Is DID a disorder or is it Multiplicity?

I don't want to offend anyone...but I have always thought of DID as a disorder, if for no other reason than people with the diagnosis were often in therapy

But on this forum, I have been exposed to the idea of Multiplicity which is not a disorder.

My childhood abuse left me with a number of maladaptive coping mechanisms (worked very well in childhood however). Also, I wanted very, very much to feel like one continuous person with one continuous timeline. So in my mind, "my DID" diagnosis was a disorder.

How do you experience your diagnosis?

A disorder is a condition that interferes with your functioning in a way that causes you distress in one or more areas of your life. So each of us figures out for themselves whether being multiple is a "disorder" for them.

So far, for me, it seems that it has been our lack of awareness of each other in here that has caused difficulties for us rather than the fact of having multiple parts. I need to get to know all the parts in here first and we need to learn how to get along and take care of each other before I can even think about what comes next.

the Gang

I agree with the Gang.

DID is only a disorder if it causes a disruption or difficulty in your normal daily life. That's what makes any disorder a disorder. Eg. one can have obsessive compulsive traits, but it isn't OCD unless it starts negatively effecting your life.

For our system, the main disruptive elements are the amnesia / blackouts / time loss, and to a lessor extent, the compartmentalization of certain skills. I feel that if we can learn to communicate fully, to eliminate or minimalize blackouts / timeloss, and to get the right part with the right skillset to front when necessary, we won't have a 'disorder' any more.

We have no desire whatsoever to merge or fuse or otherwise become a singleton. Our goal is healthy multiplicity, harmony and cooperation between all of us.

-Violet (1)

We're agree too.

For us, I guess it can be see as a a disorder in a way that we can't function well without the others.

But as a whole, the disorder is the C-PTSD, not the multiplicity. Our multiplicity was the way to handle the abuses in our childhood, and now it's the way we are and it helps us to handle the C-PTSD and keep functionning the best we can. 'Cause we're made for that : functionning no matter what.
If we had no PTSD, our only issue would be to work together, and if it was hard at first, now we know each other, it's easier and our life had improved.

That was surprising for my psych. She was so "whoaw" by the fact we're multiple that she forgot why we were here in the first place, and when she finally get that we don't see each other as a problem and we are learning to work together, she asked "but if it's okay, why are you here ?". Well, mainly for anxiety, nightmares, and body memories. But not because we're multiple.

It can be frustrating to not be a whole single person. The micro-amnesia, having to share our life, to pay attention to each others, it can be exhausting and three years before, our life was quite a mess. But the more we learn, the easier it get.
So no, we don't see our multiplicity as a disorder. It's just the way we are, and our goal is cooperation too.

But we totaly get the fact that there's people who see it as a disorder and want to be a single person. It can be a good solution too. I think it all depends of the way the system works and sees themselves.

I'm really curious if there is any sort of correlation between the people who see multiplicity as a problem and want to be 'cured' to be a single person, and people who have a 'core' or 'original' self.

Eg. we have no core, no original in our system. We're all just parts in here, even if some front more than others. And AFAIK noone in our system wants to 'cured' and be a singleton. We value our multiple selves. As V1 said, we just want to learn to communicate better and stop having the timeloss and memory problems.

-Violet (2)

Hi,

We went to lots of Ts for anxiety and depression but didn't tell them we were multiple. That didn't work. Now we have a T who knows we're multiple but we're still working on anxiety and depression - but now all of us instead of just Host. That works better.

Iain

If you are multiple then multiplicity is the territory your therapist must navigate - not the problem to be solved.

Morgan

Agreeing with pretty much all of what everyone said.

VioletFlux wrote:I'm really curious if there is any sort of correlation between the people who see multiplicity as a problem and want to be 'cured' to be a single person, and people who have a 'core' or 'original' self.

Eg. we have no core, no original in our system. We're all just parts in here, even if some front more than others. And AFAIK noone in our system wants to 'cured' and be a singleton. We value our multiple selves. As V1 said, we just want to learn to communicate better and stop having the timeloss and memory problems.

-Violet (2)

We haven't heard enough anecdotal evidence to support this idea, but it's an interesting thought.

MDs

we see the word 'disorder' as a medical label and little else. we strive for healthy multiplicity ourselves, healthy meaning not interfering with our daily like as much as it is now.

littleDaria wrote:we see the word 'disorder' as a medical label and little else.

Yep, this. When I really think about it sometimes, it chafes to call it a disorder because multiplicity wasn't an option. Given the unrelenting abuse from birth or shortly after, there was no alternative except perhaps insanity. We did what we did and we survived. We are multiple, that's a fact.

I'm a bit surprised really that I'm basically neutral about whether or not we remain multiple. That's not the issue for us. We want everyone to heal, we don't want any triggers, we want to remove anything that causes dysfunction, I think it may be sad if our littles don't get to grow up, if any parts can't join in on the good stuff of life so they're participants or at least content observers. If that happens with integration, okay. If we remain multiple and fulfilled, okay. We're already pretty functional.

We do have a core, Adam, our youngest, whom we consider the original. He was one of the first known to us, was identified as the core then, and after 60+ other discovered alters, nothing has changed that. Plus our gatekeeper Sphinx, a detached objective observer, who just knows certain things about the life history, what events happened, considers it a fact.

In the big books of mental health disorders, DSM and ICD, a disorder can be diagnosed only if it is causing distress and/or problems functioning in social, work or family activities. The distress is not necessarily your own; a person may experience no suffering but others around that person may suffer greatly from the person's dysfunctional behavior.