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Elysium · Feb 18, 2010, 07:35 PM

(((((Peaches)))))

Well, I think this would be a great question for T next time you see her.

From my point of view, it sounds like she is saying this more for the benefit of your smaller parts. From what I've learned working through DID and CPTSD so far, alters can be kept in the subconscious, not really allowed out, but can still be listening inside and also some alters can share info with other alters. This is called being co-conscious.

Now, I believe that dissociation is on a continuum and that you don't have to have DID to have parts. With PTSD it is possible to have more separated ego states, that have not yet been so separated that they become full blown alters. So it may be that your T is attempting to communicate with your ego states/smaller parts on a subconscious level to help gain their trust and help them feel safe. Once this happens, they will start to come forward. It doesn't seem that you have control over this on the outside, but internally when your parts feel ready, you will be able to bring them forward.

I think that sometimes too, T's won't always bring up a diagnosis of DID because some do not want to label it as such as it still has such a high stigma even within the Psychiatric/Psychological communities. Sometimes, I think, it's easier on us (the patients/clients) to just say PTSD with dissociation and leave it at that because PTSD is a much more accepted diagnosis than DID. Not as much stigma. My T says that, in her opinion and some other practitioner's opinions, that DID is merely the most severe form of complex PTSD; that it's at the extreme end of the dissociative spectrum.

Just my thoughts though. Hope this helps.