Dissociative Experiences Scale

This post continues the tangent about the Cardiff Anomalous Perceptions Scale.

The article deals with anomalous perceptions, not psychotic experiences. The two terms are not synonymous, and for me that is the take-home message of the article. Frequently the perceptions are identified as psychotic-like, not psychotic.

Experiences were excluded that were (1) frankly psychotic but not perceptions or (2) strictly dissociative. This excluded psychotic forms of thought (cognition) and the majority of dissociative symptoms.

boopsy26 wrote:I would really be interested if there was actually a validated scale out there that deciphers between the 2

Paul Dell's MID attempts a differential diagnosis of DID.

TinyPieces wrote:I hope 73 doesnt mean its really bad.

I wouldn't worry too much if I were you. You can only work from where ever you are at. Just take the actual score with a bit of a grain of salt and keep working hard with your therapist. It doesn't really matter how bad your dissociation is in relation to other people, a test score, or anything else. All that matters is that you work with your therapist to improve your experience of life and your everyday functioning.

salted lipstick wrote:

TinyPieces wrote:I hope 73 doesnt mean its really bad.

I wouldn't worry too much if I were you. You can only work from where ever you are at. Just take the actual score with a bit of a grain of salt and keep working hard with your therapist. It doesn't really matter how bad your dissociation is in relation to other people, a test score, or anything else. All that matters is that you work with your therapist to improve your experience of life and your everyday functioning.

Yeah your right! Were all different and a test cant define everything. I guess I just always think its less than it really might be! But thats ok.
I dont mind I guess, Ive made it this far!

TinyPieces wrote:I dont mind I guess, Ive made it this far!

I think that's a healthy attitude. Look at me! My score has gone up but I see this as progress. It is up because my internal communication has improved. Now I am hearing voices and feeling presences of my alters much more often. This is progress, and I am feeling good about it.

Una+ wrote:

TinyPieces wrote:I dont mind I guess, Ive made it this far!

I think that's a healthy attitude. Look at me! My score has gone up but I see this as progress. It is up because my internal communication has improved. Now I am hearing voices and feeling presences of my alters much more often. This is progress, and I am feeling good about it.

Yeah I went years not knowing why I was doing so many confusing things, and not knowing why I had no explanations for things...but now I know lots of em, and see them and hear some of them sometimes , its nice to not be alone...even though I must admit, DID can be nightmareish and leaves me crying in a corner sometimes....but.. well all make it <3

and by we I mean my inner family...and everyone on this forum

Considering that I feel quite recovered, I have to admit to being quite freaked out by the score of 71 so I took the test again and got 64. Still a little freaked out by it. I know I’ve taken the test in the past but don’t remember the score.

Experiences Scale Test Answers
(I did it twice)

1) Total score of: 71
(30 or Above, Higher Association With DID)

2) Total score of: 64
(30 or Above, Higher Association With DID)

I'm a little upset by my new score of 19, down from 32 a few months back. Not because of the trend but because I know there are at least tens of thousands of other "functioning" people out there who have DID which limits or cripples them in some way and/or which causes them pain and confusion. But like I wasn't, they won't be diagnosed because their system isn't detectable by current practices. I'm not ragging on the DES. It's an excellent start and can provide critical evidence of dissociation among a significant number of sufferers, evidence that should give a call to action to any therapist who is not incompetent. I include the ignorant among the incompetent.

I have 14 alters, most not fragmentary, each different, with their own name. We switch, cooperatively. I don't lose time. How does the current definition of DID account for me/us? I'm so upset to know that therapists and shrinks continue to diagnose cases of DID as something else, sending people in the wrong direction, setting up a false cure, writing prescriptions for medication that may provide a mere band-aid if the patient is lucky and it doesn't harm them. That holds whether your DES score ends up being 12 or 92 if they don't even bother to use such a tool. Why should people with DID like me escape detection when we seek help for problems we don't understand? It's ridiculous. The psychiatric and psychotherapeutic communities have a long way to go.

Use the DES! If you have any suspicion that you might perhaps maybe possibly perchance have DID, take it, print out the results and take it to a mental health practitioner. If your score is low, well under 30, but you still suspect DID, seek out a therapist with your suspicions and a list of your symptoms. Help is out there but do not settle and don't just trust the first diagnosis. And if you don't trust therapists, at least keep reading things here written by people with DID. Don't ignore it and pretend it isn't there and don't try to go it completely alone, not indefinitely. Ultimately, that plan will not work.

The overall score on the DES does not mean all that much - really. A trained T will look at the individual answers and throw some stats at them to get the real picture. Not all T's are trained to diagnosis however and even fewer to DX DDNOS or DID.

As I keep saying over and over again, don't DX yourself. I don't think tests like this should be online. I can take all kinds of online tests and self diagnosis myself with all sorts of stuff that I don't even have. Yes, the DES, scored correctly, is a good start, but it's only a start. A T looks at so many things to DX something.

A low score or a high score do not mean that you have DID and a super high score does not mean you have DID.

My LC says the best way to get confused is to read stuff that is junk and to talk to lay people about DID. I like it though because, although there is a lot of fluff out there, I muddle through it to find the truth and often get back on the right direction when I wander off it.

-- Tue Apr 03, 2012 3:45 pm --

Johnny-Jack wrote:I have 14 alters, most not fragmentary, each different, with their own name. We switch, cooperatively. I don't lose time. How does the current definition of DID account for me/us?

If you have alters you have DID, but the problem is that with DDNOS-1 ego states appear to be alters. That is the tricky part.

To have DID you loose time. This is due to amnesic boundaries. These boundaries are what make them alters instead of ego states.

It does not matter how many alters you have, although the tendency is that the more alters you have the more likely it is to be DID. (Haunted Self) What you need to have DID is 2 or more ANP that switch between themselves. These are not emotional parts that hold trauma.

I hope this helps anyone in question.

As for JJ - you have been diagnosed DID right? Are you questioning that?

I have been officially diagnosed with DID but I was sure of that myself before I got a diagnosis. Well, as sure as you can hold on to being early on.

At least one author (Kluft?) has made the distinction that time loss does not have to be happening in the present but it should have happened at some point in the past. And in some cases it can be the distant past. Switching and time loss can go dormant but the DID itself will not go away on its own nor will someone heal from it without work.

As for ego states or alters, there appears to be a continuum among everything I've read. I'm not suggesting the continuum is a straight but a complex cluster of symptoms and personal realities.

You cannot give yourself an official diagnosis because the only thing that's generally agreed upon to make it official is a professional's diagnosis. I do think people should feel free to assess themselves as maybe or probably or possibly having DID. This can spur them to do something about it. Not everyone with DID will go to a professional first. There are several people who have posted here who have not yet seen any professional for a variety of reasons (no access, no money, recent understanding of their situation, distrust of doctors or authority figures) but who I trust know they probably have it or who are even sure they have it. My guess is they're often going to be right. People don't seem to over-assess themselves as having DID. The opposite seems true.

Use the word diagnosis or self-assessment or whatever, but you can have DID without an official diagnosis and you can know you have it. That said, getting some kind of professional help is, ultimately, the best thing you can do for yourself.

46... Huh that's pretty cool. I wonder, does being co-conscious effect the score? I ask because I very seldom do things I can't remember even when I'm possessed. T2 is always on watch no matter who is actually in control. To the best of my knowledge I have only ever completely lost control 3 times.