Sherri: I'm sorry that this all happened to you. DID is so much more misunderstood than say Bipolar is which is more acceptable even though it has its public image issues, also.

Sure the DSM is real specific about its criteria which is the way it needs to be. The problem is to the lay person where it really makes no sense: its vague, clinical and unyielding.

DSM just describes what it needs to be to be considered DID....but what does that really mean? It actually takes a little researching and studying for it to sink in, at least for me it did, like a years worth before I was able to wrap my head around it.

I don't exactly know what you mean that there are "2 hims" - like 2 versions, 2 differing personalities, polar opposites,...?

DSM says 2 or more personality states. These states can have similarities, but they have different tastes, views, ideas, etc. Differing self-images is a clue like gender, age, likes and dislikes, gestures, mannerism, etc. Sometimes its obvious to see these things but they are mostly well hidden because normal people think everyones singular so they miss the obvious or shrug them off as quirks and our whole goal is to blend in and appear normal. We went nameless for all of our life to not be seen.

As for the causes of this condition, I looked into structural dissociation and the root cause was trauma. Abuse is trauma. An unprocessed traumatic memory that the young childs mind can't process causing a memory back up that leads to more unprocessed memories. All these unprocessed memories take on a life of there own.

From what I gather, trauma doesnt have to be abuse: sexual, mental, physical, emotional- its just something a child perceives as horrific like a death, a horrific crash, the mommy/baby bond is broken....the child dissociates from the stuck memory leaving it behind. This dissociation is where a new version emerges to get on with life. This is how alters are created- its their "job" to take over when the previous gets stuck. Some people are more prone to dissociate than others. I dissociate at the blink of an eye which puts me as a candidate for poly-fragmentation in the hundreds.

From what I've learned so far, there is also physical conditions too that may play a factor like a too small hippocampus that gets backed up for the laying down of memories.

The base cause of DID is all the same...the initial unprocessed trauma memory on a young childs brain. From there it grows into its own version of DID because everyones personal experiences are different, but the structure is relativity the same, but to different depths.

The DSM should be and is for the professionals to interpret. There is so much more behind the wording then what's just printed...like years of study in psychology for one, and to be told to just go look there is insane. This is why we hire Ts, for they have the knowledge of the meanings of the definitions and self diagnosing is very unreccomended.

If one does self-diagnosis, they can accidentally start believing that they have DID, then the brain will mimic the symptoms to satisfy the belief causing a false condition which is not good for the patient that leads to confusion, undue stress, embarrassment, unneccessary costs, delusions,.... A world of headaches, actually.

You run into all types of personalities on here or anywhere.... but all we want to do is help.