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Originally Posted by LydiaB
Has anyone came across anyone who has faked DID? Like in your treatment programs or anything?
For most people I am actually worried about their well being, that they fake anything for attention. Especially something that requires a lot of acting out. Because inducing attention in that sort of way is a d/o in and of itself.
But there is one person who I cannot forgive and I feel really bad about it. I feel so guilty. My team says that we should support each other, because we're "similar". But we're not. I'm mad at her.
It's a long story. But I have a treatment team and the clients we all know each other, we all go to group therapies, etc together. Well this girl appeared to have what everyone thinks of as DID. She would speak in demonic tones, tell people she had multiple personalities, throw herself on the ground and start crying, etc. I mean it had to take most of this girls energy to keep this up.
Because I knew nothing about DID at the time, I just thought that that was what it looked like. I didn't know any different. Some therapist diagnosed her with DID and sent her off to my team, who also just assumed she had DID. Who are also not trained to diagnose, obviously.
My DID went unnoticed by myself and anyone else who professionally treated me, because of this girl. In fact they started to believe I had it, directly after she came back from the same hospital that diagnosed me, they undiagnosed her.
They assumed and I assumed that DID people acted like her, and so I just had PTSD and depression.
I am SO angry. That for years she kept this up and it delayed my treatment so much. Does she have any idea what I've been through for the last three-four years trying to find answers? Trying to get people to understand what I'm going through. And it was right there all along. Right under my nose. I know I should be upset with my providers, and I was. I went through a lot of that in the hospital. Being upset at the mental health world. They told me point blank I didn't have DID, because I DIDN'T ACT LIKE HER. She told everyone she had DID. Even myself. It was a good source of denial. "Well you don't act like *Amy, so you don't have DID". Yep that's what I told myself, over and over and over again.
If it walks like a duck, it must be a duck. But no, it was a goose.
It was directly after she got undiagnosed that people started to put pieces together. Her irresponsibility delayed my life by years. While I sat by just teetering on the edge, she held the answer in the palm of her hand.
We're similar how? Because she faked DID and I have DID? We both have trauma backgrounds. Hers just led to borderline instead of DID. But I just get upset by being compared to her, because quite obviously that didn't work well in the past.
JUST an FYI though this doesn't mean I hate all people who fake it and I'm not on some witch hunt to find fakers now or anything. And I don't want anyone to point at themselves and call themselves fakers, as a form of denial, because I would do that. This girl knew, very consciously, that she was playing with professionals.
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Im sorry that happened to you. maybe those that diagnosed this person that made things hard for you, had the same rule that PC has...whether DID exists in a person or not is not an issue nor up for debate. maybe those that diagnosed this person were treating her symptoms instead of focusing on labels. she believed she was DID so she was going to have DID like symptoms.. like of like someone who believes they have a cold can talk their self into having cold symptoms. when you have the symptoms you have to treat the symptoms in order for it to go away.
the labels arent so important by that I mean any one can convince theirself they have anything... cold flu, PTSD, or even dID. they may not ***really*** in the medical or physical sense but mentally they believe they do...
lydia do something for me.... think about your posting here... what if someone told you.. I dont believe what you just posted, you cant have that because of this that and the other thing... you believe what you posted is real but others may not...how would that make you feel.. would that cause you more mental stress or less mental stress if someone was putting you in your place because they didnt believe you...
the reason I am asking you to think about this is because this is the kind of decision treatment providers have to make.. whether or not to believe a client, whether or not the client ***really*** has what they beleive they have and how to best treat this client.. would it cause more problems or less to let the client believe they have the disorder they believe they have and work on the symptoms or would it be less harmful for the client to be told the harsh truth.. we dont believe you, you dont have this now stop the faking right now talk..
here where I live and work we treat the symptoms not the diagnostic label. here where I live and work we know how people can talk their self into having physical and mental health diagnoses.
the brain is an amazing thing. last week we has a woman client coming to the crisis center she went into labor.. she wasnt pregnant but her body reacted like it was, she had all the symptoms..she had been raped and feared being pregnant by the abuser so her body reacted with that fear.
her doctors tried to tell her she wasnt preg but her physical body reacted differently showing all the symptoms, morning sickness, lack of period, mood swings.. the more her treatment providers tried getting through to her the more mental distress she was in. she tried to commit suicide because no one believed her.
we and her other treatment providers decided instead of trying to break through her idea that shes pregnant by treating the label (pregancy) we treated the symptoms. last week with a mental break through related to her PTSD problems she went into labor. physically she appeared to be in labor and mentally too. physically her body is back on track and mentally shes going to be ok.
treatment providers telling someone they are faking the label and not treating the symptoms sometimes can do more harm than good. in some cases treating the client **as if they have what they believe they have** can do more good than harm.
yes sometimes that makes things harder for those that really do have the label but in the end it isnt labels that count anyway. its the symptoms. A person can be treated for their symptoms that come with DID without being diagnosed DID. look around psych central theres lots of people who have not been officially diagnosed with things but are getting treated for their symptoms.
again Im sorry those treatment providers gave you a hard time but I can also understand why they believed that other person and treated her the way they did.