question about DID

hey,
I feel really bad about just posting here, I feel like I'm kinda intruding when I don't have a DID diagnosis or anything. But I've just been very curious about the illness and would like to ask some questions. ( I hope I'm not offending anyone :S that is definitely NOT my intention!)

1. I read that some people with DID sometimes feel like they're faking it or they say they were misdiagnosed in the past. I wonder how that happens when the symptoms seem so distinct (apart from schizophrenia maybe, I understand the hearing voices part fitting in there).

2. This might sound like a weird or stupid question, but do you guys sometimes (when you're alone) talk out loud to your alters? Like, answering their thoughts out loud? Just wondering if that happens.

3. Oh, and then I was wondering whether anyone thinks it's possible to have alters, but not being able to switch and not hearing them clearly... Like... could all alters become inactive and just locked up in some edge of your mind for some reason?

If nobody can relate to any of this, that's ok. I was just thinking maybe an actual person suffering from DID might help me more with my curiosity than the web search.

I hope you're all doing well!

Greetings, Nicky

Alexa: Don't feel bad about being curious it's a very interesting disorder for sure! Let me see if I can give you some answers...

1) I think, at least part of the time, people go through this "denial" phase because the idea of having DID just seems too crazy, or too much to take at first and accept. Denying it is an initial first reaction and it gives the person time to process it. It's too hard to accept the diagnosis at first, so this makes it easier. We definitely went through it ourselves, and I'm sure many on here have too.

2) Yeah, we do that all the time. When no one else is around, the one that's out just answers out loud to the other alters instead of just mentally answering. I'm sure lots of people do that.

3) That's totally possible. I think it's also possible, with time and effort, to break through some of those barriers and get more communication going.

I hope I cleared some things up for you.

thank you very much for that fast answer!

yes, that helped me very much. thank you for taking the time to help clear that up.

I think I'll keep hanging around in this forum a little, to get a deeper understanding of DID.

Again, thank you for your help and I hope you're having a nice day

Nicky

You're welcome and have a nice day yourself!

Thank you Nick94 and chococat159 for the questions and the answers.
I am also quite new to having DID and sometimes think I just make it up somehow, but fragmentation does not know what is real or not.

I wonder whether, when somebody tells you that you did something and you don't remember doing it (not just forgetting it, but being quite sure you didn't do it), just going on that evidence alone, could there be a different explanation than DID? (assuming no drugs or alcohol were used, oh and no brain injury or whatever.)

oh, and does "hearing" your alters have to be like hearing a voice, or can it just be like... like a thought without words... or a feeling?

Angel: For the first question, I'm not sure...I don't think so. If anybody else reads this and thinks of something, please answer, but I don't actually know of anything else. Dissociation is the only thing I can think of.

For the second question, it might vary from person to person. For us, I'll compare it to something. If you read a quote by someone, let's say Jack Sparrrow, you're going to read it in his voice in your head. That's sort of how we hear the other alters talk. It's a thought in a different "voice" that we're not controlling, like the way you do with reading a quote by Jack Sparrow or something. I hope that makes sense. We don't hear it outside the head. I have heard of alters who talk in images, but none of ours do that. The ones who don't care to speak send the message telepathically to whichever alter they choose. It can probably be a feeling as well though...any others' experiences with this would be lovely. This is just our own.

-- Wed Jul 10, 2013 5:07 am --

alizhee wrote:Thank you Nick94 and chococat159 for the questions and the answers.
I am also quite new to having DID and sometimes think I just make it up somehow, but fragmentation does not know what is real or not.

Angel: When Kat first found out about the DID, she tried to find holes in it everywhere she could to prove that she was faking it. The one thing that got her every time was that she really did have memory "black-outs" from us being out. She couldn't find the memories no matter how hard she tried. After hitting that wall every single time, she finally started believing in the diagnosis. It took her several months to truly accept it though. It's always difficult in the beginning...

Thank you again

the quote thing is interesting to me because for some reason I don't have a real voice to my thoughts at all. I guess it's a memory thing. anyways, I guess what you said makes sense. so thank you for the insight.