Do you have DID-dar?

I can detect schizophrenia in people, and also bipolar, so i feel as though you can detect people that have the same thing as you.

Una+ wrote:TheCollective, that is toxic shame talking. Don't worry, if this person knows what a dissociative disorder is (a) they know that many people who have a DD do not have DID, so they will not assume you have DID; and (b) if you have DID (I think you do) they are likely to know it even without your saying or doing anything overt.

Thanks. I guess it is. Been learning a lot lately. I hope it sticks this time.
We should have mentioned that they put me through a rather extensive interrogation about my dissociative experiences before they switched lol. Which I went along with cause I knew why they did that. They know I have DID. I think they already knew this before interrogating me, cause I have this thing about inappropriate switching to littles in this particular situation anyway. It's almost funny how they actually instinctively start treating me like a child no questions asked and no weird looks at all. It's just not funny that I can't control this and that it happens really often. Sorry for going off-topic so much.

My friend who knew more about DID than me actually suggested to me at the time I had different personalities and I got really defensive and told her there was only one of me. it's not until now about five years later or so that I am just starting to think I have something of the sort. I think she has DID and detected it in me.

Sometimes I meet people who are totally different in a very strange way... like. they totally are two different people. DID? most likely.

Greencoyote wrote:Sometimes I meet people who are totally different in a very strange way...

For some reason this reminds me of a guy I knew in college. One time I approached him in the library and he clearly did not know me. And then he said I must know his twin. This confused me because as far as I knew he was not one of the twins on campus. In hindsight I suspect he was another multiple.

Very interesting stories. Every day I remember (from past situations) or see more people I know who have DID always makes me wonder if I should say something - not to people I don't know well but some of these people I am related to or in close relationships with ? Then I think nah they can know if they want to know and if they don't know they probably aren't ready to know or don't care to know.

Right now i (well really hubby and and I) have an ongoing conflict with a family member who clearly has DID and does not know it. It helps that I have DID-dar so I at least can understand why the person is behaving so strangely but I cant imagine how saying anything would be helpful at all. We will probably just continue to interact with whoever is interacting with us.

Another recent thread here on the DID Forum, about fusion and integration, includes a side discussion of experiencing another person who may also have DID. We find that even if our own system is fused, a former alter may at times temporarily be "pulled out front" just by the powerful energy of the other person. Jump into that thread here: Re: "merging" always good?

Pretty sure I do have did-dar as I see it in my family and friends.

Question: Do you tell the people you see that they may have did when you recognize it in them?

I have told several friends uh I have this and you may have it too. Then other friends, I have not told at all.

With most of family members I have not mentioned anything about it. Well, I did tell my mother I have did (she has it too) and she responded a few different ways. She said yes we have multifaceted personalities (like its genetic, lol), another time she said she had it and elaborated a bit and yet another time she said I wonder if I have that? But she doesn't discuss that anymore or my therapy at all- it's like she doesn't want to know. In general I think she thinks I am making a deal out of nothing.(Sometimes I think this too?) (yah making a big deal out of being traumatized when young?)

To answer my own question: I am telling people about my did and about their did if I can handle that their response may not be good. If I can't handle a negative response say from a family member then I'm not talking about it if that even makes sense. I want to help others learn about their did but I also need to protect myself in the process.

Any thoughts?

To answer my own question: I am telling people about my did and about their did if I can handle that their response may not be good. If I can't handle a negative response say from a family member then I'm not talking about it if that even makes sense. I want to help others learn about their did but I also need to protect myself in the process.

This sounds very sensible to me. I have told another person in the past and they didn't take it seriously initially but now are diagnosed. I wouldn't have told if I weren't prepared for a negative reaction as it is very possible that it would happen.

If I think someone has a dissociative disorder, do I say something to them about it? Often, yes!

There are many rationalizations for saying nothing, for avoiding any potential conflict, but good reasons are few and far between.

When this question first came up for me I was strongly advised by a therapist to say nothing, to pretend I saw nothing. But this merely perpetuates exactly the kind of sick denial and rugsweeping and secrecy that made my own family of origin so damaging for all its members. I was told I might upset the other person. So? It might be exactly what they need to hear, so they can get help. I was told the other person might have dissociative amnesia and not remember what I said. So? That's actually a good reason to say something more than once!

I have told this to a man I met many years ago when he had a long dissociative absence seizure in a public place. For some reason I kept his card and after I was diagnosed and began reading about dissociative disorders I contacted him. I have told him twice now. He has dissociative amnesia and struggles with denial but he has thanked me for telling him.

I have told a multiple who almost certainly already knows all about themselves. I wanted them to know that I know, and that they were very well concealed.

I have told many of my colleagues that I am a multiple and/or have problems with dissociative amnesia. This has soothed many hurt feelings among those who have experienced first hand my not remembering them.

I have told mutual acquaintances that someone else has DID. This was important because due to switching the behavior of the multiple was often inconsistent and insulting and this caused many hurt feelings.

Una+ wrote:There are many rationalizations for saying nothing, for avoiding any potential conflict, but good reasons are few and far between.

I wonder what would be the best way to handle this with my sister-in-law (who I mentioned in the other thread). She knows she has alters, and that's something that she doesn't even try to hide at all (since apparently her only known alter appears as a "playful child", so everybody just thinks it's "cute"). If that were all I knew, I would probably just think it's cute too and leave it at that. But I know she struggles with a multitude of serious health problems, both physical and psychiatrical, which she's usually defensive about. And now she's pregnant... so there will be a child involved too.

To be honest I'm inclined to just let it be and do nothing about it, because even if she's part of the part of my family that I actually like, she's still part of the family, so I'd rather just not be involved. But I wonder, and I think there's a fairly high chance that I won't feel the same way about it once I've managed to distance myself from my family as a whole, because then it will be easier for me to let them be part of my life while keeping the rest of the family out.

And I know that I could try to talk to her and my brother about it, because I've been open with them about my own mental health issues (including when I was misdiagnosed with schizophrenia), and so far it hasn't been a problem or even "a big deal" at all (everybody who knows me and is not seriously in denial about it knows that I just must have at least one or two "major diagnosable things" -- there are many things that I hide, but the fact that "I'm simply not normal" is not one of them).

So... I don't know