I'm Seeing a New Therapist Monday

Other than the therapist I briefly saw at the county mental health facility, who puts a one-size-fits-none plan above the patients' needs, I haven't seen a therapist since before I moved to this state in 2014.

I will see a new therapist Monday because of my anxiety. My anxiety is a burden on my family, and I need to be functional again.

I don't know if this new therapist is experienced with DID/DDNOS, but I wonder if I should even bring that up since the reason I'm seeing him is because of my anxiety.

personally, i think you should be very careful about mentioning your DID/DDNOS because some therapists still don’t believe in it, or have very outdated views about it that could be harmful in the long run. i would say that if you all plan on interacting with this new therapist, you might want to consider telling them at some point. if not, then i don’t see a reason to if you’re just going for anxiety.

good luck with the new therapist.

-kat

I don't think it's realistic to think that you can separate out psychological issues like that. If you have anxiety, it's not separate from having DID, at least as far as working with a therapist is concerned.

If you were going to a psychiatrist for medication to treat anxiety, then you could just talk about the symptoms relevant to the anxiety, and the conversation wouldn't have to go deeper than that. But therapy is a much more non-specific type of treatment, where so much is determined by your traumatic relationship history, that it's hard to imagine that all your interactions wouldn't be colored somehow by having DID.

It's fine to see a therapist for anxiety, but I think it would be important to make sure that they are also a DID specialist, or at the very least have some up to date experience with DID/OSDD so that they can handle whatever comes up.

Just my opinion--you can take or leave it as you please.

I'm not certain my anxiety is related to my DDNOS. It was through Jeanette I expressed my emotions years before I first experienced anxiety.

IMO humans don't exist in a vacuum. So I don't think it's possible to separate your anxiety from your trauma history.

Just like it's impossible for us to separate autism from DID - an autistic brain is more prone to dissociation and more sensitive to trauma - or autism and DID from being trans - trans people have 6 times more chances than cis people to be autistic, and DID does change one's sense of identity, including gender.

I'm not sure it's necessarily to tell right away that you have DID/OSDD. But at least explain that you have complex PTSD as well as dissociation issues due to trauma, because they are very often tied to depression and anxiety. Because your anxiety was bottled up / dissociated for a long time, does not mean it just poped up and started existing the moment you noticed its symptoms. Just like the gator in the swamp next door does not start existing the moment it finds its way into your yard.

(Did I see the viral video of the gator trapped-and-released with a garbage bin? Yes of course, just like half of the Internet by now xD )

Anyway, nothing exists in a vacuum. It's all connected. It does not necessarily have a cause-and-consequence relationship, but there is a link. I don't think Covid anxiety is treated the same for a person who is experiencing their first burnout, and for a person who has a life-long history of burning out each time they step one single toe outside of their comfort zone.

So IMO even if I don't think it's absolutely neessary to seek a DID specialist, though someone who at least knows about trauma and how trauma impacts every aspect of life, would be nice.
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Zamiel.

I had no idea that Gender Identity Disorder was related. I'm a male who wishes to be a petite female.

hi, i just want to tell you, at first i had planned not to tell the therapist about the did. though it didn't go as planned, cause i ended up mentioning it soooo quickly... and it has been very problematic also.. but at the same time as others said, there are so many things that are tied to the Did, but at the same time, i feel like it would have been much simpler if not for the Did cause i don't feel like they knew what to do with that at all. in the end you decide what ever you think is best for you and your communication, mentioning it or not? I totally get not wanting to though.. it is a real bummer to be invalidated for your experiences and basically not believed.

Arik wrote:I had no idea that Gender Identity Disorder was related. I'm a male who wishes to be a petite female.

"Gender identity disorder" is a pathological way to see transidentity. Being trans is part of the normal human diversity. Sometimes it can be tied to being autistic or DID, sometimes it's not. It depends on the person.

As an example we showed signs of being a trans guy in early childhood, but dissociation meant that the genders of the different alters are very diverse - and you can see in our journey thread how we managed to link our genders and shapes to the different types of traumas (or absence of trauma) we carry.

As a whole, with the stabilization of the system, we are leaning towards trans femboy (trans guy who likes to wear feminine stuff like makeup, nail polish, long hair, skirts...).

If you want to be a petite girl, well, go ahead and have fun! There are lots of things you can try on before considering medical interventions: makeup, girly frilly clothes, body hair removal, wigs, using the "she" pronoun, asking people to talk to you using a girly name... and see how that makes you feel. If it makes you happy, carry on and be a happy girl! If not... Well, at least you tried and now you know for sure what you like or not

You can try making girly avatars in videogames or using a girly social media profile for a while, too. See how that makes you feel.

There are tons of stuff you can safely temporarily try to see if it makes you happy - or not - untill you find what helps you feel "you" the most. It's completely okay to try stuff for a while and decide to let them go if they are not right for you! You'll be wiser from the experience because you'll learn stuff about yourself.

Halloween is the perfect time to try dressing up, if you feel comfortable rocking some "drag queen" attire for the occasion. (if you do not have any Halloween-related trigger of course)
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Zamiel.

I'm 6' 2". There's no way I could be a petite woman.

Jeanette, whose life parallels my own, is currently active in two internet forums. She uses a female avatar that captures her "geek goddess" image.

hi. just want to say i understand, i have a trans male prominent alter, but i am 5'2" so yeah.. in high school i told my best friends that i indeed was "tough," and they would not want to get in a fight with me, and then they proceeded to laugh. (not in a mean way, and i was okay with it.) sometimes who we are on the inside doesn't completely match up. I play detective games soemtimes, cause it still gives me that feeling of being masculine and cool that I crave and is really hard in real life.
Also there are some tall girls out there too.