Resources for Family, 'what is DID' sort of thing

I'm sure I came across something in my various searches but now I'm drawing a blank.

Does anyone have a link or something, PDF brochure or something, that I can print out and give to family? To explain what DID is in simple terms?

Maybe it's not a good idea, but I haven't had much success talking with them, and figure maybe something they can read and sort of absorb on their own pace would work better.

Thanks!

Sidran.org has a sheet for survivors and family/ friends.
There’s also s book I’ve heard of that’s written in pretty basic terms ...if I can recall title will post it

-- Mon Jan 22, 2018 10:01 pm --

Eliana Gil “ United We Stand “. Easy to read / basic info/ short book -50 pages
( haven’t read it but heard about it).

Thanks very much LadySlippers!

we own a kids-friendly booklet to explain it.
we now draw the pictures in it when we explain.
it works with the idea of the body as a house. and usually there is one person living in a house. but for us there are many. that is called DID.
the person standing in the door of the house is who you talk to. that person can change, depending who opens the door and steps outside.
and it is possible that others listen or watch thru the window as well.
sometimes the person at the door can call to someone who is inside the house and ask them stuff and then tell the people outside what they said.
and sometimes the one who stepped outside has been sleeping inside for a long time and they didn't see that the season changed and how much has changed.
sometimes there are struggles who can step outside. there is only room for one in the door.
like that. and drawing little houses with someone in the door or the window to help them imagine it better.

we find this a helpful metaphor for kids but also for adult friends. it doesn't explain everything but it offers just the help to understand what most people need when they first get in contact with DID.
i don't think that the booklet is available in english

Thanks birdsong, that's a good analogy.

I'm mostly trying to put something together for our mother. I have trouble talking to her, and V2 I think gets impatient with her. I figured if we can print something out she can take her time and slowly absorb it on her own time, and without us infront of her.

When we try to talk she sort of shuts down or tries changing the subject, which annoys the teen and leaves me feeling defensive.

It's not helped by the whole nature of DID and while I'm sure the lions' share of my trauma happened in foster care, I can't shake the feeling that there might have been more. I don't want to come across as accusing or confrontational.

Mainly I need her and my sister to understand that this isn't going to just 'go away', that all of us aren't just going to disappear, and most of all, that it's actually progress that we're building comunications and walls are starting to come down.

I think Stephanie was so good at hiding the symptoms and problems, or keeping them to herself, that the family thought she was 'fine'. (apart from the depression, eating disorder, loneliness/isolation etc etc lol) So I think they see the rest of us now as just disease symptoms or as the source of the problem?

birdsong87 wrote:we own a kids-friendly booklet to explain it.
we now draw the pictures in it when we explain.
it works with the idea of the body as a house. and usually there is one person living in a house. but for us there are many. that is called DID.
the person standing in the door of the house is who you talk to. that person can change, depending who opens the door and steps outside.
and it is possible that others listen or watch thru the window as well.
sometimes the person at the door can call to someone who is inside the house and ask them stuff and then tell the people outside what they said.
and sometimes the one who stepped outside has been sleeping inside for a long time and they didn't see that the season changed and how much has changed.
sometimes there are struggles who can step outside. there is only room for one in the door.
like that. and drawing little houses with someone in the door or the window to help them imagine it better.

we find this a helpful metaphor for kids but also for adult friends. it doesn't explain everything but it offers just the help to understand what most people need when they first get in contact with DID.
i don't think that the booklet is available in english

this is very useful, thank you!

Hi,

PODS in the UK has brochures you can download.

The thing is for most of us talking to family is seriously impossible. They don't want to know so it's just stupid to try. I mean they bought in to the abuse some way even if it was just shutting up about it so they really want to keep their denial going. And what am I supposed to say - Hi I'm an alter that lives inside your son. Fat chance!

Kind of mad right now. Not your fault.

Iain

we have differing responses to our dissociation from our family members; some rather paradoxical (coming from one who was a primary source of abuse in our young years), and some dismissive. It is frustrating but thankfully we are an independent adult (for a given value of 'adult')

Thanks everyone!

I downloaded some stuff from the PODS site but ended up having to edit (i.e. censer) it a bit, and wound up with a 4 page thing I'm planning to give to the mum and sister.

The reason I wanted to edit it was mostly the mum, is 86 and we don't want to upset her too much with repeated talk about physical and sexual abuse. Especially when we're pretty sure most of our problem comes from extreme neglect.

And really our goal isn't so much to tell her how we got this way, but to tell her what we're dealing with right now. And why it took so long to emerge.

Anyways, our best friend is gonna proofread it first then we'll print it out for the family.

Thanks again!

IainEtc wrote:they really want to keep their denial going. And what am I supposed to say - Hi I'm an alter that lives inside your son.

It's so tempting to think that something like that would blast through their denial, but I know it wouldn't. Someone posted on here a while back that one of the invalidating things they had been told by "friends" or family was, "Oh, you've just named your moods." That one stuck in my mind as one of the most infuriating responses someone could get after confiding that they have DID.

I don't think I would ever mention it to anyone in my family of origin. I'm sure my brother has some kind of dissociative disorder, but he is close to my parents and I'm sure if I tried to introduce the subject to him (as maybe an explanation for some of the difficulties in his life, and something to consider getting evaluated and treated), it would come back to bite me somehow.