Yep, I agree with alot that's been said here where others expanded on what I was trying to put into words (thanks).

To me, broken down, this same thing (inner child/average parting all the way up to DID) is based on "degree"...degree of alot of things, but applies to almost anything as well.

For instance, most disorders are only disorders and dx'ed as such because they're things that anyone, anytime can do at some point in their lives, or even frequently. What makes a disorder just that is the degree and effect on daily function in life. It applies here in this convo as well.

An average person can have headaches. They medicate, meditate, work past them, etc. However, they don't interfere with their regular functioning normally. Then we have those issue where headaches are actually dx'ed as something by the dr. because the severity and surrounding symptoms are greater than average. They could be dx'ed with having migraines, cluster headaches, even severe illnesses. A person can have excessive thoughts and are compulsed to do things to ease them when under high anxiety or depression. However, they're not always dx'ed with OCD. What would make it OCD are other contributing factors, as well as the degree and how it interferes with a person's daily functioning. I could go on and on about this with anything from parts/DID to use/abuse with determining addiction.

So, it depends on contributing factors, degree and interference with functioning that leads to a dx on just about anything including part of this discussion.

This is just my personal understanding as I've grown, learned and applied...

Thanks!

KD

PS - Yes, Rap, I think you're right that the DID'er has the typical inner child as well as alter/other children...or at least they can.

KD