Dissociative Experiences Scale

Johnny-Jack wrote: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.

AAAAAGGGGGHHH!!!! I so totally agree with this and it is absolutely maddening! DID is by far not the only diagnosis that this is a problem for...

As for the DES score, Tylas is right that the score doesn't actually mean much. People with DID can score low, and people without it can score high. It's just an indicator for a T to look further into the specific questions answered correctly. Tylas is also correct in saying that professionals look at many things to make an official diagnosis (if they're actually bothering), and no one test can ever give a diagnosis definitively.

Johnny-Jack wrote: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.

This is what I've been trying to say before. There is no black and white difference between DDNOS and DID, nor are there between "ego states" and "alters". There are different theories, and most of what is agreed upon is the idea of a continuum along which the degree of separation and dissociation becomes more distinct and severe.

Johnny-Jack wrote: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.

And, as for this, if the DSM-V continues as is projected, the amnesia requirement will not be required for the present so much as at least the past. So, this idea is becoming more accepted and mainstream.

Not entirely sure this is an amazing score or maybe i've just lost it,
i scored 89, my non-D.I.D. girlfriend scored a 23.

All screening tests have high rates of false positive and false negative results. That is why they are used for screening, not for diagnosis. As a screening test, the DES is far better than most. The mean score for people who don't have any dissociative disorder is... 5? So even a score of 12 merits a second look. The rule of thumb is that a score of 30 or higher merits full assessment with SCID-D, because even if the person does not have DID, it is highly likely that they do have a dissociative disorder.

47. Still in the same range, consistently, having taken it about three or four times in the last 10.5 months since diagnosis.

I might need to retake and maybe only thinkg about "in the last month," because I usually think more globally. See if that makes a difference. My memory is so fuzzy lately, I'm not sure I can do better than an "in general" sense of how things are, though.

KellerWhite wrote:i scored 89, my non-D.I.D. girlfriend scored a 23.

Does she experience a lot of depersonalization and/or derealization? You probably do, in addition to the DID. Are you losing a lot of time?

boopsy26 wrote:There is no black and white difference between DDNOS and DID, nor are there between "ego states" and "alters". There are different theories, and most of what is agreed upon is the idea of a continuum along which the degree of separation and dissociation becomes more distinct and severe.

Between what many have said here and a very long discussion with my LC today, I must concede that I cannot find cottage cheese in the yogurt no matter how hard I try to find it!

It's too smooth for me --- I do like better grouping, but I will have to agree with this. Oh that really goes against my black and white thinking!!!!

I think what gets to me is that people tend to forget the other things (like what Boopsy agreed with me above) and go straight to this thinking DDNOS-1 and DID are so similar when they are not in so many ways.

Deep Breath! Okay... I have an answer I can live with on this and also on what I am - the part of consciousness my alters try to protect. Those were my 2 biggies! And I got the last of my book to my publisher! I am HAPPY! I can breath! Thanks Everyone that helped me figure out what the problem was I had in putting this all together.

Una+ wrote:

KellerWhite wrote:i scored 89, my non-D.I.D. girlfriend scored a 23.

Does she experience a lot of depersonalization and/or derealization? You probably do, in addition to the DID. Are you losing a lot of time?

I myself experience a lot of time lost, and she has been around for long enough that she has met all of the personalities, and is highly supportive of treatment and healing, but a relationship hasn't yet been established between her and all of my alters, but she's working on it. I don't think that she has ever had any sort of identity depersonalization or derealization, but she has seen me go through them.

I did this with my T a year or so ago, scored a 47 at the time. Don't feel the need to take it again, though!

I've only taken this once but it was fairly recent I guess (last November.) If I remember correctly, my score was 57. I haven't told my current T this, though she already suspects and has given a related diagnosis. I wasn't aware that the scores can change. Maybe it would be advantageous to bring the idea of taking it again up to my new T? Maybe the relatively high score was inaccurate for me that day and maybe taking it more than once would give a better portrayal of what the score might be for me? I'm struggling a lot with denial and acceptance issues, but I also want to make sure the assessments I've been given are painting an accurate portrayal of what is going on for me. Would there be benefit to taking it more than once?

StillMissing wrote:Would there be benefit to taking it more than once?

For me there has been benefit. I found it helpful for tracking changes in my symptoms. For example the depersonalization and derealization symptoms are way down now, but I am hearing voices more often...