Eating Disorders and DID

I know it's a controversial topic on whether or not a tween or young teen could develop DID. That aside though, say it WERE possible...
If someone around that age had severe anorexia, would being told by doctors that they may die if they didn't stop their restrictive eating habits be considered a "trauma"? (because of the already poor mental state combined with the fear/possibility of death, etc.) If so, would this be a type of trauma that theoretically COULD cause DID-I emphasize could because I know it's often child abuse/neglect/etc.
Thanks!

Hi, this is theoretically impossible. It's not controversial or even an opinion that DID can only develop in the very first years of your life.

BUT, just to add on to what Bejer said, IF someone had disorganized attachment and therefore emotional neglect since early childhood (and I think I have recently read some discussion of attachment disruption being one of the underlying causes or contributors to eating disorders), AND therefore having learned to cope with things by dissociating, even if they didn't realize it at the time, THEN the trauma of having anorexia and also being told they were going to die would be an additional trauma to be dealt with by dissociating.

It would not have STARTED then, but it might be the first point that someone was able to have the perspective that this was a trauma. All the previous traumas may not have been recognized, because for most kids who are emotionally neglected, that's just the way things are.

I can recognize certain things that my mother did when I was in my early 20s as being damaging--as evidence of intrusiveness, poor boundaries, and emotional abuse. Because at that point I could look at it and think, "Wait a minute, that isn't how a mother should treat their child." But instances of that when I WAS a child are much harder to remember because they weren't perceived that way at the time.

The current research about DID says its a failure to form a single sense of self and identity. If that research is correct tween is to old to develop DID. A single traumatic event no matter how traumatic can not cause DID.

Also current thinking its that everyone has parts and that in singletons they are just that parts but in a multiple the parts are individuals in there own right.

So as an infant and young child your parts grow together until your sense of self and identity is whole and complete and you become a singleton. Or as an infant and young child you experience frequent trauma that is beyond your ability to handle and you start to build dissociative walls between your parts. So instead of becoming one you become many, you become multiple. Once your mind knows how to build those walls and split yourself it can keep happening through out your life or not.

Trauma is subjective and so a lot of things can be traumatic especially for an infant and young child. There are the things everyone thinks of abuse and neglect and stuff that is objectively traumatic and then there is stuff many people do realise is traumatic for many people and children, so things like attachment issues especially if they cause an attachment disorder.

Trauma is subjective so if something feels like it was traumatic then it was a traumatic event for you. And if the current research is wrong and it is possible to develop DID at an older age it could contribute to the development. Also while I don't know much about anorexia I find it hard to believe that someone who became so ill a doctor was telling them they might die had no history of prior trauma.

-- Tue Sep 11, 2018 5:04 pm --

I just realised you also started the below thread. I'm not sure if your writing about yourself or something else but I think maybe it would be a good idea to focus less on pinpointing a clearcut cause and focusing on they way things are and how you need to move forward.

post2177139.html#p2177139

If that tween would have trauma symptoms because of what happened, it would be trauma. If they don't, then it wasn't. We can't tell if something was traumatic for someone else or not, it is about how it felt to the person then. You know from how it affected, if it was a trauma or wasn't.

I think NyxX has a valid point. If you are talking about a real life person, you know if they have DID from their symptoms now, not from what happened to them. You may never get to know what has happened really, even if it was you, or your own child or anyone you know. Just concentrate on situation now. But if you are considering to write a story where someone gets DID from something that happened to them as tween, please, write a better story. Then it's just not possible, as far as we know now, and as a story writer you DO know everything about your subject, unlike ever in real life.

People with DID don't recognize their traumas easily, because they have DID. They learn about them in therapy later on, and from their parts. It's pointless to try to find the roots, you just need to know what is true now and start from here and now.