Level of abuse?

I'm just wondering, is their a specific 'level' of abuse that is conductive for the development of DID? I know that everyone has different pasts and experiences.

Mine wasn't too bad, in comparison with a lot of other's. I grew up with an alcoholic parent, in a divorced family. I was jerked around frequently for many years from home to home and relative to relative. But I never received anything more than emotional trauma. I know everyone reacts differently to trauma, but if anyone has any ideas of the relationship between the level of abuse and the development of DID I'd be much obliged.

like you, I never received anything more than emotional trauma, but I must admit, I felt as though mine was tame in comparison to those who developed DID as a result of child abuse.
what happened to me was, I was bullied for years as a child, then had a bad 'close' relationship wich triggered a lot of my DID, and for a while I thought it was only people who had suffered abuse who could get it.
but to tell you the truth, I believe that the level of imagination and intelligence of a person combined with some level of abuse causes DID and the separating of identities. hope this helps,
Harri
x x x

I definitely see where you're coming from. I guess the exact lines on the condition are very blurry. Iv'e seen people with all sorts of different stories who all share very similar future problems.
Thanks for the help

Hi emma,

From what I've read about DID, more severe abuse is usually seen in the development of DID. But one's genetic predisposition, and environment also plays a part in development of DID, as well as many disorders.

If I remember correctly, Eve, of the 3 Faces of Eve, claims that the cause of her DID was witnessing a traumatic accident in a sawmill close by to where she lived and that she was not abused.

Hope this helps.

We keep seeing people talk about abuse, always abuse, its caused by abuse........

NO, it is caused by TRAUMA.... and the experience of exactly what is traumatic and how traumatic is entirely subjective to the one experiencing it. The 'level' of trauma required is different for everyone..... its the amount of trauma that becomes overwhelming to that person. How they deal with that also depends on the person. Those of us that use dissociation are most likely to develop some sort of dissociative disorder, whether DID or DDNOS etc.

So there's really no 'formula' or 'cutoff level' to judge or measure by. Its different for everyone.

Lahl

Well said Lahl

Your comment is astute and helpful.

Emma_closes wrote:I'm just wondering, is their a specific 'level' of abuse that is conductive for the development of DID? I know that everyone has different pasts and experiences.

Mine wasn't too bad, in comparison with a lot of other's. I grew up with an alcoholic parent, in a divorced family. I was jerked around frequently for many years from home to home and relative to relative. But I never received anything more than emotional trauma. I know everyone reacts differently to trauma, but if anyone has any ideas of the relationship between the level of abuse and the development of DID I'd be much obliged.

Hi emma
I think it needs to stop with you! coz when you have chidren you dont want then to go through that experience again. Dont know much about DID? I hope this help
good luck

If someone treating you in therapy after a while tells you diagnoses then it get really bad and worst then to me it doesn't really matter what level of abuse you had. Something terrible happened. I doubted that my memories were very heinous or whatever but this didn't go away and this wasn't someone's fun to diagnoses me stuff without it actually being true. There comes a point where you have to pay attention during discovery. I don't let know one doubt my for sure memories or diagnoses because it is pointless and only sets me back at this point. It is okay to say well maybe it wasn't that bad or maybe your still in memory denial.....

According to everything I've read, a significant majority of people with DID experienced some form of child abuse. So it seems appropriate to me to use the word abuse as a cause, though it's not the only cause. Profound neglect of a child and his or her needs can also be a cause of DID but would that be described as trauma or child abuse? To me, it is definitely a type of child abuse, the child being traumatized by the lack of even basic care.

If you have DID, unless you've encountered all your alters and you're in honest, full communication with them, there may yet be abuse or trauma, call it what you will, that you don't yet know about. This is very common. The point is that with DID, you just may not know everything yet. Early in one's awareness of DID, it's usual not to know yet about many experiences. Your mind may have protected you from the overwhelming experiences then and the knowledge does not come back suddenly and at once.

If you have DID, you often won't even be able to see the gaps in your childhood history. DID covers those gaps quite effectively. I think it's prudent -- while admittedly very difficult -- to leave the question open as to how difficult or abusive or traumatic your childhood actually was until you really know your whole history.

It's also not just the abuse or trauma suffered by a child. There was no caregiver consistently available to comfort the child and help them deal with the overwhelming experience, to acknowledge the event(s), to validate and help them regulate their emotions, to do everything they could to remove the child from harm's way, etc.

I'll sign on to the "trauma, not abuse" idea. I was just "normally" abused during my early childhood--mostly physically, with one ugly sexual incident. Most people do not develop DID from that. I developed some rather intense gender dysphoria during that time, and I think that's actually what occasioned the original split. I was very sure I was a little boy, and the rest of the world was just as sure I was a little girl, and that was that. Up until recently, I'd assumed the gender issues were due to the sexual abuse, but I'm actually now wondering if I wouldn't have had them anyway.

Then we met our main abuser at age eight . . . and we became the rather severely shattered system you know and love today.