I know right now its upsetting for you to know a therapist doesn’t believe the type of insiders you have are alternate personalities that come with multiple personalities.

Your therapist might not believe you have multiple personalities type alters because there is a huge difference between the kind of alters that are willfully creating “alters” to help their self deal with the loneliness of not having a family, the loneliness of having no one to turn to, and “dark moments” of being in an orphanage, and those alters that are unconsciously created during extreme abuse because the child fears for their life.

In the mental health community here the kind of alters you created that are created willfully to help with loneliness and sad or dark times are more or less considered to be imaginary friends.

The diagnostic criteria for having DID (MPD) type alters states the alters cant be the kind that are created to be friends with the creator. The exact wording of the diagnostic criteria is “ Note: in children the symptoms are not attributed to imaginary playmates or other fantasy play” http://www.behavenet.com/capsules/disorders/did.htm

Your therapist probably has to go according to the legal diagnostic criteria, which is what most USA mental health agencies and mental health providers have to do.

Until you go through diagnostic testing and a psychiatrist meets with at least two of your alters and they fit all the diagnostic criteria for what alters with DID are your therapist may not be able to legally recognize you have DID type alters.

just like you have rules for conduct, work or school ethics you must live by so does your therapist.

here in the USA mental health providers cant - legally and ethically - say someone has alternate personalities that fit DID if the alters dont fit the diagnostic criteria.

In the eyes of the law for mental health providers she would not be doing her job correctly if she told you, yes you have alters that are the kind with DID when you havent displayed those kinds of alters.

she could actually lose her job and be accused of creating a false mental disorder with you and end up in a court case that could put her in prison for mentally harming you by creating a disorder in you that you may not fit the diagnostics for.

That said - All that really matters - now - is you did what you needed to do when you were a child in order to survive.

You now know how and why you created the kind of alters you have. Just like those with alters that meet the diagnostic criteria do in therapy for their alters, you can deal with all those problems, feelings of loneliness and hard times you had in the orphanage. you can now learn better coping mechanisms / tools that can help you function and be happy.

whether you have alters that fit the diagnostics for DID or not the therapy process is the same. you learn to face your problems, and take care of them, build new coping mechanisms and tools so that you can function like a normal person and have a happy life.

I know right now its heartbreaking that a therapist actually made you face the facts and I know its going to be hard letting go of the dream of having the DID type alters that you have had most of your life

but Its really a great thing that you now know what kind of alters you have, how they came to be and why. thats what all DID (MPD) people strive and work towards. I pass along lots of high fives to you.

now you can move on to the next phase that DID people have to do - learning to deal with all those discovered memories and feelings of the past and learning what you need for dealing with todays issues.