Dissociative Experiences Scale

oaktree wrote:I just took the DES yet again, now it's 33. Still not sure how to fill it in. [...] I filled in 20 (3rd bullet), but I'm not sure that's right

There is no right or wrong way.

In fact, if you are conflicted about how to rate an item, that itself is a significant sign of dissociative identity confusion. Part of you wants to go low, another part of you wants to go high. When you give a copy of your DES to your therapist, point out or mark the items that you are conflicted about. That you are splitting over these particular items is important clinical information for the therapist.

No, I was not conflicted over it. Yes, with some, but it was not what I meant. I just didn't know how my experience was best expressed on the scale. I just don't understand what is meant what 'what feels right'. I just don't get it. (Probably due to autism/PDD-NOS).
If there was some exact measurement, it would be much easier for me.
Like, 'the % of time this happens compared to how often this is relevant'. For example, say I'm usually one hour underway (I'm not), there is, on average 45 minutes that I don't know what happened, that would mean a score of 75% (it's usually more for me).
Or, how strong my experience is compared what is written there, 100% being what is in the question and 0% being when it does not happen at all.
I hope I explained it well.
(I think I've roughly taken the average of the two, when filling in the DES).

I did have conflicts over some questionnaire I got once. I did write the alternative there ('not me'), but I think I've never explained that that was what I wrote down there. (And I never heard anything back about it, IIRC).

If we get back on the dissociation, I surely will tell him this.

oaktree wrote:I just don't understand what is meant what 'what feels right'.

The intent is for you to give a purely subjective, emotional evaluation. To many people that feels uncomfortably vague and arbitrary, but that's what the instrument is designed to do.

Well, 'what feels right' is often not actually what is true for me. For example, "Some people have the experience of finding new things among their belongings that they do not remember buying." became 100% (always). This is simply not true (I never have that, that I know of, at least). But this is what my 'intuition' said (guess my 'intuition' has a name, though... and a sense of self. Someone had to laugh when writing this ).

I scored 58 that way. But did not agree with the majority of answers. And even if I let out my opinion of the matter, there was still arguing going on. Guess that's much stronger proof though than the whole DES .
If this is indeed the whole point of the DES... then I think I've always scored far too low.

I know nothing about these sorts of test, but my feelings on this are....

This is a good screening test to detect DID, but once you are in this group, you already know you have it or you are at least very dissociated.

If you must take it now that you know you have DID, then the current host is the one that must answer, not any other part of the personality.

The test most likely was written to be given prior to the host knowing they have DID. After you know, there really is no point to the test.

oaktree wrote:I scored 58 that way. But did not agree with the majority of answers. And even if I let out my opinion of the matter, there was still arguing going on.

Yes, as many of us do, you are splitting (experiencing internal conflict) over how to "endorse" the items on the DES. That could be an item on the various assessment instruments: "When doing this assessment I felt very conflicted about how to score certain items." How would you rate that on a scale of 0 (never) to 10 (always)? Or are you conflicted?

So, I suggest you go back and on a printout of the test mark the items about which you experience the most internal conflict. Or write down the numbers of those items. That may capture important information about your system. For example, some alters may experience severe depersonalization and derealization while others do not. You can even ask inside if there is a name you can write next to each conflict-ey item.


Sev0n (formerly Tylas), I personally take a relaxed view of how the DES can be used. I use it myself to track how my system is doing. For example, it took many months for me to fill my inventory of lost time. At first I didn't think I had any dissociative amnesia, but then I remembered more and more strange events that in hindsight were obvious instances of lost time. Ha ha. So then my DES score went up. Now it would be much lower because my depersonalization and derealization symptoms are minimal. Yes, progress!

What are "Normal" scores for The DES And depersonalization tests?

ThatPerson wrote:What are "Normal" scores for The DES And depersonalization tests?

For the general population the most common score on the DES is 7. Look at figure 5.1 on the Colin Ross Institute page about the DES:

Rossinst.com: Dissociative Experiences Scale

Hmm, maybe it could help to track how I score over time. In two ways:
* What I think applies to me
* What my 'intuition' says
Well, maybe it just doesn't work to let my 'intuition' choose. It seems like there were multiple parts taking turns in answering or something like that. Not very useful. And the scores are so different that an average doesn't make much sense (because, for example, parts that take part one time may not take part another time).

I'll have to think about this one. How to fill in this thing.

sev0n wrote:If you must take it now that you know you have DID, then the current host is the one that must answer, not any other part of the personality.

Maybe. At the same time, it may help to figure out issues of different parts.

Una+ wrote:

ThatPerson wrote:What are "Normal" scores for The DES And depersonalization tests?

For the general population the most common score on the DES is 7. Look at figure 5.1 on the Colin Ross Institute page about the DES:

Rossinst.com: Dissociative Experiences Scale

I scored a 74......