> Granted yes there are clients that attempt to use crisis situations as an attention getter... When the therapist notices the client is using therapy time for gaining attention through creating crisises instead of working on their problems and goals... the therapist no matter what problem the client comes in with, stays focused on solutions for their problems or decreases their sessions if the client repeatedly does not work on their goals and solving their problems, or transfers the client to another therapist so that the client cannot continue to manipulate the preferred therapist for attention.

I'm wondering how the therapist decides whether to judge 'attention seeking' or 'DID'

> Table throwing situation SKR happened on to that piece of memory without realizing it was there. I am an amnesia DID which means I have no idea what and how many memorys were separated and stored at my unconscious level (repressed memories)...

> unconsciously spontaniously when triggered) which is what DID is - a person who when triggered switches into acting out repressed memories unconsciously while they are mentally unaware of what is going on.

> Since my memories have been separated and stored at my unconscious level of thinking I can't tell my therapist what they are so my therapist finds out when I act the pieces of memories out.

> In the situation of the table getting thrown one second I was talking about my child who is in residential treatment facility right now and the next second I was feeling far away and floating in my mental safe place and the next SKR was not in the room and the room was a mess, the next second SKR was sitting in front of me asking if I remembered throwing the table.

> instead of focusing on my nightmare we had to meet more often to work on gaining control of my dissociating into that one piece of memory because if throwing things while I was dissociated happened again we could not work together and I may have to be hospitalized.

Right. So your t did indeed state clear consequences if it happened again.

Linehan takes pains to distinguish between someone intentionally manipulating their therapists, and someone not intentionally manipulating their therapist. She says that when therapists judge a client to be manipulated all they are really entitled to is 'I feel manipulated by you'. That is typically because the client doesn't know how to obtain the attention and care that they need. I'm an advocate for clients who are typically judged to be 'attention seekers' and 'manipulative' for the reason that it says more about the therapists limitations than it does about the client. We knew the client needed help already (that is why they are in therapy). The therapist on the other hand... We hoped they could help... But sometimes therapists would rather blame / judge clients than admit that they don't know how to help some clients.

> going off to my extent is expected with DID clients because there is no predicting what the repressed memories are until the person with DID gets triggered into acting those memories out.

Sounds to me like DID patients get treated differently (in the cases when they do) because people say 'I wasn't aware of doing that' and thus they are absolved of responsibility. Griffiths considers it to be an example of 'disclamed action' comperable to 'the voices made me do it'. Lets say someone kills someone else and they 'don't remember'. Does that mean they should be let off, or should they still face consequences so as to prevent their reoffending?

What is interesting about what the behaviourists learned was that if a behaviour is reinforced then it is more likely to recurr (whether people were aware of the reinforcement / the reason for the likely recurrence or not). Similarly if a behaviour is punished then it is less likely to recurr (whether people were aware of the punishment / the reson for the likely non occurrence or not). What that means... Is that ones behaviour can come under the influence of reinforcement contingencies without one being aware of it (thus I say it is pointless to blame the client / victim though it is indeed something that therapists should be aware of / should consider).

> TRUE DID switching is trigger related not based on getting attention which is why switching increases with seeing a therapist.

Do you mean by definition? Thus if the therapist judges the client to be 'faking' to 'get attention' then they don't really have DID whereas if the therapist is sympathetic to the 'I lost time I don't remember doing that' claims of the client then they are taken seriously thus they have DID?

> Can a rape victim control a flashback

To some extent. Also the flashbacks can come to be elicited by... Reinforcing their recurrence...

> DID's can't say ok Im not going to dissociate until I see my therapist.

Do most people with DID clearly dissociate before therapy? Kluft (advocate for DID says 'no'). He says therapy makes it more likely to happen as client becomes 'more in touch' with trauma. Sceptics say therapy makes it more likely to happen as client gets reinforced by their t's.

> If I was switching to gain my therapist attention I would only be switching with my therapist and my switching would be over dramatized so that I gain her attention and my therapy work would only be worked on with my therapist.

If overdramatising would have the effect that she would conclude you were faking then it would be in your (unconscious) interests not to dramatise. Sounds like you have her attention already... Behaviours learned in therapy (such as coping skills, such as switching) can indeed generalise outside the therapy setting over time...

I'm just saying... I think there is a middle ground. Nice that your t let you know the table throwing was unacceptable (so if it happened again you would be terminated). If she didn't say that... If she just expressed concern and didn't state a likely consequence... Then... Table throwing would have become more likely in the future.

Dissociative symptoms / flashbacks can be shaped...
And I don't think some t's / clients realise this...

Just like hysterical paralysis (which doesn't really happen anymore). That was shaped too...