I dont usually explain it or tell others I have mental problems. here in america we have privacy laws. that means its really no ones business but my own and my treatment providers what my mental and physical health problems are, in turn my friends and family and those i interact with online do not ask such questions.

my alters before I was integrated also did not talk about my mental illnesses and that I had DID and that they existed.

everyone naturally followed the abusers code of "do not tell"... for those who do not know what this is...

when an abuser is harming a child they usually tell the child things like this is our secret, you cant tell anyone and if you tell anyone this and that will happen.

with DID what usually happens is that one or more of the resulting alters due to the abuse are protectors of the secrets, abuse events, trauma's and protectors that enforce the do not tell code. even it it means things like self injury or suicidal behaviors at the very minute sign that anyone is on the verge of telling, disclosing the abuse, trying to get help to stop the abuse.

telling someone I have DID or talking about what the alters were doing or that they even existed, would have resulted in that protector of secrets, do not tell abusers code to take control and prevent that from happening no matter what they had to do to stop the conversation / disclosures...

I grew up this way from the very first altered creation due to the extreme abuse/ traumas I went through, (before the age of 5) so for example it was my normal to be in my 20's and 30's and not say things like rainy did this or when thelma did that. it was my normal to not talk like that. if the others wanted to tell their friends what they said and did , they did.... example if thelma was talking about dating with a friend it was ok for her to say "my boyfriend and I went out to dinner and we..."

but because of the abusers code it was not in thelma to be able to say "rainy watched the sound of music last night" which would have opened the door for disclosure issues. which would then cause the protector alters to take control and do self injury or suicidal behaviors to enforce the abusers code.

see what I mean. most times there are protector alters that prevent this kind of thing and in me these protectors enforced the abusers code to no end.