How to start up the topic of DID?

So the situation is this: We still want to have a professional confirm or deny we have DID or whatever the equivalent is of it being NOS. But the thing that makes us all nervous is people seem to think that having DID makes you dangerous on a psychopathic serial killer level- when we're not.

How do I bring this up to my peer counselor who is helping me with finding a T that has experience with Trauma (originally for the PTSD and GAD) and also has experience with Asperger's? And how do I explain it in a way that doesn't make me sound like I'm psychotic or something?

Juri was wanting to write a letter and was planning on giving it to the peer counselor at the end of the session but we are understandably nervous about doing so.

Does anyone have any suggestions?

I don't know what your history is so my advice might not help.

So start explaining that there are 3 levels of trauma. Level 1 is simple PTSD and people that get that have usually experienced infrequent trauma and they respond well to cognitive treatment and EMDR. Level 2 trauma is complex PTSD which people who have experienced prolonged and/or reoccurring trauma and causes a fundamental change in the person and they and treatment becomes more complex. Level 3 trauma is various dissociative disorders and results when someone experiences trauma during childhood. People suffering from level dissociate instinctually and often require years of specialised treatment.

Explain you experience a large amount of dissociation and you want someone experienced in the field that can give you an appropriate diagnosis and support you effectively. Maybe find resources you can link them to to explain what dissociation is so they understand what your experiencing.

I like this one from first person plural because it's simply and briefly explains different types of dissociation.
http://www.firstpersonplural.org.uk/dis ... periences/

Hi NyxX and thanks for your suggestion!
That's actually a really good idea. It's a good way to explain what I'm experiencing without making me/us seem completely insane.

I do agree with Juri in that writing a letter would be the best route to take. I don't think I'd be able to say anything about this verbally. Do you think I should write the letter or would there be more of an... impact so to speak if Juri wrote the letter?

Whichever feels more comfortable because they will probably ask questions. I would feel more comfortable with it being the main person they interact with and trying to give as few specifics as possible until I had a good understanding about how they react.

But we are extremely cautious. I haven't mentioned DID to my T yet and I've met her 4 times now. We have skirted the edges of the subject. So I wouldn't necessarily use us as a good example because we are taking the tortoise approach.

-- Fri Jul 27, 2018 10:47 pm --

Whichever feels more comfortable because they will probably ask questions. I would feel more comfortable with it being the main person they interact with and trying to give as few specifics as possible until I had a good understanding about how they react.

But we are extremely cautious. I haven't mentioned DID to my T yet and I've met her 4 times now. We have skirted the edges of the subject. So I wouldn't necessarily use us as a good example because we are taking the tortoise approach.

Makes sense, especially about the asking questions. We'd be safer if Jade or I wrote it because he (the peer counselor) interacts with us usually, and my handwriting looks very similar to Jade's. The less questions asked means the less of a chance there is to come off as psychotic.

For what it is worth, worrying about being or appearing psychotic is very strong evidence that you are not psychotic. And any competent psychiatrist or psychotherapist or even public safety officer knows that.

Also, the average person would not think asking about psychosis is any indicator of psychosis. They have no idea what psychosis looks like, and don't recognize it even when they see it.

So... I think you can ask these questions freely, in safety and secure in the knowledge that you won't suddenly be put into physical restraints.

When I brought it up to my T, I said, "So, I was reading this article about a person with Dissociative Identity Disorder, and it was really interesting." And I started talking about the different "personalities" of this person, and how I thought it was interesting the way the brain copes with things.

She participated in the conversation, then I said something like, "And it's crazy that so the medical community is split on it, that it seems half of therapists and psychiatrists believe it exists and others believe people are faking or it's something else. Why is that?" And then she answered, and then I said, "Which camp do you sit in?"

And then she told me she absolutely believes it is real, and that she had a patient with it one time. She said the patient didn't know about it, and it was the T who figured it out after seeing this person for about a year. She started to notice that basically, it was "like two different people." Both were coming to therapy, the host/core (whatever you want to call it) would show up dressed one way, and talking one way, and then every few times the other part would show up, but would pretend to be the host.

So I asked her a few more questions, then I said, "What would you say, if I told you the whole reason I brought this up just now is because I'm ready to tell you that I'm like that."

She said, "I'd ask you to tell me why you believe that, and explain the experiences that lead to you to this thought."

So I did, and I kept saying, "I'm not crazy," "You think I'm crazy, don't you?" etc... she chuckled and said, "No, I don't think you're crazy. And I believe you."

So, I told her about some of the others. She's seen Britney once, when the ex-husband got us all worked up during a family session after we sent the children out of the room (he was on the phone), and then Delilah took over.

T has met Delilah one time after that. The others are still deciding if they want to talk to her or not.

SO, that's what worked for us.

K