Brain Awareness Week and DID Talk - Suggestions?

Hello Everyone,

Next week is gonna take place The Brain Awareness Week globally. This week aims to inform society about the awesome functioning of the brain, as well as emphasizes the importance on research on this topic.

I'm gonna be giving a talk about DID; from the survival mechanism to the daily life. Not from a professional point of view. I wanna talk about how amazing the brain is in developing this mechanism for survival, as well as raise awareness about it's existence, how it develops (hopefully to prevent it to happen to other children), and how a life of an adult with DID goes on.

Do you guys have any advice? On the topics? Important things to tell?

Looking forward to reading you.

Sea

We are also gonna portray a movie. I'm thinking of: Voices Within - The Lives Of Truddi Chase.

Do you have another one in mind?

We are gonna talk about the movie, after it's being portrayed.

Thanks.

I find the development of the identity an interesting topic. Not necessarily dissociated identities, but identity as a concept. This function seems to be very different in persons with DID. The disorder has been misunderstood and stigmatized due to this. Commonly people regard the concept of "several identities" in the same person very delusional, but from the DID point-of-view it is usually not a delusion. It is dificult to understand the concept of "multiple identities or personalities" because it doesn't seem to exist in the normal population. Most of the time people don't see that DID never really develops within the person. It is maybe the integrated personality everyone takes for granted that fails to develop. So, persons with DID don't "become insane" in the same way as people with some other mental disorders. The stigmatization could possibly be reduced if this concept was better understood.

It is also fascinating how fragile the human concept of an identity is. When it is considered in the light of dissociative disorders it is possible learn a lot about the human psyche in general.

-- Fri Mar 07, 2014 2:33 pm --

Seangel wrote:We are also gonna portray a movie. I'm thinking of: Voices Within - The Lives Of Truddi Chase.

Do you have another one in mind?

We are gonna talk about the movie, after it's being portrayed.

Thanks.

I haven't found any "good" movies about DID from an educational point-of-view. Any movie may be in risk of giving a false view of the disorder. But whatever you do, never show or talk about Sybil.

ChristaAngel wrote:Most of the time people don't see that DID never really develops within the person. It is maybe the integrated personality everyone takes for granted that fails to develop

ChristaAngel, what you say is true. DID is not developed, but rather the integration doesn't to happen. I gotta be careful about what I say. Thanks!

I was reading the User Review a person gave about Voices Within. And... hmm... I'm thinking maybe it's a no, no. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0100884/

Maybe, I should change the movie projection, and think about a conversatory.

Seangel wrote:Hello Everyone,

Next week is gonna take place The Brain Awareness Week globally. This week aims to inform society about the awesome functioning of the brain, as well as emphasizes the importance on research on this topic.

I'm gonna be giving a talk about DID; from the survival mechanism to the daily life. Not from a professional point of view. I wanna talk about how amazing the brain is in developing this mechanism for survival, as well as raise awareness about it's existence, how it develops (hopefully to prevent it to happen to other children), and how a life of an adult with DID goes on.

Do you guys have any advice? On the topics? Important things to tell?

Looking forward to reading you.

Sea

I think a major topic if I may add would be raising awareness of how to properly diagnose and treat DID. There is still tremendous ignorance in some areas of psychiatry regarding the symptoms of DID, and to add insult to injury some are skeptical about the existence of DID. As a result most people with DID are often misdiagnosed spending some time until the right psych comes along checking for it. Some never end up being diagnosed correctly, spending a life time on treatment options that don't work while not knowing what is wrong with them.

DID often has comorbidy, overlapping many other disorders, including psychotic disorders. There are still those who dont know hearing voices or even hallucinating alters is normal for DID. I remember reading through an old psychiatry book (published 35 years ago) targeted toward college psychiatry majors describing each DSM 3 (diagnostic the book was based upon at the time) diagnosis with course of treatment. There were literally 50 pages dedicated to Bipolar, 20 for depression and close to 1/3 of the 2000+ page book on schizophrenia. Multiple personality only had a page mostly just describing the diagnostic criteria, with the disorder being mentioned as extremely rare. The book mentioned that it was not normal for people with DID to hear voices, and specifically mentioned looking for voices or signs of frank delusions that would indicate a psychotic disorder, or that could thus help to determine if the belief of alters was delusional thinking. The book was very vague on treatment only dedicating a few sentences. In a nut shell anyone reading it would walk away questioning if it even existed, or just misdiagnose those who were MPD.


I bring up the book because dissociative disorders are the least advanced upon in the field of psychiatry. Same could be said for the treatment of PTSD. IMO, professionals are in different areas in understanding DD disorders, some with an open mind, some experts, others miss informed, others just taught its unreal.

I found this link and that it brings up some of the things DID is misdiagnosed as latter in:

http://psychcentral.com/lib/in-depth-un ... rs/0001377

Riccola,

What you say here is really important. I've read many times in this forum, how many people wish they were correctly diagnosed years before. And it's so pertinent since the talk is gonna be given at a university and psychology students are health professionals are invited.

Wow, I'm excited, but a little... anxious. Though, I'm gonna prepare it the best way I can, aiming to touch many.

Thanks for the input. I've read the article you included, but I'm gonna read it again to prepare the talk.



Sea

Seangel wrote:Riccola,

What you say here is really important. I've read many times in this forum, how many people wish they were correctly diagnosed years before. And it's so pertinent since the talk is gonna be given at a university and psychology students are health professionals are invited.

Wow, I'm excited, but a little... anxious. Though, I'm gonna prepare it the best way I can, aiming to touch many.

Thanks for the input. I've read the article you included, but I'm gonna read it again to prepare the talk.



Sea

Welcome, and thank you even more!!!!!!!!!!!

I think thats huge! It really is. Nothing beats being able to teach those who will be making all the difference. Its a subject that needs all the attention it can get.

Let me know how it goes, and I know you will do great!

Just wanted to say good luck and thank you for opening up to others to help them understand us better

Aww You guys <3 !!!

Thank you so much!!

I'll let you know how it goes. So far I've learnt pretty amazing things. For example, we can now see not only structure (Trough magnetic resonance RM) but also impulses (¿?), current (¿?) from electroencephalograms. Truly awesome!! I wonder how that can be used with DID.

Riccola, yeap. Totally. Hopefully one day, whenever they face a situation like that they'd be able to give a proper treatment.

Debetoile, aww :3, thank you for passing by and for your words. I'm looking forward to their questions. I want them to question their believes, what they know, what they think they know.

I'll update you guys.

Sea

Hello Everybody,

Yesterday I gave the talk. I was so happy!!

The participantes were merely psychology students. They were asking so many question about how DID works; we talk about the debate there is of its existence, and how it manifest on a daily basis. I mentioned also about the importance of early diagnosis, and at the end we saw the need there is in our country for further research. We are now gathering to prepare a project to investigate more deeply and thus give better support to people living with DID and their families.

I really enjoyed it.

Thank you guys for your words and your support.

Sea