Quote:
Originally Posted by ouroboros
After several months of therapy with my primary therapist, it became clear that I had issues outside of Axis I; though I am schizoaffective, I present symptoms more in line with personality disorders. Very recently, and several times throughout my teen years, I had become aware of several aspects to my personality, as well as depersonalization/surrealism.
My last few sessions with my new therapist has revealed fairly defined personalities. But there are several things in my experience that contradict traditional diagnosis....
1) Though I have experienced deaths in the family, problems relating to family members, and difficulty socializing in my early years, I do not have a history of physical or sexual abuse.
2) Though I have depersonalization, I am fairly aware of my surroundings, and I remember most if not all of what occurs while under the influence of another persona...
3) All of my personas follow the social contract, do not disrupt my work, and do not mind being called by my name (though they have nicknames).
Has anyone else experienced what I could best describe as "mild" symptoms?
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I dont have these problems that you listed but I know someone who has - my significant other. We had all been under the assumption that she had DID but no testing has ever been done. She was diagnosed schizoaffective for the reasons being exactly what you have posted. its hard to explain but Ill try. She created imaginary friends to play with and be with in social situations. I guess when she was a kid, one of her relatives made fun of her for having imaginary friends so she let them believe her imaginary friends were gone, and she pretended her imaginary friends could go invisable and walk through walls to hide from the relatives and go invisible and go inside her and share her eyes to see with. as this fairy tale continued she forgot her imaginary friends were just pretend playmates. So over time she really believed she had these alters inside her that she was co conscious with. it was at the family reunion a couple weeks ago that she was reminded by a relative that she had imaginary friends when she was little. She went to her therapist and asked for diagnostic testing to varify whether she had DID or not. after the testing and finding out she had schizoaffective insteaf of DID the psychiatrist explained to her the differences of her alters and DID alters. they are very simular but yet different at the same time. one of the main difference is that with medication her alters would disappear. and they have.