DID vs OSDD over time

I used to have DID... after many years of growth and healing, and practice, I don't know if DID is still the right description. I am still in parts, but less distinct and rarely in conflict anymore. Until a recent major stressor, I was going years at dormant levels with a single host fronting for the whole system. Now things are shaken up and there are switches again... but the differences are muffled now and more of me is present even when a different aspect takes charge. So... are we in OSDD territory now? or just DID with pretty good coping skills?

When one of our past hosts first started noticing symptoms we had lots of amnesia between alters. we had usually had one consistent host for when we were around other people (college/work etc) but if others did come out and 'replace her' they answered to the legal name and 'pretended to be her'. Some though preferred to come out only when we were alone and for those periods the main host would just have gaps.

Now we function differently, some have disappeared...could be dormant or integrated I'm not sure? Those that are left with full separate identities communicate much better and there isn't as much amnesia between us, though the protectors choose to keep some memories blocked & seperate. I suspect so those of us that have to front in public/take care of daily life can do so without the constant intrusion of trauma memories?

It's difficult to know, we have autism so many of our past identities were what we called 'social mask alters' at the time that just switched off and disappeared once we were out of the situation (returned home from work etc)..we didn't have the understanding to know what Dissociation was at the time or where the 'social masks' disappeared to.

We've read several pages on DID and though most cover differences between DID & OSDD no where seems to explain about the evolution of a persons system over time and whether you may start as one or evolve into the other as parts integrate over the years.

-- Tue May 02, 2023 5:57 pm --

The DID board has more people they tend to just post on there now..maybe copy and post in there? or maybe an Admin can move this post for you?

I wonder if it's really necessary or even useful to differentiate between DID and OSDD. I suspect they might just be slightly different presentations of the same disorder.

From a psychological perspective I have three points to make:
1. It's not a disorder if it doesn't cause problems in your life. You say it does, it means whatever you have at least still classifies as a disorder.
2. In short, the DSM classifies a disorder as DID if you have amnesia between parts. Now this is tricky, because it's still amnesia if you have to recollect your memories afterwards. If this is the case for you, it classifies as DID. If not, it would likely fall under OSDD.
3. It's not so easy to merge the different disorders. Psychologists are already conflicted on whether DID is wortht to be its own diagnosis and not just a form of c-ptsd with dissociative fugue. It'd be more likely that if you were to merge DID and OSDD that your diagnoses would be turned into simply a symptom that is called dissociative fugue.

Hope that provides some clarity. I agree to move this topic to DID though. They discuss the same struggles.

All best wishes