to dissociate at a higher level than average, and while I cannot tell you how exactly this occurs, to my understanding, that is what happens. Also children must experience that severe trauma before their single personality can fully integrate, which usually occurs between the ages of 7 and 9. When this single personality forms is completely dependent on the child, since every child develops differently. An eight year old can experience horrible, traumatic things, but if their personality has already integrated, they will not have DID. Every case of DID is unique to that own individual. While it does sound sketchy that a 23 year old has a new alter ever month, it could happen. Depending on the person and how easily they can get stressed, traumatized, triggered, etc. It can happen by moving houses or switching jobs, or other traumatic events. Say that person was heavily abused as a child and a trigger for them is screaming and swearing, if someones starts to scream and swear at that person, it could trigger the brain to split, creating a new alter. DID is also, in a way, the brains coping mechanism for dealing with traumatic events (like how repression is a coping mechanism). These splits can happen as an adult, and most people don't even get a diagnosis of DID until later in their teen years at the very earliest. People can go on for 50 years without knowing they have DID. Most professionals don't want to diagnose someone with DID right away, or even within a year, due to the heavy stigma surrounding it, and the skills needed to be able to see it (for lack of better words) and properly diagnosed. Those with DID are commonly misdiagnosed with multiple different disorders before their DID diagnosis. Now switching alters mostly happens when there is some sort of trigger, whether it is positive or negative. Like a child alter will try to come to the front when the host sees toys. If a specific alter likes a film that's on they might come to the front to watch it. On the flip side, if the host is experiencing sexual assault, a protective alter will come to the front to handle it so the host doesn't have to. There are systems of alters that work on communicating with each other to make the system's lives easier. When someone is given a DID diagnosis (which usually occurs after years of therapy) most people deny it first. When they come to terms with it, the alters might be able to communicate in a way. The most common communication is between the host (the alter that is out the most often) and the primary protector (the "go to" alter for anything triggering or traumatic). Some people can force a switch if the communication between the alters is good, and/or if they are co-conscious (the alter that is fronting is in the drivers seat while the other alter present is in the passengers seat). Sorry for the length of this! I wanted to try to be as thorough as I could. While I don't know everything by any means, I am currently a psychology student studying to work with traumatized children, which includes the ones who can develop DID, I actually do a lot of research on DID for my reports! If you have any other questions or need clarification with anything I said, please comment and I'll happily answer them for you! Stay well!
they never explain how DID is a spectrum, you usually don’t have alters. I have DID, I don’t have alters. I’ve had different series in my life where I’ve acted completely different unintentionally and don’t remember much but it’s not theatrical like most of these people on UA-cam. I have amnesia, I dissociate but why can’t I find anyone like me?
My therapist gets triggered whenever the topic of DID comes up she says people say they have it all the time and it’s her pet peeve. She says most of the people have run-of-the-mill schizophrenia.
I'm in no way a mental health professional, but I do wonder if these DID channels all have BPD and their scant sense of self leads them to wanna legitimize switching between all these theatrical personas as "DID" for extra believability and sympathy points.
I think it's time to stop looking at D.I.D. as being super rare and "special". This leads therapists to think the client is lying to get attention, or is mistrustful of the client because they must be making it up, or it must be something else, because it's supposed to be so rare. I don't think it's as rare as people think, especially among women who've been abused. Approaching the client from the standpoint of mistrust would just further traumatize the patient.
I have DID and I agree and disagree with some parts in your video. The things I agree with are that some people do do it for attention and dramatise their switches and that puts a bad name on the people who actually have DID because most people don’t like talking about it since it relays the time when the trauma was gained. Something I disagree with though is how people say things don’t add up. Sometimes they don’t and I don’t blame them for not understanding because it’s a really touchy subject. DID is NOT the same for everyone. I have 7 alters besides myself who were created before I was 6. I can repress my alters but not for long because it feels like a weight on my chest and it’s harder for me to breathe. Thankfully after 9 years of practice and conversing with these alters we can safely say that we have developed a relationship where we trust eachother and work to protect the body as a group; like a team effort. I do not like people saying they don’t believe DID exists when they do not have it. It is a very very difficult disorder to explain and most of us still have no idea how there are 8 personalities in 1 body but that’s our reality. DID is a real disorder but there are much much more people who fake it that are online than people who genuinely have it and do not document it. Sorry for the rant I just had to clear up some points I saw
So, I am 66. During a tragic divorce I was diagnosed by a court ordered psychiatrist with DID. The only doctors that treated were in other states. I was 40, 1996 Fast forward, no treatment just pain, I was diagnosed with BPD in 2019. Little treatment, no docs take my insurance and now Medicare, I am retired. So, I live best I can, alone, isolated, gardening and art. Waiting for my number to come up and ready.
This is fascinating to me. My mother was either schizophrenic or DID. She was never clinically diagnosed as my father (probable narcissist) hid her and swept this under the carpet. Mom had 2 distinct personalities. The normal loving one... as normal and loving she be could 🙄 and this crazy personality that took off into hallucinations, crazy talk, insane laughing, bazaar accusations, and it didn’t seem she knew where she was. Being raised in this environment was and has been earth shattering to me. I was the only child of 4, the youngest who held the family together. This led to a lifetime of narcissistic abuse by friends, family, romantic partners etc. I always wonder what happened to Mom.
DID is such a fascinating subject. This video introduces the idea of what it is and the different opinions out there as to whether it really exists or not.
The last *"D"* stands for _Disorder_ and most people who got diagnosed with a mental disorder got diagnosed because they went to a doctor in order to find out what's wrong with them and find out how to fix it. What I see more and more, though, are people who seem to be proud of having DID and they're not even thinking about trying to fix it. I understand that people decide to accept something and try to live with it when there's no cure but look at how some people glorify some mental disorder (not just DID) and don't even think about a possible cure. It seems like they had nothing going on in their life and now that they have "this", it became their whole identity and they don't want to lose it.
Where is this magical country where DID is over-diagnosed? You're much more likely to be laughed off and spend years looking for the right doctor and medication because of a bunch of attention-seeking clowns who pretend to have it for fun, or therapists refusing to read up anything but Sybil case. In my country nothing except for schizophrenia and histrionic personality disorder is diagnosed. Every person with DID I've met in Russia has schizophrenia as a part of their medical record. Their traumas and PTSD symptoms aren't addressed, cause what do you mean you were abused as a child, you're clearly lying for attention!
I couldn't agree more! Having a mental disorder in Russia or other post-soviet countries is truly horrible. I had to go through it with one of my close relatives and the unprofessionalism and neglect that I saw were horrifying. Of course, I assume there are good professionals out there and the situation gets better with time, but unfortunately, psychology and psychiatry carry a lot of bias and legacy of the soviet system.
Yeah, DID is UNDER diagnosed. Where I live I was diagnosed with Multiple personality disorder... in 2003... and currently in 2020 every Therapist in my area still only knows MPD. I talked to someone very recently and asked her what do you know about Dissociative Identity Disorder and her response was, what's that? This was a person who just recently graduated college with a major in psychology and she didn't know what I was talking about till I said it use to be called Multiple personality disorder. It hasn't been called that since the 90s but still the only thing therapists in my area know it by.
I have a coworker who is really difficult to work with because I never know "who" she's going to be on any given day. I am really beginning to believe that she may have this. Her symptoms seem to be too extreme to be BPD. We are letter carriers and work in a very small office. Some days she's very friendly, joking around and engaging me in conversation, other days she's very religious, humming church songs while she works and sometimes yells out or sings "Jesus" like she was in church. Then there's the mean version. That one doesn't like me at all and is very hostile towards me. That version acts superior and gets mad at anything I say to her, even if it's a complement. Because we wear the same uniform every day, there's no real change in her appearance, other than the way she wears her hair. It's very upsetting to me and I don't know how to deal with her.
My psych professor actually explained to our class why DID can not exist. Reality people get very sensitive on that instead listening to why so you have to conform to an illness that does not make sense to exist. He notes how memory works. There have been cases like Sybil and Billy Mulligan, but both were proven to be false. Otherwise, generally, every case ends up being misdiagnosed. Memory is the key reason why DID doesn't work. Memory isn't truly forgotten. You may think you forget a memory, but you wouldn't be able to recall a memory later. Hence memory always exists regardless if you can't recall it at thr given time because if you truly didn't have thr memory you wouldn't be able to recall it. It is impossible to be multiple people and not have memories of it. Secondly they've outed every time someone acted like the did through questions. 3rd there are conditions much better to this and also involves trauma statements doctors often misdiagnosed or don't know often about and often misdiagnosed with multiple other conditions. CPTSD. In that case also people intentionally avoid traumatic memories. They also have mood swings and don't fit in socially and may even struggle to hold relationships. On the contrary there are other more realistic diagnoses then DID which makes absolutely no sense to exist.
Frankly people think alters are scary or evil. If you ever find some one it really does depend, some people may have more mean alters. Some can want to kill the body but are normally kinda hushed and told to shut their edgy ass up. My boyfriend has DID and I just really love talking to his alters and their friends to me. It's kinda like living a weird mystery story full of ups and downs but frankly I still love it and being friends with everyone in the system. Every system is different but I believe people with DID shouldn't be demonized. And in the end I still love my boyfriend more then anything♥️
Those "mean" alters are just trying to cope in the ways they know. Be kind to them. Embrace them. They're like unruly teenagers, clawing their way through life covering up fear and pain with anger and hostility and just like unruly teenagers they might not even realize it (which means even in co-conscious systems like ours, the rest of the system might not realize it). Even the ones who want to kill the body might just be following a subconscious desire to free the system of their pain. Thank them for that, and assure them that there are other, better ways. And for those people who see us as scary or evil, they should take a look at the fact that even the host is still an alter. There isn't a "real one" or "original one," we're all part of a team. A family.
I think you should not say childhood abuse but more accurately childhood trauma as in my case. Followed by many other traumas during my life. I have an official diagnosis of DID including Derealisation, depersonalisation and dissociative amnesia. It it a very difficult illness to cope with. I’m disappointed that young people mostly female make videos of DID. I would class them as fake because the illness is so hard one can barely manage daily life.
Ask someone who has DID if someone else is faking it. If they tell you they don't know because they can't diagnose it and don't want to accuse anyone of faking.. .then they probably have it. I have never met someone with DID who accused someone else of faking. Enough people are accusing them of faking and they know theirs is real.
I'm quite well versed in various aspects of psychology, but I haven't done much research into DID until recently; I'd be curious to know what you think of my initial impressions. One of those is that the earlier cases (pre-internet, roughly) seem to often include a lot of amnesia and few personalities. Often, it seems like PTSD and Borderline PD, perhaps including another diagnosis as well. The younger DID people, such as ones on UA-cam, seem to often have dozens of personalities, and the detail about these personalities is usually much greater. In one case, the young woman said that one of her "alters" began as a man, changed to being no gender, and eventually became a shoe! Now can a shoe have a personality? In any case, I'd like some deception experts and polygraphers to examine/interview a few hundred MPD people to see how much faking there seems to be; perhaps a pattern can be established. Another question is, why call it a disorder if it helps the person cope with the stresses of life? The earlier cases seem to have viewed the MPs in a much more negative way than the younger people do. And I wonder if there hadn't been much attention to the supposed MPs, would it have simply been classified as a delusional disorder? How about something similar to Tourette's? Instead, many who claim to have MPs seem to want society to change to accommodate the switching from one type of personality to a very different one (perhaps one that is outright abusive!). Some seem to be angry about how few will accept their many personalities as "real," but what does real mean in this context? While almost everyone might agree that a shoe can't have a personality, how solid is the concept of personality in the first place? What about a phantom limb? There's no doubt these patients don't have the arm or leg, but to them it is as real as it was before the amputation! Why don't MP people explain things in this way, if that's the way they feel, instead of insisting on "the reality" of MPs, which may be more of a philosophical question anyway? Thanks for your great videos, Dr. Grande!
I understand why many may be skeptical about a shoe having a personality, however, if a child believes that everything has a personality, then that shoe will have a personality.
What if DID brain differences are just due to another more accurate diagnosis (eg PTSD, Borderline, schizophrenia). Perhaps matching brain imaging for aforementioned disorders would be helpful.
Yeah, finally you did something on dissociation! 😊 It's my choice of topic for my masters and hopefully PhD. I'm interested in the attentional and memory aspects of personality generally and more directly, the mechanisms of dissociation and altered states. Eh, a little light reading to fill in the the time. 🤓😜
Where can I find these psychologists that are eager to take on unusual cases? My therapists in the past have all completely dismissed me because they didn't want to deal with any additional testing or diagnosis beyond ptsd and gad.
I hope things have changed for the better since you wrote this comment. I think mental health professionals were scared after there were cases of therapists being sued for "convincing" people they had DID. I remember hearing about this being a "faked" illness in the late 90s and I've witnessed a shift in acceptance towards this illness. Maybe it's not agreed upon but I think the increase in number of reported cases will cause the field to find solutions.
I‘m quite sure I‘m suffering from DID and laaaawd one thing I can say is that I came to meet people who were actually faking this condition and one thing they all had in common was using their alter egos kind of as an excuse... yeah idk just wanted to share this thought
Nile You dont have the disorder so how do you even know it’s fake. And for you to attack a disorder that is used as a coping mechanism for childhood trauma is really insensitive of you. Some people have been through hell and back when they were young, some sexually abused, maybe a close family member died, maybe they were abandoned. It differs from person to person but that’s like having a go at someone for having OCD or Schizophrenia. I understand it’s not normal and I’m sorry your tiny brain can’t comprehend change in our society today, and you’re open to your own opinion, but your opinion is actually wrong and you have to accept that
Thank you. I was diagnosed many years ago but the sensational media stories and disbelief of doctors left me feeling very ashamed and confused. Was I just making it all up? I still won't talk about it or give overdue attention to this diagnosis even in therapy. Over the years as I've recovered from the denial of the abuse I went through my symptoms have improved.
Right. It was one thing to see the first interview which got a lot of views and now she is putting out her own videos. Im not buying it either. One was her going into an arts and crafts store to "make" Minnie come out. I don't think thats how dissociative identity disorder works.
@@maggie0285 It was to trigger an alter to come out. If an alter feels an emotional connection to something, they might get triggered to front and take control of the body. Considering Minnie would be a little, she might love arts and crafts and front. Also, making alters front on command is hard and can take years of therapy to do. It also may give the body headaches and other side effects as well.
I can tell you that I have had dissociative amnesia. I found my neighbour murdered and have no memory of same. My daughter seems to have multiple personalities . She was abused before I adopted her. I’m not sure is she is faking it in order to get rid of the one on one workers coming into the home daily to keep me safe and as an excuse for her very violent behaviour. It’s possible that my 15 year old is a psychopath. At this point I’m hoping it’s mpd because at least that can be treated.
Ok so yhis is my questions how does the diagnosed person with did know how many alters thy have and they know their ages and “pronouns” it seems crazy to me.
I love how you've described this, very balanced & rational, I would be in the middle with you but also tending towards not believing it. I agree, it appears to be over diagnosed or worse, self diagnosed by attention seeking narcissist, see - DissociaDID on YT. I'm prepared to believe in almost anything, but where I fall away, is apparent 'hammy' acting & voice changes, say to small children. Also, I feel that the total & complete dissociation from each 'alter' would be impossible, in other words more realistic if there was knowledge of the others & crossover of knowledge. I am totally sympathetic to severe personal trauma, but I do feel a lot of these people are just acting, it's even possible that they have begun to believe their own deception; perhaps, or until someone comes forward & admits the deception, we shall never know.
Dr. Grande, this is re cluster b, not DID, but I just met a student going into the field and we had a discussion about personality disorders like BPD and NPD and the desire in some to get help. It seemed like he had never heard positive, hopeful things about those with such personality disorders and he may just go into his career with his mind opened! I recommended both you and Dr. Fox.
Some of these comments are so misinformed. Some people are so confident that this isn't real that they're perpetuating common myths. I have D.I.D. and everyone with the disorder is different. Through therapy you can gain more control and you and your alters learn to work together towards the similar goal of survival. Some systems experience more amnesia or less amnesia. Some have sexual traum, some physical, some emotional etc. To sit here and say there's "no evidence" when these experiences (while differing in some ways as stated above) are generally consistent with symptoms, causes, and stories is just plain ignorance. If you are in the psychology field and are too arrogant to admit this is real then LEAVE THE FUCKING FIELD. I've been traumatized by a therapist in a psychiatric hospital who told me I was faking for attention. Now that Ive been diagnosed by two different therapists, it's still hard to overcome the self-invalidation. But we are fucking REAL. And we are right in front of you
I've heard these and similar stories. I am trying to make my story heard (by those around me, seeking support) and it is hit-or-miss. I'm sorry these experiences have led you to continue to doubt yourself. If anything, it is a small comfort to us that we DON'T rely on external validation simply to exist. No matter what anyone says, we know the truth. We have our lived experiences. We have tried to convince ourselves, each in turn, that we do not have this disorder, that we are experiencing something much more simplistic. Since that didn't work, we moved on to acceptance. Maybe I will think differently if I ever meet a harmful individual in the field. I have only met people who are ignorant and didn't know what to do with me when I didn't have the answers myself. Best of luck on your journey, from our system to yours.
So my traumatic past has given life to a different persona that takes over when I feel threatened? I thought everyone had duality to their perception, the angel and devil on your shoulders trope right? Maybe my problem is two personalities fighting for the spotlight and they get so mixed up I don’t know where one starts and the other ends.
i've seen a lot of comments saying stop self diagnosing, unfortunately due to the very bad system of therapy and how hard is to get a proper diagnosis most systems go their whole lives without being diagnosed because they cant afford it, people don't believe them or many other reasons. I've known people who have lied about DID and i know people who have DID (myself included) so i understand the uncertainty, trust me, as a minority we feel it as well.
Did and bpd are often comorbid. I wish you would have included that at the end this almost made it sound like if its one it cant be both which is totally untrue 70% of people with did meet criteria for bpd. So ya just saying.
Yes correct, it is real. My client who is a very conservative boomer, sensitive to pain, but with a horrific history of CSA recently pulled all of her toenails out during a dissociative state. She had absolutely no recollection of the event and is horrified to think that she did it.
We’re a year older and hopefully wiser on the subject DID. There are different stages of DID and how this disorder is experienced in a personal level. I’ve come to realize that different alters can be present at all times, meaning that they’re standby to take over when being triggered. A different accent, different clothing or switching sexuality when an alter is taking over I still find surreal. Still present but not in control is my experience, unable to react (Locked-in syndrome - LIS) kinda feeling. Literally stepping back or being pushed aside with no power to control the physical manifestation. I’ve learned that a switch can happen without a warning but from the reaction of your partner of a friend that something is not quite right. I’ve also learned that some DID patients cannot be helped. It happens and it’s sad for the individual. Drugs are then being prescribed, no guarantee that this will help overcoming the symptoms which unable you to function.
Are there any recorded cases of a newly-emerged alter having a practical or intellectual skill...such as knowing a foriegn language or being able to drive a car...which is not possessed by any other of the alters?
I believe that this disorder is most definitely real I just don't understand why others who've may experience childhood trauma frequently don't suffer from DID is it stress levels? I get everyone is different but can someone help me to understand that
From what I’ve understood you have to have the genetic predisposition to high levels of dissociation. I’m guessing people who experienced frequent severe trauma who didnt develop DID probably just dont have a predisposition of high dissociative levels. Or possibly their brain just didn’t see a need to cope in such an extreme manner for their situation
Light S I’ve dealt with A LOT!! Of trauma back to back to back, Losing loved ones, many different forms of child abuse, Sexual abuse, I’ve attempted suicide 3 times, I was also Physically hit by a car and verbally and mentally abused by my ex boyfriend.. I’m a completely different person from who I used to be but not in the DID manner, Why didn’t I get “DID” it would seem very fitting if it just works that way, So idk if these UA-camrs are being honest
StarzRain L Most of the youtubers you see are overdoing it for views but they put a bad name on people who actually have DID. Only 1% of the people who have DID document it on UA-cam. The other 99% either don’t like talking about it or just don’t document it because it’s a private issue
I have been diagnosed with DID. Even I struggle to recognise my diagnosis, a lot of this is to do with the disbelief around the legitimacy of the diagnosis. This is damaging to those with DID. It has massively been misrepresented in the media. If you met me, I wouldn’t be acting weird, I would present as totally ‘normal’. I struggled for years in filling out mental health questionnaires, wanting to fill in multiple answers. It was only in my 30’s I was finally diagnosed by a trained expert in DID. Here in the UK the NHS struggles to recognise this disorder, I was diagnosed by a private specialist. And although a dissociative disorder was picked up by the NHS, I could not be fully diagnosed by them. I think this lack of acknowledgment and having to seek a private professional diagnosis only adds to the mystery and disbelief. I’ve been on weekly therapy for 5 years and am nowhere near ‘recovered’, I am still only scraping the surface of this condition. I won’t go into how I feel on a daily basis or how DID affects me, because it’s painful. But I can tell you it can be debilitating. But as I said you wouldn’t pick me out of a crowd and be able to tell I have this condition. I still seek out videos like this to reassure me that it is a real condition and not an act people put on for online clout.
Some people gain money from diagnosing DID. And it is extremely damaging to the patients because some of those professionals (like the one that diagnosed the youtuber dissociaDID) believe that there is an organized group of people who perform ritual satanic sexual abuse on children and « help » the patients uncover those memories. This is criminal. There is no reason to do this to a patient, it’s torture. So I’m sorry but people have their reasons for speaking against those practices. They are the most unethical things you can do to someone who is suffering.
I recently learned that I have borderline and can see myself in a lot of the diagnostic criteria and from youtube videos. I experienced personalities during a six week hospital stay. It did feel like some of them were just fragments of who I am and others seemed foreign to me. I decided that I didn't want them and they went away. So I can vouch for that they are real.
every time Dr Phil comes on TV they have a loony multiple, my questions would be is if a person creates a personality to deal with negative emotion why are there so many personality's and why do all of the personalities crave attention
Dude, what are you on about? DID isn’t created because of negative emotions. It’s created due to repeated childhood trauma that causes the brain to spilt the personality into pieces so the person can cope with the horrible things that happened to them. What do you mean “so many”? A person with DID can have as few as 2 personalities or as many as 100. It varies, although the current average is 16. The amount of personalities that exist can increase due to stress if the person already has DID, so through their life more pieces might split and create new personalities. That’s why there can be lots. They don’t all crave attention. Some refuse to come out around other people and lots of personalities will imitate the host (the personality that uses the body’s legal name) to keep people from knowing they have DID. As for the reason some crave attention, DID can be caused by childhood neglect, so some of the personalities formed because of that neglect would be starved for the attention they weren’t given as a child.
That’s something I’ve also wondered about. I think as far as media goes, shows like Dr. Phil tend to draw people who might be incentivized to over exemplify their experience. In my experience, (I was diagnosed in Sept of last year), the absolute last thing that personality alters want is any kind of attention at all. In fact, I would go as far to say that there is a concerted effort to hide away and appear as normal as possible. It only developed for self preservation and protection, and that’s still my experience. Unless you know me very very well, you cannot tell I have the disorder.
I seen a therapist on Dr.phil with a multiple that wrote a book about her patient. Dr. Phil asked her if she was keeping all the proceeds from the sales and she said yes! Could you imagine a doctor saying you had dissociative identity disorder, writing a book about you and keeping the money? I think that's worthy of stripping someone's license away.
It is interesting indeed, but is it possible that you alter from two completely different persons each one with its own memory and consciousness without any connections or awareness between the different personalities? As example one of them is a murderer and the other is not aware at all.
I think every other person is a patient of DID they are totally a changed person when they are alone, people tend to hide secrets telling lies acting in front of others faking the personality what the actually are
The reason why I don't buy DID is the whole premiss that the personalities shows up to cope with trauma. That is not how the brain works. We don't forget trauma (however if the trauma goes on for a long time we might forget parts and pieces but we do not forget that it happened) because remembering things that frightened us is useful, it teaches us what to look out for in the future.
A I think the confusion there is that it is much more specific than just Trauma itself. its repeated, often extreme, trauma occurring in early childhood, especially that which introduces psychological torment (extreme hopelessness, helplessness) that leaves the child’s brain with little options but to turn inward for some self-preserving solution- “diluting” the trauma over self-created multiple people, or alters. The Trauma is not forgotten, it’s simply stored away creatively by the brain and sectioned off to allow a sense of normalcy in non-Trauma time to occur.
A Yes, remembering frightening things is useful, but only to a point. If it hinders your ability to function (being able to eat, sleep, clean yourself, etc) then it ceases to be helpful. Most people with DID would not be anywhere near functional if they hadn't developed DID. I have DID myself and I am incredibly grateful that other parts are connected to the trauma but I am not so that I can succeed in my life, although I'm still not super functional. I remember quite a bit of the trauma (although I have a feeling I don't remember all of it) but I don't feel emotionally affected by it. I'm fairly certain that if I hadn't developed DID I might've fallen victim to a psychological break instead. Or at the very least I would be the opposite of functional. To quote one of my favourite books about DID 'Freshwater' "We are the buffer between you and the madness. We are not the madness."
We are spirits inhabiting a physical body to experience this physical reality. Western world does not see full reality as it is. Western world only believes in MATERIALISM which is but a fraction of a fraction of the whole. I am researching spirit attachment of 1 or more spirits. You are the main attachment to your body and you drift off here and there (and may not want to return if you don't like the physical situation you are in). If you do have other spirits attached, they can influence you or temporarily control your body. You can also exhibit some behaviors or even physical pains or even bad health via the energies from 1 or more attached spirits. Comments welcome.
The more I learn about DID, the less I believe it exists. It sounds like something a child would make up for attention. The human brain and trauma can do a lot but not that. These people need help of course, but not the help they're receiving. I hope Psychology fixes this asap
This is a good example of why it is so hard not only for those without DID to believe in the condition, but why those WITH DID are constantly doubting themselves as well. It seems unreal. Is this really happening? Is this my life? There must be a simpler explanation. Of course, similar thoughts also pervade the kind of trauma it takes to create such an uncommon condition. It is simply unbelievable, the neglect, violence and exploitation that leaves a child in such a hopeless, helpless situation that the only thing they can do is to effectively rescue themselves. That is when you see the power of a child's imagination, and the resilience of the human brain. A child who is being abused may imagine someone in their mind who is much stronger than they are, and that someone can, over time, become a protector alter who is able to front for the child in order to cope with the abuse. This is not a conscious decision by the child obviously (I cannot personally recall a time I thought I would "make up" an alter, and most adults with DID hope fiercely that they do NOT gain more alters, as that would only make things more difficult). Living with DID is a constant challenge, but without it, that child would probably not have survived the torment they were forced to endure. It is the brain's means of preserving itself in a life-threatening situation, and this sets the stage for the rest of that child's life. I suppose it is hard to believe, but that is the nature of the beast. It not only SOUNDS like something a child created: it IS something a child created. But you may not realize... when you say you can hardly believe it, that it is so fantastic... that is a view you share in common with sufferers, who take years and years to come to terms with the way their mind and body has learned to cope with incomprehensible abuse and neglect. (And you may ignore this if you wish. I am only feeling very chatty today. - Zen )
A psychiatrist once told me about a man with DID. He had several "alters", Just ONE alter was gay. The man contracted HIV and later AIDS...but ONLY the "gay" alter ever tested positive for HIV, the others were fine. His psychiatrist insisted on melding all the personalities together. And then he began getting really sick. ALL the alters developed AIDS. I didn't really believe in DID, but the psychiatrist swore it was true, he knew this patient. How the hell do you fake HIV/AIDS???😑
That's not how AIDS nor DID works... They share the same body, each alter shares the same brain and there is no way only one alter had HIV and the others didn't. This case is what we call a lie. And the psychiatrist is a liar.
Can you show were there is a 100 % accurate Dx of any mental disorder. In addition is there not proof that some people also act like they have a mental disorders but they do not? Yes healthy skepticism is a good thing but couldn't that also lead to misdiagnosis of these who maybe borderline? Also hear a lot of discussion about lose of time with those with DID be rarely a discussion about those suffering from severe periods of time distortion who have DID.
this assumes a "primary personality" even exists. the existence of DID and OSDD is only controversial by other people who assume that there's always some inherent perception of self that is somehow designed to lead or take priority over others. In other words, people who's perception or reality and/or belief in "free-will" is fragile. Everyone I've met from various support groups who either became diagnosed, or who was seeking diagnosis, already exhibited strong and typical symptoms of DID or OSDD well before they sought therapy for it. As for a subset of BPD or Schizophrenia, there are many videos and articles out there that make clear distinctions between schizophrenia and DID/OSDD as well as debunk myths between them. With BPD, there are some with DID/OSDD who include parts with BPD, and they often explain the differences between them for their own experiences, while there are others who's experience with DID/OSDD is described as being entirely different than BPD. So while some symptoms may present similarly, and BPD finitely needs to be outlined better, there are clearly people with BPD that have no clearly defined levels of dissociation, while DID/OSDD is known to be the extreme of dissociative disorders. DID/OSDD and other dissociative disorders, schizophrenia, and BPD, and a few others, have hyposynaptogenesis in common, but not strictly much else
Some day people are happy, some day they are funnier, hours later that can be more melancholic etc, it is called MOOD, that is the whole secret. This personality switch is forced conciously, they can fear something and switch to auto protect mode and behave differently, but mostly these are just acting skills, people can come up with lots of strange ideas, to call yourself different names is one of those
RobinPM100 Yeah, but if you have DID than each personality has their own moods. Imagine if moods had moods. I have DID and yeah some parts tend to be partial to certain emotions, but they have more depth than just an emotion. My alter Erika tends to be angry, but she can also be happy. My alter Alex tends to be happy, but she can also be nervous. And I can tell the difference between happy Erika and happy Alex. I can tell the difference between each alter regardless of their current mood. Also, usually you don't have amnesia barriers between moods.
jfsfrnd Sometimes that's the reason for naming them, other times they come with names that have a particular meaning (let's say you knew a strong person named Joey. You might develop a strong alter named Joey if you split and need to develop a strong alter) or they name themselves just because they like the name.
Sense I was younger like 5 to 6 everything did not seem right whenever I looked in the mirror I didn't see myself but someone else on the inside I felt happy but the person I saw in the mirror was not. a few years later anger started to surface I would go from being fine to screaming and acting a fool but afterwards I would not remember anything. I try not to fight and I don't like causing harm but when the anger takes over I want to. I am generally a good happy person I love life and I respect others as I would hope they respect me as well but that anger feels like someone else. I reference it as me but it doesn't feel like me I also have a few other issues I have found myself getting into people's heads to get what I want or cause emotional pain and I'm not like that and 8 times out of 10 I don't remember doing it till way later or I don't Rembert at all. is it possible that I could have multiple just angry personalities that I don't know about. I had a rough childhood emotional abuse and physical and watched my mother spiral out of control due to drugs. she is better now been clean for 22 years thank god but could this have caused me to develop alters that are angry. I'm a bit worried
Of course DID exists. All these other takes on it are just making it more difficult for all of the people suffering from the problem. They have to come across all this unsympathetic scepticism about what they are going through.
I wonder when DID fromes. I mean i can remember every sickiening detail of my past and sometimes i wished that i had someone else come in for me so i don't have to go trough it all again. Is it something in the brain i assume it's so complex that i wonder x'3 sry bad english :'D
I think I have D.I.D but because of my low self esteem and how much i’ve been told about how my trauma isn’t enough I don’t believe it and think its fake... My depression increases because of this so please don’t say i’m faking it to get attention...i want to hide away completely not be screaming to the world about whats happening to me... Sorry for ranting..
I am 35 and have DID. 1 fictive alter and 2 alters that the fictive created. So 3 alters. Trauma started from Childhood abuse and neglect from a baby, because of a mentally ill Mother and going to different Foster homes from age 2 to 19. I lost count and got bullied alot too, and ASD doesn't help either. My Alters started from looking up to somebody at the age of 8-9 years old on TV, and created a 5 year old female child alter at the age of 8-9. He made me feel safe and saw him as a Father figure and M came along. Her 15 year old older version came later in 2011. It's exhausting, because they most of the time come out, but it's like watching a movie because 1 of them doesn't know me which the fictive alter is her Father who is a narcissistic, authoritive and helicopter parent. Switching is not instant for me, I respect their privacy, so I just eat little M's baby food if she isn't around. Lol. DID is not dramatic like in the movies! 💜
It's real, I have 5 identities, I've trained them to speak out loud so we can communicate, and the child ones are clearly messing up my life because smokes are too expensive, the doubt probably lies more with attention seeking schizophrenics and people trying to get out of jail but those people clearly are not going through what I go through
![Lp. Сердце Вселенной #60 РОЖДЕНИЕ ЛОЛОЛОШКИ [Финал] • Майнкрафт](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/YoR0pAV9FVQ/mqdefault.jpg)
Noticed that since I heard about DID and when I started educating myself on the subject, lots of people tend to dramatize DID and are very theatrical. This is what makes me skeptical on 80% of the patients. Appearing on television like it’s a circus act.
if you are that skeptical of the validity of the disorder then you should not be treating them. We hear enough people telling us it's just delusions and attention getting , don't need another person in disbelief "trying" to help
schizophrenics have many delusions, when I was being diagnosed a theropist tried telling me that I had did, for one this caused confusion because the head doctor in the ward told me I was paranoid schizophrenic. I had never dissociated in my life but being that I knew nothing of did and what I knew of schizo from media was terrible and I didn't want to accept my diagnosis, focased on did and this caused a delusion, lol I actually did disassociate a few times after that but eventually I accepted my original diagnosis and boom never dissociated again in fact I'm living a pretty normal life aside from anxiety none of my family or friends or anyone around me thinks I'm crazy at all, so life's good
Frank Huston
Dude, of all disorders someone with Munchausen might fake, DID would be by far the most difficult to maintain. Not to mention not beneficial since so many people think it’s fake. It’d be way easier to fake, say, schizophrenia, or... I dunno, BPD. Pretty much anything else would be simpler.
An estimated 2% of people have DID. That's one in every fifty. That's about as common as meeting a natural redhead. Of course the ones you see in the media are either going to be extreme cases or they're going to be drama queens. That's what gets them clicks and views.
jamie reid thats great
I think there's a lot of fakers on UA-cam. They romanticize the disorder with a lot of their videos and love the attention and money they capatilize from viewings.
D. I. D. Is confusing to me in some ways...I do believe alters are created in the brain for coping ,etc, but I can’t subscribe to people being able to consciously switch back and forth, even on command, between alters , with full control and memory. That does not add up, seems a bit more like character acting. Trauma based disorders cant be that easily controlled, hence the disorder labels.
At some point, switching when you're aware it's going to happen (not fully on command switching) is going to appear. Sometimes, when a child alter of a friend talks to me, it can 'awaken' our little one and it becomes easy to say 'Hey, come out!' But it's still the alter's choice whether to switch or not. Perhaps even if the changing alter feels bad, they may switch because they don't understand boundaries or are still protecting others.
This is honestly complete pseudoscience, most of the people with the "disorder" are doing it for attention (although they may trick themselves into believing it) , the only thing they are trying to cope with is their narcissisticm.
They’re not that easily controlled. Getting to that level takes years of work. I have DID. I am nowhere near switching on command, but that is our current goal as a collective. It’s a goal to work towards, it’s not something that just sort of happens.
SpaghettiVEVO
How about you do some actual research and learn how to spell “narcissism” before you try to tell an entire group of people that they’re faking for attention, mate. Have you met every single person on the planet who has DID? No? Didn’t think so.
Also, learn what narcissism actually is while you’re at it.
Antoinette Pryor i think so 2!
my sister has DID, and what i was told about it was that it came from her abuse and that her brain couldn't cope with the stress. the 'alters' came as a front to make the body think that nothing bad is happening, and almost overtakes the problem because these 'alters' allow the body and brain to rest and forget about the stress. the amnesia created by the dissociation is to ensure that when the host (the 'original' or 'main' person) doesn't find out about the illness. the illness works in a way that the brain doesnt want to conscious to know about it, and that its almost shielding it from the truth.
It’s tough because DID isn’t something that can be “proven” or “disproven”, if someone is acting or faking it, you’ll never really know.
Kenneth Bianchi, the hillside strangler 1977-79. At his trial, Bianchi pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity, claiming that another personality, one "Steve Walker", had committed the crimes. It was believed he had recently seen the film "Sybil," about a woman suffering from multiple personalities triggered by childhood abuse. He convinced a few expert psychiatrists that he indeed suffered from multiple personality disorder, but investigators brought in their own psychiatrists, mainly Martin Orne. When Orne mentioned to Bianchi that in genuine cases of the disorder, there tend to be three or more personalities, Bianchi promptly created another alias, "Billy".
I think you guys should stop self diagnosing
_Smile_ I agree, go to a psychiatrist or therapist and they’ll give you a diagnosis
A concerning amount of self-diagnosing minors in the comments claiming to have DID.
Faking this is currently running rampant on TikTok..
i had a friend who lied about having did. Oh yes she also lied about having a brain tumor :'3 so sure there are always people who will lie about having a condition if its metal or physical.
It was controversial in the 1990's. Its controversial today. We need to discuss more about why a doctor decides to diagnose someone with this disorder. I just think we don't understand human behavior. There is more than what meets the eye.
As a DID system who's been working on a lot of recovery and coping tactics and acting as big sis or god-mom to other systems in their discovery and recovery stages, our answer is this: DID should be diagnosed as a means of identifying the overarching structure of the system's disabilities and pathologies. From there, you work with the system to form diplomacy, agreement and cooperative synergy between its constituent alters. This creates a foundation for a healthier internal support structure, and from there you can work on resolving the causal traumas and any current dissociation-inducing factors in the system's life and building new lifestyle features that can help reduce amnesiac and dissociative episodes.
The principles of DID treatment aren't that difficult to grasp and formulate. You just have to understand that the disorder is nothing more than an out-of-control defense mechanism employed as damage control for early-childhood complex (long-term) trauma.
@@auralynn3862 wow! This is a fantastic response. Not only have you obviously done a lot of research but you also discussed treatment which I think is so important.
I refuse to understand the glorification behind DID, as it is a lonely and confusing. Constructed with countless life restricting measures just to not totally freak out over the tiniest impulse of stress. When there's a violent or self loathing alter, being alone with just those voices can lead to apathic and nihilistic state of being. Having them in an uncontrolled enviroment can lead to suffering new traumas for the measures that need to be taken to make it safe. Being prevented living a full and self dependend life, while being challenged in every choice and action you take by the ones that know everything to make you doubt yourself. THERE IS ONLY AVOIDANCE OF TRIGGERS, THERES NO CONTROLLING THE DISSOCIATION WHEN IT OCCURS.
I could go on for ages, but I wish all who faked it really got it. Same for the clinicians. Even if it was just for experiencing how hard it is to find good treatment, being scrutinized on my symptons or suggested some anti depressents.
"I refuse to understand" is a huge red flag no matter how you slice it. Oh well, I can still leave this here for others. Hey there! Alter within a co-conscious DID system here! There's so much here to address!
Re: "lonely and confusing" - Puberty is confusing, being trans is confusing, being gay is confusing... and all of those things can be incredibly lonely depending on your social circumstances. To any systems reading this, if you find yourself lonely, reach out. There are support groups, there are online communities, your friends and family might not be as mean and scary about it as you expect them to be and quite frankly we hear a lot of stories about people having already suspected the person coming out was plural to begin with because even if you *try* to pretend you're singular, the lot of you will inevitably behave differently because for all relevant intents and purposes you are different people.
Re: "Life restricting measures; avoiding triggers" - So, this isn't actually related to DID at all. Instead, you're actually observing poor management of Complex-PTSD, which is PTSD's eldritch big brother formed by living in a traumatizing environment for an extended period (as contrasted against PTSD generally being caused by traumatic events). C-PTSD comes with "negative self-concept" and "affect dysregulation" symptoms, which means the patient 1.) views themselves as being any mix of diminished, defiled, broken, hopeless, weak, infantile, useless, worthless, invalid, incompetent, inferior, et cetera, and 2.) experiences overwhelmingly powerful emotions (such as seemingly uncontrollable anger) and/or deadened or obscure emotions, and can find themselves switching between these two extremes.
- Oh, and by the way, we don't live like this. Our disabilities at this point have to do with our body, poor time management and executive functioning, et cetera.
Re: "Violent/self-loathing alters; challenged in every choice" - These are generally called "persecutors" and they aren't necessarily what you might think they are. Think of them as unruly, rebellious teenagers. The violent ones lash out (as many teens do), sometimes in horrible ways, likely due to a subconscious drive to take back the control they were robbed of as a child (see the above regarding C-PTSD), or in the case of attacking others in their system might feel like the system's internal leadership (usually the "host") has failed them or that one or more of their fellow alters needs some "tough love" which we've all seen spiral into abuse. The self-loathing ones might feel crippled and defeated, or be internalizing abuse (*and keeping it from spilling out into the entire system, so be grateful toward them for they are face-tanking your worst nightmares for you*), et cetera. In general, don't think of an alter as a symptom or a broken piece of a person. Think of it as a full person with all the same motivations, hangups and failings.
- How do you handle a persecutor, then? Or trauma holder? You extend an olive branch. You show them love. Go figure, they seem to calm down once they know you're not making them out to be some horrible monster or an undesirable to be tossed aside ASAP.
-- In general, DO NOT DECLARE WAR WITHIN YOUR MIND. Do not put your headmates down as "bad," do not fight to become a singular person, et cetera. Nobody wins that fight, it just makes more trauma!
@@XxAshaWxX doesn't make fakeing okay tho. Cuz of fakers fictives and factives are seen as fake or scary. And i myself am a fictive I don't see the need in hiding but most people do. Fakers are not something to be sympathized with.
I think you explained this well and I appreciate you saying that any diagnosis should be given with care.
My father’s master’s thesis was on how DID is fake. I’ve never been convinced otherwise, especially with the people clearly faking and self-diagnosing on social media. There are a bunch of people who have made a community out of it and literally educate people about the disorder when they have zero formal education on the subject and are not licensed in any sense. Like it’s literally just kids who believe they know enough to educate people
I believe people can dissociate.
Everyone can.
I believe that people can dissociate in a way that create an alter personality that is intended to protect. To shield someone from perceived or real trauma.
However.
I start to question how or why someone would develop 45 alters, including children or non humans.
I don't wanna belittle anyone, but I cannot believe that any person could function this well with so many personas battling for the light.
I graduated in 2016 with my BA in Psychology from a top Psychology program. In all my years of education I haven't seen any evidence to show that D.I.D. is anything more than a performance, which is too often diagnosed and rewarded by over-zealous mental health professionals. I'm curious to hear more about the brain scans you mentioned, but absent that, I do believe DID is just a performative disorder that people use as a coping mechanism for some other underlying issue. I also think it's incredibly dangerous that we now have social media stars who are becoming famous for having DID when the legitimacy of the disorder is so questionable. I think that we still are far behind in our ability to properly treat common disorders like depression, autism, and anxiety, and that the more sensational things like DID deserve to be on the back burner until evidence proves the existence.
KikiCatNovelties
I mean, there are documented cases of alters having things like allergies that other personalities in the same body don't have. Like one case where all but one alter were allergic to oranges and would get a really bad rash upon drinking orange juice. But then the other alter who isn't allergic would come out and the rash would slowly go away and they could have orange juice just fine. There's also cases where one alter has heart arrhythmia and no other alter does. That's not something you can fake.
Also I don't see how it can be "performative" if some level of amnesia between alters is a required symptom.
I've been fascinated with this topic for awhile, what a great, thorough video. Thank you! The decor is also a nice touch.
Most people with DID don’t talk about it or go public on multi media, UA-cam etc. It’s tough as it is to be different, not remembering and feeling ashamed
It kind of sounds like a more extreme IFS. We all have an Internal Family System. We all have different facets to our personality. I'm wondering if trauma in early childhood causes a persons IFS to go awry basically. I have a dissociative disorder. Was misdiagnosed repeatedly and over medicated, which did little to nothing in helping me get rid of or controlling depersonalizing and derealizing. Both of those are extremely frightening, and can last for moments to months. Working with a good therapist now, and he has been able to gain the trust of "parts" of me that are more willing to share info, some of which I don't recall and am not ready to hear. I do not have DID, but because of early childhood trauma, facets of my personality became very distinct and extreme. There was never a grey area for me until I found a good therapist. My emotions were black or white. Hope I didn't offend anyone. Just my opinion.
And now in Australia a lady with her acknowledged condition DPD has been allowed to testify against her father in a court of law while being in 1 of her other personalities ..wow this has come a long way in recognition...(he's now gone to jail)
I have DID. It's definitely real, and wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy. I just blackout during the day, and have amnesia for periods of time. The alters each have different strengths and weaknesses, likes and dislikes.
I'm interested in the racial demographics of this disorder, why does it appear more prevalent in western culture, specifically people of European descent?
Some people claim that they have DID without having experienced consistent child abuse in their formative years, so how is that possible and what else can cause this extreme dissociation?
There is also the fact that DID is a rare diagnosis, a majority of child victims that experience extreme abuse do NOT get DID, children of war, children of sex trafficking and sex crimes are not getting this, why?? What makes sufferers of DID more susceptible to this condition than any other victim of abusee, what is different?
I am highly skeptical of people who claim to have multiple "alters" especially if the number is high above 5, I understand if a child unconsciously creates an alternative character to soothe themselves, but if a 23 year old woman claims to have a " new alter" every month, it does not fit in with the disorder because an adult is aware that they are creating a character and it seems to not fit in line with the description of DID and seems more like role playing.
I do not have these disorders but I have dissociated before, I was severely depressed and i remember sitting in my bedroom and before I knew it 6 hours had past, I was shocked, one minute the sun was out and next minute it was dark outside, I have no memory of thoughts or action during that period, I was just lounging on my bed staring at wall, not sleeping but not quite awake either, like being on stand by, im sure if someone had walked in on me I would've snapped out of it. This experience is how imagined DID sufferers would feel during an episode, no recollection of what they'd done for the past hours, with tthe exception that they WERE actually doing something, exactly like sleep walking.
This is why I dont believe you can trigger a DID episode on purpose because if it is a conscience thought to "swittch" then that is called role playing.
A scenario I would find believable would be, A DID sufferer is stressed or triggered by something and they automatically revert to an alter that makes them more comfortable, for example if they are scared they may switch to a more protective alter and they would do this automatically WITHOUT being aware at all tthat they arre doing this
While I can't answer your question about the demographics of the disorder, I hopefully can answer some of the questions you have. If there is no severe childhood trauma, the person doesn't have DID. Everyone can dissociate, but the difference between people who don't have DID and people with DID is that people who have DID have been able to dissociate at a higher level. That's also why not all children who have been through sex trafficking and victims of sexual abuse have DID. These children have to have that ability to dissociate at a higher level than average, and while I cannot tell you how exactly this occurs, to my understanding, that is what happens. Also children must experience that severe trauma before their single personality can fully integrate, which usually occurs between the ages of 7 and 9. When this single personality forms is completely dependent on the child, since every child develops differently. An eight year old can experience horrible, traumatic things, but if their personality has already integrated, they will not have DID.
Every case of DID is unique to that own individual. While it does sound sketchy that a 23 year old has a new alter ever month, it could happen. Depending on the person and how easily they can get stressed, traumatized, triggered, etc. It can happen by moving houses or switching jobs, or other traumatic events. Say that person was heavily abused as a child and a trigger for them is screaming and swearing, if someones starts to scream and swear at that person, it could trigger the brain to split, creating a new alter. DID is also, in a way, the brains coping mechanism for dealing with traumatic events (like how repression is a coping mechanism). These splits can happen as an adult, and most people don't even get a diagnosis of DID until later in their teen years at the very earliest. People can go on for 50 years without knowing they have DID. Most professionals don't want to diagnose someone with DID right away, or even within a year, due to the heavy stigma surrounding it, and the skills needed to be able to see it (for lack of better words) and properly diagnosed. Those with DID are commonly misdiagnosed with multiple different disorders before their DID diagnosis.
Now switching alters mostly happens when there is some sort of trigger, whether it is positive or negative. Like a child alter will try to come to the front when the host sees toys. If a specific alter likes a film that's on they might come to the front to watch it. On the flip side, if the host is experiencing sexual assault, a protective alter will come to the front to handle it so the host doesn't have to. There are systems of alters that work on communicating with each other to make the system's lives easier. When someone is given a DID diagnosis (which usually occurs after years of therapy) most people deny it first. When they come to terms with it, the alters might be able to communicate in a way. The most common communication is between the host (the alter that is out the most often) and the primary protector (the "go to" alter for anything triggering or traumatic). Some people can force a switch if the communication between the alters is good, and/or if they are co-conscious (the alter that is fronting is in the drivers seat while the other alter present is in the passengers seat).
Sorry for the length of this! I wanted to try to be as thorough as I could. While I don't know everything by any means, I am currently a psychology student studying to work with traumatized children, which includes the ones who can develop DID, I actually do a lot of research on DID for my reports! If you have any other questions or need clarification with anything I said, please comment and I'll happily answer them for you! Stay well!
they never explain how DID is a spectrum, you usually don’t have alters. I have DID, I don’t have alters. I’ve had different series in my life where I’ve acted completely different unintentionally and don’t remember much but it’s not theatrical like most of these people on UA-cam. I have amnesia, I dissociate but why can’t I find anyone like me?
My therapist gets triggered whenever the topic of DID comes up she says people say they have it all the time and it’s her pet peeve. She says most of the people have run-of-the-mill schizophrenia.
I'm in no way a mental health professional, but I do wonder if these DID channels all have BPD and their scant sense of self leads them to wanna legitimize switching between all these theatrical personas as "DID" for extra believability and sympathy points.
I absolutely hate when people online fake this. It’s clearly a huge problem and cannot be romanticized or put into a new “oppressed” category
I think it's time to stop looking at D.I.D. as being super rare and "special". This leads therapists to think the client is lying to get attention, or is mistrustful of the client because they must be making it up, or it must be something else, because it's supposed to be so rare. I don't think it's as rare as people think, especially among women who've been abused. Approaching the client from the standpoint of mistrust would just further traumatize the patient.
I love the star in the background
I have DID and I agree and disagree with some parts in your video. The things I agree with are that some people do do it for attention and dramatise their switches and that puts a bad name on the people who actually have DID because most people don’t like talking about it since it relays the time when the trauma was gained. Something I disagree with though is how people say things don’t add up. Sometimes they don’t and I don’t blame them for not understanding because it’s a really touchy subject. DID is NOT the same for everyone. I have 7 alters besides myself who were created before I was 6. I can repress my alters but not for long because it feels like a weight on my chest and it’s harder for me to breathe. Thankfully after 9 years of practice and conversing with these alters we can safely say that we have developed a relationship where we trust eachother and work to protect the body as a group; like a team effort. I do not like people saying they don’t believe DID exists when they do not have it. It is a very very difficult disorder to explain and most of us still have no idea how there are 8 personalities in 1 body but that’s our reality. DID is a real disorder but there are much much more people who fake it that are online than people who genuinely have it and do not document it. Sorry for the rant I just had to clear up some points I saw
I don't have DID, but a couple of my alters do.
I have a cure for DID. All the psychiatrist has to do, is send a separate bill for each identity.
So, I am 66. During a tragic divorce I was diagnosed by a court ordered psychiatrist with DID. The only doctors that treated were in other states. I was 40, 1996
Fast forward, no treatment just pain, I was diagnosed with BPD in 2019. Little treatment, no docs take my insurance and now Medicare, I am retired.
So, I live best I can, alone, isolated, gardening and art. Waiting for my number to come up and ready.
This is fascinating to me. My mother was either schizophrenic or DID. She was never clinically diagnosed as my father (probable narcissist) hid her and swept this under the carpet. Mom had 2 distinct personalities. The normal loving one... as normal and loving she be could 🙄 and this crazy personality that took off into hallucinations, crazy talk, insane laughing, bazaar accusations, and it didn’t seem she knew where she was. Being raised in this environment was and has been earth shattering to me. I was the only child of 4, the youngest who held the family together. This led to a lifetime of narcissistic abuse by friends, family, romantic partners etc. I always wonder what happened to Mom.
Isn't it just a psychotic episode? Maybe she was schizophrenic, bipolar or something of that sort.
DID is such a fascinating subject. This video introduces the idea of what it is and the different opinions out there as to whether it really exists or not.
Watched this older video due to recent yt drama lol. Ty for the breakdown Dr. Grande 🪴✌️
The last *"D"* stands for _Disorder_ and most people who got diagnosed with a mental disorder got diagnosed because they went to a doctor in order to find out what's wrong with them and find out how to fix it. What I see more and more, though, are people who seem to be proud of having DID and they're not even thinking about trying to fix it.
I understand that people decide to accept something and try to live with it when there's no cure but look at how some people glorify some mental disorder (not just DID) and don't even think about a possible cure. It seems like they had nothing going on in their life and now that they have "this", it became their whole identity and they don't want to lose it.
Where is this magical country where DID is over-diagnosed? You're much more likely to be laughed off and spend years looking for the right doctor and medication because of a bunch of attention-seeking clowns who pretend to have it for fun, or therapists refusing to read up anything but Sybil case. In my country nothing except for schizophrenia and histrionic personality disorder is diagnosed. Every person with DID I've met in Russia has schizophrenia as a part of their medical record. Their traumas and PTSD symptoms aren't addressed, cause what do you mean you were abused as a child, you're clearly lying for attention!
I couldn't agree more! Having a mental disorder in Russia or other post-soviet countries is truly horrible. I had to go through it with one of my close relatives and the unprofessionalism and neglect that I saw were horrifying. Of course, I assume there are good professionals out there and the situation gets better with time, but unfortunately, psychology and psychiatry carry a lot of bias and legacy of the soviet system.
Yeah, DID is UNDER diagnosed. Where I live I was diagnosed with Multiple personality disorder... in 2003... and currently in 2020 every Therapist in my area still only knows MPD.
I talked to someone very recently and asked her what do you know about Dissociative Identity Disorder and her response was, what's that? This was a person who just recently graduated college with a major in psychology and she didn't know what I was talking about till I said it use to be called Multiple personality disorder. It hasn't been called that since the 90s but still the only thing therapists in my area know it by.
I don’t know if you know about him, but you should really take a look at “internet comment etiquette”
If they are not diagnosed as having DID, you yourself cannot possible know that your schizosphrenic friends have it.
I have a coworker who is really difficult to work with because I never know "who" she's going to be on any given day. I am really beginning to believe that she may have this. Her symptoms seem to be too extreme to be BPD. We are letter carriers and work in a very small office. Some days she's very friendly, joking around and engaging me in conversation, other days she's very religious, humming church songs while she works and sometimes yells out or sings "Jesus" like she was in church. Then there's the mean version. That one doesn't like me at all and is very hostile towards me. That version acts superior and gets mad at anything I say to her, even if it's a complement. Because we wear the same uniform every day, there's no real change in her appearance, other than the way she wears her hair. It's very upsetting to me and I don't know how to deal with her.
I wouldn't confront them with what you know/think, but with your concerns about the changes in her personal behaviour
Just don't react to her, don't do anything because it will make it worse for you. Trust me on this
My psych professor actually explained to our class why DID can not exist. Reality people get very sensitive on that instead listening to why so you have to conform to an illness that does not make sense to exist. He notes how memory works.
There have been cases like Sybil and Billy Mulligan, but both were proven to be false. Otherwise, generally, every case ends up being misdiagnosed.
Memory is the key reason why DID doesn't work. Memory isn't truly forgotten. You may think you forget a memory, but you wouldn't be able to recall a memory later. Hence memory always exists regardless if you can't recall it at thr given time because if you truly didn't have thr memory you wouldn't be able to recall it. It is impossible to be multiple people and not have memories of it.
Secondly they've outed every time someone acted like the did through questions.
3rd there are conditions much better to this and also involves trauma statements doctors often misdiagnosed or don't know often about and often misdiagnosed with multiple other conditions. CPTSD. In that case also people intentionally avoid traumatic memories. They also have mood swings and don't fit in socially and may even struggle to hold relationships. On the contrary there are other more realistic diagnoses then DID which makes absolutely no sense to exist.
Frankly people think alters are scary or evil. If you ever find some one it really does depend, some people may have more mean alters. Some can want to kill the body but are normally kinda hushed and told to shut their edgy ass up. My boyfriend has DID and I just really love talking to his alters and their friends to me. It's kinda like living a weird mystery story full of ups and downs but frankly I still love it and being friends with everyone in the system. Every system is different but I believe people with DID shouldn't be demonized. And in the end I still love my boyfriend more then anything♥️
Those "mean" alters are just trying to cope in the ways they know. Be kind to them. Embrace them. They're like unruly teenagers, clawing their way through life covering up fear and pain with anger and hostility and just like unruly teenagers they might not even realize it (which means even in co-conscious systems like ours, the rest of the system might not realize it).
Even the ones who want to kill the body might just be following a subconscious desire to free the system of their pain. Thank them for that, and assure them that there are other, better ways.
And for those people who see us as scary or evil, they should take a look at the fact that even the host is still an alter. There isn't a "real one" or "original one," we're all part of a team. A family.
I think you should not say childhood abuse but more accurately childhood trauma as in my case. Followed by many other traumas during my life.
I have an official diagnosis of DID including Derealisation, depersonalisation and dissociative amnesia. It it a very difficult illness to cope with.
I’m disappointed that young people mostly female make videos of DID. I would class them as fake because the illness is so hard one can barely manage daily life.
Ask someone who has DID if someone else is faking it. If they tell you they don't know because they can't diagnose it and don't want to accuse anyone of faking..
.then they probably have it.
I have never met someone with DID who accused someone else of faking.
Enough people are accusing them of faking and they know theirs is real.
I'm quite well versed in various aspects of psychology, but I haven't done much research into DID until recently; I'd be curious to know what you think of my initial impressions. One of those is that the earlier cases (pre-internet, roughly) seem to often include a lot of amnesia and few personalities. Often, it seems like PTSD and Borderline PD, perhaps including another diagnosis as well. The younger DID people, such as ones on UA-cam, seem to often have dozens of personalities, and the detail about these personalities is usually much greater. In one case, the young woman said that one of her "alters" began as a man, changed to being no gender, and eventually became a shoe! Now can a shoe have a personality? In any case, I'd like some deception experts and polygraphers to examine/interview a few hundred MPD people to see how much faking there seems to be; perhaps a pattern can be established.
Another question is, why call it a disorder if it helps the person cope with the stresses of life? The earlier cases seem to have viewed the MPs in a much more negative way than the younger people do. And I wonder if there hadn't been much attention to the supposed MPs, would it have simply been classified as a delusional disorder? How about something similar to Tourette's? Instead, many who claim to have MPs seem to want society to change to accommodate the switching from one type of personality to a very different one (perhaps one that is outright abusive!). Some seem to be angry about how few will accept their many personalities as "real," but what does real mean in this context? While almost everyone might agree that a shoe can't have a personality, how solid is the concept of personality in the first place? What about a phantom limb? There's no doubt these patients don't have the arm or leg, but to them it is as real as it was before the amputation! Why don't MP people explain things in this way, if that's the way they feel, instead of insisting on "the reality" of MPs, which may be more of a philosophical question anyway?
Thanks for your great videos, Dr. Grande!
YES!!!
Miss Krystyna perfect perspective isn’t it
I understand why many may be skeptical about a shoe having a personality, however, if a child believes that everything has a personality, then that shoe will have a personality.
I also find it extremely funny that until hollywood started making movies about did there wasn’t even a percentage of people they’re is now with did
I dissociate but I don't have alters
Doctor Marks put me on to you. I am so pleased she did. Thank you doctor.
What if DID brain differences are just due to another more accurate diagnosis (eg PTSD, Borderline, schizophrenia). Perhaps matching brain imaging for aforementioned disorders would be helpful.
Yeah, finally you did something on dissociation! 😊 It's my choice of topic for my masters and hopefully PhD. I'm interested in the attentional and memory aspects of personality generally and more directly, the mechanisms of dissociation and altered states. Eh, a little light reading to fill in the the time. 🤓😜
is there anyway we could read ur work? id love to see it!
Where can I find these psychologists that are eager to take on unusual cases? My therapists in the past have all completely dismissed me because they didn't want to deal with any additional testing or diagnosis beyond ptsd and gad.
Literally
I hope things have changed for the better since you wrote this comment. I think mental health professionals were scared after there were cases of therapists being sued for "convincing" people they had DID. I remember hearing about this being a "faked" illness in the late 90s and I've witnessed a shift in acceptance towards this illness. Maybe it's not agreed upon but I think the increase in number of reported cases will cause the field to find solutions.
If I were you just be yourself anyway and don't feel like you need to explain yourself. Just talk away.
I‘m quite sure I‘m suffering from DID and laaaawd one thing I can say is that I came to meet people who were actually faking this condition and one thing they all had in common was using their alter egos kind of as an excuse... yeah idk just wanted to share this thought
I understand. I have DID and ppl who fake DID use alters as a defense or a shield I really find it funny how fakers think it's cute
- komaeda
@@Nile6o2 low quality bait, try harder next time
@@Nile6o2 Yeah, discredits people who
actually have mental illnesses.
@@user-hw7dz7mg5n facts these people live in a world where reality doesn't apply to them
Nile You dont have the disorder so how do you even know it’s fake. And for you to attack a disorder that is used as a coping mechanism for childhood trauma is really insensitive of you. Some people have been through hell and back when they were young, some sexually abused, maybe a close family member died, maybe they were abandoned. It differs from person to person but that’s like having a go at someone for having OCD or Schizophrenia. I understand it’s not normal and I’m sorry your tiny brain can’t comprehend change in our society today, and you’re open to your own opinion, but your opinion is actually wrong and you have to accept that
Thank you. I was diagnosed many years ago but the sensational media stories and disbelief of doctors left me feeling very ashamed and confused. Was I just making it all up? I still won't talk about it or give overdue attention to this diagnosis even in therapy. Over the years as I've recovered from the denial of the abuse I went through my symptoms have improved.
That girl with pink hair on med circle just came out with another video...I don't buy it.
It's BPD..."I know this because Tyler knows this."
Right. It was one thing to see the first interview which got a lot of views and now she is putting out her own videos. Im not buying it either. One was her going into an arts and crafts store to "make" Minnie come out. I don't think thats how dissociative identity disorder works.
@@maggie0285 It was to trigger an alter to come out. If an alter feels an emotional connection to something, they might get triggered to front and take control of the body. Considering Minnie would be a little, she might love arts and crafts and front. Also, making alters front on command is hard and can take years of therapy to do. It also may give the body headaches and other side effects as well.
Yeah i think the girl does have issues but it's not DID. I'm not buying it either.
EXACTLY
Thank You Sir, You teachings are amazing and easy to understand and follow :)
You're welcome - thank you so much for your kind words and thanks for watching -
I can tell you that I have had dissociative amnesia. I found my neighbour murdered and have no memory of same. My daughter seems to have multiple personalities . She was abused before I adopted her. I’m not sure is she is faking it in order to get rid of the one on one workers coming into the home daily to keep me safe and as an excuse for her very violent behaviour. It’s possible that my 15 year old is a psychopath. At this point I’m hoping it’s mpd because at least that can be treated.
Wouldn’t it be schizophrenia ?
Ok so yhis is my questions how does the diagnosed person with did know how many alters thy have and they know their ages and “pronouns” it seems crazy to me.
Thank you. This was very easy to understand
You're welcome!
I love how you've described this, very balanced & rational, I would be in the middle with you but also tending towards not believing it. I agree, it appears to be over diagnosed or worse, self diagnosed by attention seeking narcissist, see - DissociaDID on YT. I'm prepared to believe in almost anything, but where I fall away, is apparent 'hammy' acting & voice changes, say to small children. Also, I feel that the total & complete dissociation from each 'alter' would be impossible, in other words more realistic if there was knowledge of the others & crossover of knowledge. I am totally sympathetic to severe personal trauma, but I do feel a lot of these people are just acting, it's even possible that they have begun to believe their own deception; perhaps, or until someone comes forward & admits the deception, we shall never know.
Dr. Grande, this is re cluster b, not DID, but I just met a student going into the field and we had a discussion about personality disorders like BPD and NPD and the desire in some to get help. It seemed like he had never heard positive, hopeful things about those with such personality disorders and he may just go into his career with his mind opened! I recommended both you and Dr. Fox.
Some of these comments are so misinformed. Some people are so confident that this isn't real that they're perpetuating common myths. I have D.I.D. and everyone with the disorder is different. Through therapy you can gain more control and you and your alters learn to work together towards the similar goal of survival.
Some systems experience more amnesia or less amnesia.
Some have sexual traum, some physical, some emotional etc.
To sit here and say there's "no evidence" when these experiences (while differing in some ways as stated above) are generally consistent with symptoms, causes, and stories is just plain ignorance. If you are in the psychology field and are too arrogant to admit this is real then LEAVE THE FUCKING FIELD. I've been traumatized by a therapist in a psychiatric hospital who told me I was faking for attention.
Now that Ive been diagnosed by two different therapists, it's still hard to overcome the self-invalidation.
But we are fucking REAL. And we are right in front of you
I've heard these and similar stories. I am trying to make my story heard (by those around me, seeking support) and it is hit-or-miss. I'm sorry these experiences have led you to continue to doubt yourself. If anything, it is a small comfort to us that we DON'T rely on external validation simply to exist. No matter what anyone says, we know the truth. We have our lived experiences. We have tried to convince ourselves, each in turn, that we do not have this disorder, that we are experiencing something much more simplistic. Since that didn't work, we moved on to acceptance.
Maybe I will think differently if I ever meet a harmful individual in the field. I have only met people who are ignorant and didn't know what to do with me when I didn't have the answers myself. Best of luck on your journey, from our system to yours.
Gooniegoogle very ignorant huh?
So my traumatic past has given life to a different persona that takes over when I feel threatened? I thought everyone had duality to their perception, the angel and devil on your shoulders trope right?
Maybe my problem is two personalities fighting for the spotlight and they get so mixed up I don’t know where one starts and the other ends.
i've seen a lot of comments saying stop self diagnosing, unfortunately due to the very bad system of therapy and how hard is to get a proper diagnosis most systems go their whole lives without being diagnosed because they cant afford it, people don't believe them or many other reasons. I've known people who have lied about DID and i know people who have DID (myself included) so i understand the uncertainty, trust me, as a minority we feel it as well.
It's not a real condition. It's something that bad people cooked up to pull one over on everyone else.
I think BPD is just a smidge below DID
This needs more views
I find it so hard to believe but I really want to
Did and bpd are often comorbid. I wish you would have included that at the end this almost made it sound like if its one it cant be both which is totally untrue 70% of people with did meet criteria for bpd. So ya just saying.
Can you tell me how
Yes correct, it is real. My client who is a very conservative boomer, sensitive to pain, but with a horrific history of CSA recently pulled all of her toenails out during a dissociative state. She had absolutely no recollection of the event and is horrified to think that she did it.
We’re a year older and hopefully wiser on the subject DID. There are different stages of DID and how this disorder is experienced in a personal level. I’ve come to realize that different alters can be present at all times, meaning that they’re standby to take over when being triggered. A different accent, different clothing or switching sexuality when an alter is taking over I still find surreal. Still present but not in control is my experience, unable to react (Locked-in syndrome - LIS) kinda feeling. Literally stepping back or being pushed aside with no power to control the physical manifestation. I’ve learned that a switch can happen without a warning but from the reaction of your partner of a friend that something is not quite right.
I’ve also learned that some DID patients cannot be helped. It happens and it’s sad for the individual. Drugs are then being prescribed, no guarantee that this will help overcoming the symptoms which unable you to function.
This was really good and well balanced.
Who came here after watching mr robot?
Are there any recorded cases of a newly-emerged alter having a practical or intellectual skill...such as knowing a foriegn language or being able to drive a car...which is not possessed by any other of the alters?
I believe that this disorder is most definitely real I just don't understand why others who've may experience childhood trauma frequently don't suffer from DID is it stress levels? I get everyone is different but can someone help me to understand that
From what I’ve understood you have to have the genetic predisposition to high levels of dissociation. I’m guessing people who experienced frequent severe trauma who didnt develop DID probably just dont have a predisposition of high dissociative levels. Or possibly their brain just didn’t see a need to cope in such an extreme manner for their situation
@@lights4946 OK that makes a whole lot of sense wow the human brain is amazing
Frankie Robinson
The same reason why not everyone who smokes gets lung cancer. It increases the risk, but it isn't guaranteed to form.
Light S I’ve dealt with A LOT!! Of trauma back to back to back, Losing loved ones, many different forms of child abuse, Sexual abuse, I’ve attempted suicide 3 times, I was also Physically hit by a car and verbally and mentally abused by my ex boyfriend.. I’m a completely different person from who I used to be but not in the DID manner, Why didn’t I get “DID” it would seem very fitting if it just works that way, So idk if these UA-camrs are being honest
StarzRain L Most of the youtubers you see are overdoing it for views but they put a bad name on people who actually have DID. Only 1% of the people who have DID document it on UA-cam. The other 99% either don’t like talking about it or just don’t document it because it’s a private issue
I have been diagnosed with DID. Even I struggle to recognise my diagnosis, a lot of this is to do with the disbelief around the legitimacy of the diagnosis. This is damaging to those with DID. It has massively been misrepresented in the media. If you met me, I wouldn’t be acting weird, I would present as totally ‘normal’. I struggled for years in filling out mental health questionnaires, wanting to fill in multiple answers. It was only in my 30’s I was finally diagnosed by a trained expert in DID. Here in the UK the NHS struggles to recognise this disorder, I was diagnosed by a private specialist. And although a dissociative disorder was picked up by the NHS, I could not be fully diagnosed by them. I think this lack of acknowledgment and having to seek a private professional diagnosis only adds to the mystery and disbelief. I’ve been on weekly therapy for 5 years and am nowhere near ‘recovered’, I am still only scraping the surface of this condition. I won’t go into how I feel on a daily basis or how DID affects me, because it’s painful. But I can tell you it can be debilitating. But as I said you wouldn’t pick me out of a crowd and be able to tell I have this condition. I still seek out videos like this to reassure me that it is a real condition and not an act people put on for online clout.
Some people gain money from diagnosing DID. And it is extremely damaging to the patients because some of those professionals (like the one that diagnosed the youtuber dissociaDID) believe that there is an organized group of people who perform ritual satanic sexual abuse on children and « help » the patients uncover those memories. This is criminal. There is no reason to do this to a patient, it’s torture. So I’m sorry but people have their reasons for speaking against those practices. They are the most unethical things you can do to someone who is suffering.
I miss your early educational vids btw
I recently learned that I have borderline and can see myself in a lot of the diagnostic criteria and from youtube videos. I experienced personalities during a six week hospital stay. It did feel like some of them were just fragments of who I am and others seemed foreign to me. I decided that I didn't want them and they went away. So I can vouch for that they are real.
Frank Huston speaking from someone who doesn't have experience with it first hand?
every time Dr Phil comes on TV they have a loony multiple, my questions would be is if a person creates a personality to deal with negative emotion why are there so many personality's and why do all of the personalities crave attention
Dude, what are you on about? DID isn’t created because of negative emotions. It’s created due to repeated childhood trauma that causes the brain to spilt the personality into pieces so the person can cope with the horrible things that happened to them.
What do you mean “so many”? A person with DID can have as few as 2 personalities or as many as 100. It varies, although the current average is 16. The amount of personalities that exist can increase due to stress if the person already has DID, so through their life more pieces might split and create new personalities. That’s why there can be lots.
They don’t all crave attention. Some refuse to come out around other people and lots of personalities will imitate the host (the personality that uses the body’s legal name) to keep people from knowing they have DID.
As for the reason some crave attention, DID can be caused by childhood neglect, so some of the personalities formed because of that neglect would be starved for the attention they weren’t given as a child.
That’s something I’ve also wondered about. I think as far as media goes, shows like Dr. Phil tend to draw people who might be incentivized to over exemplify their experience. In my experience, (I was diagnosed in Sept of last year), the absolute last thing that personality alters want is any kind of attention at all. In fact, I would go as far to say that there is a concerted effort to hide away and appear as normal as possible. It only developed for self preservation and protection, and that’s still my experience. Unless you know me very very well, you cannot tell I have the disorder.
I seen a therapist on Dr.phil with a multiple that wrote a book about her patient. Dr. Phil asked her if she was keeping all the proceeds from the sales and she said yes! Could you imagine a doctor saying you had dissociative identity disorder, writing a book about you and keeping the money? I think that's worthy of stripping someone's license away.
DID is very under diagnosed and misdiagnosed with things like schizophrenia, borderline personality disorder, and bipolar disorder.
It is interesting indeed, but is it possible that you alter from two completely different persons each one with its own memory and consciousness without any connections or awareness between the different personalities? As example one of them is a murderer and the other is not aware at all.
How will you know for sure if you have that disorder?
I think every other person is a patient of DID they are totally a changed person when they are alone, people tend to hide secrets telling lies acting in front of others faking the personality what the actually are
The reason why I don't buy DID is the whole premiss that the personalities shows up to cope with trauma. That is not how the brain works. We don't forget trauma (however if the trauma goes on for a long time we might forget parts and pieces but we do not forget that it happened) because remembering things that frightened us is useful, it teaches us what to look out for in the future.
A I think the confusion there is that it is much more specific than just Trauma itself. its repeated, often extreme, trauma occurring in early childhood, especially that which introduces psychological torment (extreme hopelessness, helplessness) that leaves the child’s brain with little options but to turn inward for some self-preserving solution- “diluting” the trauma over self-created multiple people, or alters. The Trauma is not forgotten, it’s simply stored away creatively by the brain and sectioned off to allow a sense of normalcy in non-Trauma time to occur.
A
Yes, remembering frightening things is useful, but only to a point. If it hinders your ability to function (being able to eat, sleep, clean yourself, etc) then it ceases to be helpful. Most people with DID would not be anywhere near functional if they hadn't developed DID. I have DID myself and I am incredibly grateful that other parts are connected to the trauma but I am not so that I can succeed in my life, although I'm still not super functional. I remember quite a bit of the trauma (although I have a feeling I don't remember all of it) but I don't feel emotionally affected by it. I'm fairly certain that if I hadn't developed DID I might've fallen victim to a psychological break instead. Or at the very least I would be the opposite of functional.
To quote one of my favourite books about DID 'Freshwater' "We are the buffer between you and the madness. We are not the madness."
its absolutely not real.
We are spirits inhabiting a physical body to experience this physical reality. Western world does not see full reality as it is. Western world only believes in MATERIALISM which is but a fraction of a fraction of the whole. I am researching spirit attachment of 1 or more spirits. You are the main attachment to your body and you drift off here and there (and may not want to return if you don't like the physical situation you are in). If you do have other spirits attached, they can influence you or temporarily control your body. You can also exhibit some behaviors or even physical pains or even bad health via the energies from 1 or more attached spirits. Comments welcome.
The more I learn about DID, the less I believe it exists. It sounds like something a child would make up for attention. The human brain and trauma can do a lot but not that. These people need help of course, but not the help they're receiving. I hope Psychology fixes this asap
This is a good example of why it is so hard not only for those without DID to believe in the condition, but why those WITH DID are constantly doubting themselves as well. It seems unreal. Is this really happening? Is this my life? There must be a simpler explanation. Of course, similar thoughts also pervade the kind of trauma it takes to create such an uncommon condition. It is simply unbelievable, the neglect, violence and exploitation that leaves a child in such a hopeless, helpless situation that the only thing they can do is to effectively rescue themselves. That is when you see the power of a child's imagination, and the resilience of the human brain. A child who is being abused may imagine someone in their mind who is much stronger than they are, and that someone can, over time, become a protector alter who is able to front for the child in order to cope with the abuse. This is not a conscious decision by the child obviously (I cannot personally recall a time I thought I would "make up" an alter, and most adults with DID hope fiercely that they do NOT gain more alters, as that would only make things more difficult).
Living with DID is a constant challenge, but without it, that child would probably not have survived the torment they were forced to endure. It is the brain's means of preserving itself in a life-threatening situation, and this sets the stage for the rest of that child's life.
I suppose it is hard to believe, but that is the nature of the beast. It not only SOUNDS like something a child created: it IS something a child created. But you may not realize... when you say you can hardly believe it, that it is so fantastic... that is a view you share in common with sufferers, who take years and years to come to terms with the way their mind and body has learned to cope with incomprehensible abuse and neglect.
(And you may ignore this if you wish. I am only feeling very chatty today. - Zen )
This is my alter jeffery bezos talking, dont make me mad or ill turn into my alter Hulk from marvel comics
A psychiatrist once told me about a man with DID. He had several "alters", Just ONE alter was gay. The man contracted HIV and later AIDS...but ONLY the "gay" alter ever tested positive for HIV, the others were fine. His psychiatrist insisted on melding all the personalities together. And then he began getting really sick. ALL the alters developed AIDS. I didn't really believe in DID, but the psychiatrist swore it was true, he knew this patient. How the hell do you fake HIV/AIDS???😑
That psychiatrist is lying to you. I’m sorry.
That's not how AIDS nor DID works... They share the same body, each alter shares the same brain and there is no way only one alter had HIV and the others didn't. This case is what we call a lie. And the psychiatrist is a liar.
Can you show were there is a 100 % accurate Dx of any mental disorder. In addition is there not proof that some people also act like they have a mental disorders but they do not? Yes healthy skepticism is a good thing but couldn't that also lead to misdiagnosis of these who maybe borderline? Also hear a lot of discussion about lose of time with those with DID be rarely a discussion about those suffering from severe periods of time distortion who have DID.
this assumes a "primary personality" even exists. the existence of DID and OSDD is only controversial by other people who assume that there's always some inherent perception of self that is somehow designed to lead or take priority over others. In other words, people who's perception or reality and/or belief in "free-will" is fragile. Everyone I've met from various support groups who either became diagnosed, or who was seeking diagnosis, already exhibited strong and typical symptoms of DID or OSDD well before they sought therapy for it. As for a subset of BPD or Schizophrenia, there are many videos and articles out there that make clear distinctions between schizophrenia and DID/OSDD as well as debunk myths between them. With BPD, there are some with DID/OSDD who include parts with BPD, and they often explain the differences between them for their own experiences, while there are others who's experience with DID/OSDD is described as being entirely different than BPD. So while some symptoms may present similarly, and BPD finitely needs to be outlined better, there are clearly people with BPD that have no clearly defined levels of dissociation, while DID/OSDD is known to be the extreme of dissociative disorders. DID/OSDD and other dissociative disorders, schizophrenia, and BPD, and a few others, have hyposynaptogenesis in common, but not strictly much else
Some day people are happy, some day they are funnier, hours later that can be more melancholic etc, it is called MOOD, that is the whole secret. This personality switch is forced conciously, they can fear something and switch to auto protect mode and behave differently, but mostly these are just acting skills, people can come up with lots of strange ideas, to call yourself different names is one of those
RobinPM100
Yeah, but if you have DID than each personality has their own moods. Imagine if moods had moods. I have DID and yeah some parts tend to be partial to certain emotions, but they have more depth than just an emotion. My alter Erika tends to be angry, but she can also be happy. My alter Alex tends to be happy, but she can also be nervous. And I can tell the difference between happy Erika and happy Alex. I can tell the difference between each alter regardless of their current mood.
Also, usually you don't have amnesia barriers between moods.
jfsfrnd
Sometimes that's the reason for naming them, other times they come with names that have a particular meaning (let's say you knew a strong person named Joey. You might develop a strong alter named Joey if you split and need to develop a strong alter) or they name themselves just because they like the name.
Sense I was younger like 5 to 6 everything did not seem right whenever I looked in the mirror I didn't see myself but someone else on the inside I felt happy but the person I saw in the mirror was not. a few years later anger started to surface I would go from being fine to screaming and acting a fool but afterwards I would not remember anything. I try not to fight and I don't like causing harm but when the anger takes over I want to. I am generally a good happy person I love life and I respect others as I would hope they respect me as well but that anger feels like someone else. I reference it as me but it doesn't feel like me I also have a few other issues I have found myself getting into people's heads to get what I want or cause emotional pain and I'm not like that and 8 times out of 10 I don't remember doing it till way later or I don't Rembert at all. is it possible that I could have multiple just angry personalities that I don't know about. I had a rough childhood emotional abuse and physical and watched my mother spiral out of control due to drugs. she is better now been clean for 22 years thank god but could this have caused me to develop alters that are angry. I'm a bit worried
Of course DID exists. All these other takes on it are just making it more difficult for all of the people suffering from the problem. They have to come across all this unsympathetic scepticism about what they are going through.
I wonder when DID fromes. I mean i can remember every sickiening detail of my past and sometimes i wished that i had someone else come in for me so i don't have to go trough it all again. Is it something in the brain i assume it's so complex that i wonder x'3
sry bad english :'D
I think I have D.I.D but because of my low self esteem and how much i’ve been told about how my trauma isn’t enough I don’t believe it and think its fake...
My depression increases because of this so please don’t say i’m faking it to get attention...i want to hide away completely not be screaming to the world about whats happening to me...
Sorry for ranting..
Try reading up on developmental trauma.
Childhood neglect can cause serious trauma, but might not leave memories to explain it.
I am 35 and have DID. 1 fictive alter and 2 alters that the fictive created. So 3 alters. Trauma started from Childhood abuse and neglect from a baby, because of a mentally ill Mother and going to different Foster homes from age 2 to 19. I lost count and got bullied alot too, and ASD doesn't help either. My Alters started from looking up to somebody at the age of 8-9 years old on TV, and created a 5 year old female child alter at the age of 8-9.
He made me feel safe and saw him as a Father figure and M came along. Her 15 year old older version came later in 2011.
It's exhausting, because they most of the time come out, but it's like watching a movie because 1 of them doesn't know me which the fictive alter is her Father who is a narcissistic, authoritive and helicopter parent.
Switching is not instant for me, I respect their privacy, so I just eat little M's baby food if she isn't around. Lol.
DID is not dramatic like in the movies! 💜
Totally agree agree with ya Grande
It's real, I have 5 identities, I've trained them to speak out loud so we can communicate, and the child ones are clearly messing up my life because smokes are too expensive, the doubt probably lies more with attention seeking schizophrenics and people trying to get out of jail but those people clearly are not going through what I go through
What's with the pentagram?
That's...not a pentagram.
I BELIEVE IN D.I.D
Dee Wishies ITS NOT REAL