What CAUSED your DID?

No doubt this thread is going to require a *trigger warning* so..

*Trigger Warning*

First I want to thank everyone who have been open & honest with us thus far. I think I've gained more clarity on this forum in the past week, then I ever have in therapy thus far. So thank you all!

I'm very curious to hear what you believe 'caused' your DID?

was is trauma induced? Was genetics a factor? Were you raised by adults with unstable/unpredictable behavior? Was it something you taught yourself? Was is self inflicted & if yes why? I'm thus far, fascinated with this condition.

I look at my body like it is an office block/sky scraper/costume that numerous people 'wear'. My personalities are very distinct & unique.

Personally I think my condition was created by a number of factors including genetic predisposition, trauma & intentionally triggered/taught by my abusers & further refined by my own teachings (of how to disconnect from the abuse so it didn't emotionally affect me in the moment) A skill I was very very proud of once refined in childhood.. It just snowballed out of control until I forgot (DA) that it even existed.

Interested to hear how others ended up with DID.

What caused our DID?

How should we know? Even if we had perfect recall of our entire lives, and could point to specific events, there remains the problem that correlation does not prove causation.

Look to the literature for general patterns. Meanwhile, try to let it go.

Sorry if we caused any upset. Was not our intention. Just curious to hear others opinions. Maybe I should have titled this 'when you you think your DID started?' 'What was your onset'?

What do u do with the ones, so squeaky clean but clearly exhibit all the signs of DID as adult assuming therapy started in 30s? Married, decent sex life, no substances, educated, career, little to no addictions.

For me personally, putting together the evidence from known facts, my life history, details passed along by others, and my own memories and flashbacks, I have no doubt what caused my DID.

From when I was extremely young, under a year old, both parents were alternately abusive (physical, sexual, emotional) and nurturing. The mother had DID and the father had a major dissociative disorder, probably DID. Both parents did a decent or good job raising me most of the time. Their behavior at other times was severely ill and criminal. There are signs of dissociating from both sides of my extended family.

Although we don't have any full introjects -- parts identifying with the abusers -- the fact that we experienced several very different people in our parents may have provided a model for different people in us. I don't really know if that's what happened but it would make sense if it did.

The flashbacks, which range in time from a moment up to 15 minutes, could not indicate anything other than incidents of physical and sexual abuse. They're usually replays of part of a full trauma memory, so may include any combination of images, sounds, emotions, body position or movement, thoughts, sensations. Occasionally they're a complete replay of a past trauma memory where I'm in the memory reliving it rather than in the present.

The parents, particularly the father, talked during the abuse. This can be quite sickening to remember but it has helped me figure out what happened to make them that way. Both were abused in early childhood.

Even though there's a lot I still don't know, much of the certainty I have comes from our gatekeeper Sphinx. He can somehow calculate when things happened and can confirm whether, when, and how something happened or didn't happen. I thought he was full of crap at first, and he did make errors about his own nature. But after years of so many things from him being confirmed and little turning out to be wrong, I've learned to accept what he states. He's a part of us after all and we were there for these events.

The onset of our DID occurred a few months after birth. There are vague memories, know facts, plus we have several baby alters, especially Adam, Clark and Ashar, whose memories and flashbacks clarify the specific types of abuse we experienced.

TW for CSA

I can't know for sure, but my best guess is my DID was originally caused by sexual abuse perpetrated by my father when I was a baby. Don't know how old, but young enough that my motor skills weren't very developed and wiggling, crying and trying to roll over was about the extent of my ability to physically defend myself.

I think this because we have alters that are that young, and we have had memories come from them that are of our father doing things to us. Don't want to get into it really.

The overall shape and texture of our system is more defined by our later years, but the initial split and cause I think is the early sexual abuse.

*trigger warning** abuse, emotional abuse, slight detail for both of those
Dont even get me started. What? Lets sew i was around at like 3-4? Dad gone every weekday on a buisness trip. Abusive when hes around to a somewgat extent. After the first years 5-6 cane along had to stay in the bad part of dallas where i might have been sexually abused. Awesome. So wheres mom? Oh yeah rehab from being an alcheholic even after recovery shes never there. Never comes to dinner never talks to me never invites me to do things. So when id get bitch slapped shed start fighting i mean great fir short term survival but she was emotionally manipulative always mad me feel on edge and confused. She is a stranger to me and ive been around for awhile. Cant get worse? Enter 6th grade everyone makes fun of hanna and makes her a social outcast for the next 5 years. To top it off get a friemd who constantly tried ditching her for someone better. Then gwt another friend who manipulates her so bad it created thistle that was the first split besdies me that we knew of and she was made to be able to handle manipulation. Fought everyday with that friend for an entire year. Cyber bullying and arguing. Ended up in tears. Every. Damn. Day. There was no one for support there is no help not then. Enter the third big event parents take hannas phone which was our coping mechanism and read. Through personal stuff. Ilose it kick q hole in the dry wall one thing hits another and were sitting outside in the winter cause she had to leave the house for her safty. they lock her out. So here we are a year later and not coping the best but hey were alive.

Sexual abuse between myself and multiple people I think is what did it. My sexual abuse goes back to before I have a real memory. I have alters that are only a year or two old. I remember being sexually abused by both parents and several of their friends. Dark stuff. Took me a long time to get a grasp on because... what kind of person sexually victimizes a toddler, maybe even a baby?

emotional abuse. it's taken a while for me to even address it as abuse, because at the time, it just seemed like bullying. girls being girls. normal stuff. it wasn't until i met therapists + csa victims who told me my abuse was valid that i started calling it that.
i've actually blocked out most of my childhood so im not sure if i even remember a lot of it? i don't want to either. i know ptsd + did arent always present together but it's not uncommon for them to both be there, and it looks like thats the case for me too

Same as everybody extreme abuse dissociation until it become overwhelming, hence finally the first alter at 5 years old know about 2016 emerged. I'm not new at T so I know the cause of us in particular just so you know.