Dissociative Experiences Scale

Hello
Ive not posted on here before. I just saw the link from the main page and thought I’d take this as I dissociate rather a lot. I don’t have did, I have bpd and cptsd though. I got 50 exactly.
I’m not really surprised to be honest, as I said I dissociate a lot, but should I be...? Lol
It’s made me realise I really do dissociate quite a bit. I don’t think I have did. I definitely dissociate a lot though and more than I realised.
Not recognising myself in the mirror is something that happens rather frequently at times, I never knew it was associated with dissociation though. I never really thought anything of it. Thought it happens to most people.

star dust wrote:Hello
Ive not posted on here before. I just saw the link from the main page and thought I’d take this as I dissociate rather a lot. I don’t have did, I have bpd and cptsd though. I got 50 exactly.
I’m not really surprised to be honest, as I said I dissociate a lot, but should I be...? Lol
It’s made me realise I really do dissociate quite a bit. I don’t think I have did. I definitely dissociate a lot though and more than I realised.
Not recognising myself in the mirror is something that happens rather frequently at times, I never knew it was associated with dissociation though. I never really thought anything of it. Thought it happens to most people.

Welcome! Dissociation can occur with both BPD and CPTSD. You can have co-morbid conditions alongside dissociative ones like DID/OSDD / DPDR / etc. (I have co-morbid DID and BPD, for reference) but I think it depends on the specific dissociative symptoms / how regularly they happen / the severity of the symptoms / whether the symptoms can be explained by an already established condition / etc.

I think the DES works more on the premise that those with DID are at one extreme when it comes to the severity of dissociation, with other conditions falling at certain points on the scale. So scoring 50 on the DES doesn't necessarily mean you do or don't have DID, it simply indicates how severe your dissociation seems to be based on the screening test. If I've got that wrong, someone let me know.

star dust wrote:Not recognising myself in the mirror is something that happens rather frequently at times, I never knew it was associated with dissociation though. I never really thought anything of it. Thought it happens to most people.

It was such a relief to know not recognising myself is linked to dissociation. I've never recognised myself and never used to understand why.

I also never realised the way I become absorbed in things is dissociative but I never realised that was something unusual.

Not recognizing yourself in the mirror can also be related to prosopagnosia (face blindness).

Our previous host had it pretty bad, got tested and diagnosed with it, and that probably helped mask some of her dissociative symptoms - she could chalk up a lot of not recognizing herself or other people to face-blindness, and not have to think about any other possible reasons.

FWIW I am a bit face-blind but not as bad as her, and V2 does not seem to have prosopagnosia at all.

Violet 1

We've taken it a few times - since before and after being diagnosed (in fact, before I knew I had DID some of the alters apparently fronted a few times and took it ahaha) but it does change slightly with who is out
Oh dear we had a random switch while taking this test, but for some reason, my voice keeps going into an Irish accent instead of its normal British one

Either way we got an 83.6 which is a tad funny because some of our choices fell into the near middle mark.

Woe, this forum is really active!

raptureblues wrote:

star dust wrote:Hello
Ive not posted on here before. I just saw the link from the main page and thought I’d take this as I dissociate rather a lot. I don’t have did, I have bpd and cptsd though. I got 50 exactly.
I’m not really surprised to be honest, as I said I dissociate a lot, but should I be...? Lol
It’s made me realise I really do dissociate quite a bit. I don’t think I have did. I definitely dissociate a lot though and more than I realised.
Not recognising myself in the mirror is something that happens rather frequently at times, I never knew it was associated with dissociation though. I never really thought anything of it. Thought it happens to most people.

Welcome! Dissociation can occur with both BPD and CPTSD. You can have co-morbid conditions alongside dissociative ones like DID/OSDD / DPDR / etc. (I have co-morbid DID and BPD, for reference) but I think it depends on the specific dissociative symptoms / how regularly they happen / the severity of the symptoms / whether the symptoms can be explained by an already established condition / etc.

I think the DES works more on the premise that those with DID are at one extreme when it comes to the severity of dissociation, with other conditions falling at certain points on the scale. So scoring 50 on the DES doesn't necessarily mean you do or don't have DID, it simply indicates how severe your dissociation seems to be based on the screening test. If I've got that wrong, someone let me know.

Thanks for the explanation! It’s definitely eye opening. I’m only now beginning to understand dissociation better. I used to think I just had really poor concentration or part of my brain was dumb.
It’s made me feel really stupid sometimes.
Eg if someone is talking to me and they fade away into the distance and I have no clue what they said lol that happens so often. I’ve had to ask people to repeat themselves several times to the point I can tell they just want to punch me in the face...
Or forgetting entire events that should have been significant in my memory. No memory whatsoever. It has offended people in the past and made them think I don’t care.
Or when I had driving lessons and my driving instructor had to tell me to stop driving because I kept completely leaving my body whilst driving and almost crashing the car...
I think he just thought I was dumb.
It’s interesting.

-- Tue Jul 10, 2018 2:43 am --

NyxX wrote:

star dust wrote:Not recognising myself in the mirror is something that happens rather frequently at times, I never knew it was associated with dissociation though. I never really thought anything of it. Thought it happens to most people.

It was such a relief to know not recognising myself is linked to dissociation. I've never recognised myself and never used to understand why.

I also never realised the way I become absorbed in things is dissociative but I never realised that was something unusual.

It is relieving! I went through a stage last year where it was happening a lot. It made me feel horrible.
It doesn’t happen to me all the time, but I have stages when it does.
Yes I was surprised to learn that too.

VioletFlux wrote:Not recognizing yourself in the mirror can also be related to prosopagnosia (face blindness).

Our previous host had it pretty bad, got tested and diagnosed with it, and that probably helped mask some of her dissociative symptoms - she could chalk up a lot of not recognizing herself or other people to face-blindness, and not have to think about any other possible reasons.

FWIW I am a bit face-blind but not as bad as her, and V2 does not seem to have prosopagnosia at all.

Violet 1

Interesting you mention this! I do believe I may have this mildly too! Sometimes I have real trouble picturing people’s faces when I haven’t seen them for a while. And then when I do see, they look different to how I remember them looking. I sometimes have trouble recognising people.
I remember when I was working in retail and sales for example I would spend say 1 hour with a customer, then the next day they’d come back and speak to me and I wouldn’t remember who the hell they were!
Or, when I realised who they were, their face would look totally different to how I remembered it!

KawaiiKitty wrote:We've taken it a few times - since before and after being diagnosed (in fact, before I knew I had DID some of the alters apparently fronted a few times and took it ahaha) but it does change slightly with who is out
Oh dear we had a random switch while taking this test, but for some reason, my voice keeps going into an Irish accent instead of its normal British one

Either way we got an 83.6 which is a tad funny because some of our choices fell into the near middle mark.

My accent changes a lot too... sometimes randomly. Haha....

I don’t think I have did and never have but I’m beginning to see a lot of similarities here...
My accent mainly changes depending on where I am and who I’m with though. It’s more of a bpd thing I think. However, it does sometimes randomly change. And my persona changes with it.
I become totally different people (but not TOTALLY). They don’t have their own names and ages.
But... It feels like they do. I definitely act like it but I guess everyone does.
I have a 5 year old child, a 13 year old me, a 16 year old, a 21 year old and one that’s slightly older than me like early 30s.
I don’t believe I have did but if there is a spectrum of dissociation I think I’d be at the lower end of the higher part, or high middle.

star dust wrote:Woe, this forum is really active!

Thanks for the explanation! It’s definitely eye opening. I’m only now beginning to understand dissociation better. I used to think I just had really poor concentration or part of my brain was dumb.
It’s made me feel really stupid sometimes.
Eg if someone is talking to me and they fade away into the distance and I have no clue what they said lol that happens so often. I’ve had to ask people to repeat themselves several times to the point I can tell they just want to punch me in the face...
Or forgetting entire events that should have been significant in my memory. No memory whatsoever. It has offended people in the past and made them think I don’t care.
Or when I had driving lessons and my driving instructor had to tell me to stop driving because I kept completely leaving my body whilst driving and almost crashing the car...
I think he just thought I was dumb.
It’s interesting.

It is, I'm really glad it's this active here. No problem, dissociation is very unpleasant and hard to figure out, it took me years to realise I had been dissociating for, well, years. I can't drive for that reason (alongside some other reasons) so I settle for public transport.

star dust wrote:I don’t think I have did and never have but I’m beginning to see a lot of similarities here...
My accent mainly changes depending on where I am and who I’m with though. It’s more of a bpd thing I think. However, it does sometimes randomly change. And my persona changes with it.
I become totally different people (but not TOTALLY). They don’t have their own names and ages.
But... It feels like they do. I definitely act like it but I guess everyone does.
I have a 5 year old child, a 13 year old me, a 16 year old, a 21 year old and one that’s slightly older than me like early 30s.
I don’t believe I have did but if there is a spectrum of dissociation I think I’d be at the lower end of the higher part, or high middle.

Have you heard about EPs? There's a good explanation here: http://did-research.org/origin/structural_dissociation/anp_ep.html. What you explained reminded me of that.

I get the changing depending on other people thing, it feels different to having alters though. I don't know who I am a lot of the time (I believe it's called identity confusion?), I mimic others and change my behaviour / way of speaking / etc. because I lack a sense of self. My alters involve more than that (which is called identity alteration?): they talk in a completely different way / dress differently / have different genders/sexualities/ages / behave very differently to me / lost time happens etc. It's not always as clear cut as that, especially when co-fronts happen, especially if I'm getting identity confusion at the same time, but that's how I tell the difference usually.

There's a lot of crossover between BPD / CPTSD / OSDD / DID so it can get very confusing trying to pinpoint which condition may be causing what symptom, at least for me it's very hard to do that sometimes.

star dust wrote:My accent changes a lot too... sometimes randomly. Haha....

I don’t think I have did and never have but I’m beginning to see a lot of similarities here...
My accent mainly changes depending on where I am and who I’m with though. It’s more of a bpd thing I think. However, it does sometimes randomly change. And my persona changes with it.
I become totally different people (but not TOTALLY). They don’t have their own names and ages.
But... It feels like they do. I definitely act like it but I guess everyone does.
I have a 5 year old child, a 13 year old me, a 16 year old, a 21 year old and one that’s slightly older than me like early 30s.
I don’t believe I have did but if there is a spectrum of dissociation I think I’d be at the lower end of the higher part, or high middle.

Well I (Summer) normally speak with a British accent but today I keep falling into an Irish one!

Hmmm I don't know whether that would be considered dissociative identity disorder but I (and we) definitely think that would fall to part of an identity disorder
It could always be OSDD