Quote:
Originally Posted by Luce
There are many aspects of dissociative identity disorder that fly in the face of 'reality testing', that do not and should not warrant a diagnosis of psychosis.
Examples:
A child alter in an adult body
A male alter in a female body
A female alter in a male body
An animal alter in ....
An age-slider alter
An introject alter
An alter who is 'stuck' in a previous traumatic event
An alter who denies being the original person (ie: pretty much every alter that exists!)
etc etc etc
All of these are examples of believing something that is not aligned with actual reality, in the context of DID. And what about these scenarios:
Alters having conversations within ones mind (co-consciousness)
Alters deleting thoughts, adding thoughts, or otherwise manipulating the experience of the presenting alter
Alters creating an internal safe place
Do these things exist in the external reality? No. Is that then evidence of psychosis? No. No it is not.
The reality testing of every single person with DID is impaired. But that does not equal psychosis. (It doesn't rule it out as a dual diagnosis either, but that is a different story).
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yes very interesting points for thought. since I didnt have alters of opposite genders, or age sliders I never asked how reality testing fit in with those issues. your own treatment provider can tell you how reality testing fits in with these kinds of alters. but from reading posts here of others that have these problems...they state right in the posts they know they reside with in a body that is not how they perceive their self. so my guess is that reality testing does remain intact.
I did have an introject but because introjects in the USA are not considered dissociative type alters they are considered to be a type of alter any body mental disordered or not can have so again I never looked into how and whether reality testing remains intact with that kind of alter. your own treatment provider can tell you how this issue fits in with this.
I did have animalistic alters but reality testing remained intact. they knew they were residing with in a human body and not everyone claws, bites, screaches, they knew what was real and what wasnt.
alters stuck in time or a particular event my own treatment provider explained to me that reality testing was still intact. reason being those trauma's were real, that time frame did happen so it was real. it would not be reality if for example the alter was ....imagining.... they were being hurt in a way that they have never been hurt (hallucinating or delusional) or if july 10 1970 was not a real date or time frame.
an alter denying they are the body born... thats reality intact because each alter has their own identity. basically what DID is ...having alternate personalities that are not the body born. DID exists therefore reality remains intact. there was once a time in america where it was believed there was no such thing as a mental disorder DID but now it is recognized as existing/ that it is real.
your treatment provider can answer more in detail about what the diagnostic reality testing remains intact means.