[Betty_Banana]

Hello.

I have been trying to find info about more than one child in a family being DID. I'm curious how common it is, I'm curious about personal stories of interacting with each others alters as children and any other info available.

I have not been able to find any info at all on this subject, it's almost like it's not possible or doesn't exist.

Thanks in advance.

[PurpleFlyingMonkeys]

The reason you probably do not hear about it is because it rarely ever happens if at all. DID in itself is extremely rare, however lately it has been coming more and more known throughout, partly because of the medias fun with it.

The thing is, it takes a heck of a lot to get DID, and it's very specific as well. There are certain requirements that all must be met in order to be properly diagnosed with DID and I would believe nearly impossible for siblings.

The trauma and or the development of DID happens between the ages of 4 and 6 years old. From what I've been told it must be those ages, no later and no sooner. Before they were saying it could only be brought on by a traumatic event but studies lately show it is very very uncommon but possible for DID to develop in someone who was neglected.

When someone becomes DID their mind can not hold in the information from the trauma so it splits off into parts. These parts become alters. Mostly going by different names and different personalities however some can go by the same name and act very similar to the person as a defense mechanism to try and fool everyone into thinking they are not DID.

In order to be diagnosed with DID you must have at least 2 alters that actively come out. I've heard many reasons for why some people only have 3 or4 and others have 30 or 40 but I don't think there is a definate answer.

Although trauma happens much more than should ever happen, and although two siblings may experience the traumatic event at the same time, it seems the likelihood of two siblings having DID is not good. Not everyone who experiences traumatic events become DID. Most do not. PTSD is much more common for those who have experienced traumatic events than is DID. It is my understanding that PTSD can however cause some similarities to DID like memory loss and such.

It could be very possible however if two siblings experienced the same trauma or trauma in general that they could develop some form of dissociative disorder. DDs have a very wide range and even those of the "normal" nature can have symptoms of DDs but not actually have a DD. There are many different ways that can mimmic or seem very similar to DID as well as other DD's really only a treatment provider could tell you which it would be. And those would probably be the best at answering this kind of question since I've never once read anything about siblings who both had DID in the 10 years I've been doing my research on the subject. But I'm not a t or anything close so maybe I'm wrong.

[likewater]

Wow, purpleflyingmonkeys. Well written. I did not know any of that. Thank you.

[amandalouise]

Originally Posted by Lost_In_Thought

Hello.

I have been trying to find info about more than one child in a family being DID. I'm curious how common it is, I'm curious about personal stories of interacting with each others alters as children and any other info available.

I have not been able to find any info at all on this subject, it's almost like it's not possible or doesn't exist.

Thanks in advance.

In my training and in my work I have found say its not unheard of, or rare and is quite common for siblings and other family members to have the same dissociative disorders, same PTSD, same type of depression...

all it takes is family dynamics.

Most if not all child abusers is someone the child knows... family member, friend of the family, teacher...

Dissociation is one of t hose things that is perfectly natural thing to do for all kinds of reasons... stress, trauma, boredom, even medications can cause a person to dissociate..

Add to that extreme, long term abuse...

Add to that the family dynamics.. when there is abuse in the family there is an unspoken "code" you have the perpetrator / abuser, the caretaker(s), the scape goat(s), the perfect one(s),.... on down through the family unit..

most if not all child abusers that find their victims in families usually have a preference of age.. the starting point and the ending point where they are drawn to their victims. an abuser has their "thing" that draws them to abusing. sort of a mode of operation, signature, what turns them on. just like say a person that commits some other crime. there is something about committing that crime that makes the perps body produce their thrill, high. actually not unlike someone who for example has an eating disorder, addiction, or self injury. perps have their rituals (patterns and ways of abusing)

put it all together you have the makings of multiple family members having the same mental disorder..

example we just transferred a case of three boys from the same family ages ranging from 8-17 for more long term treatment, all of which showed on a psychaitric evaluation to have dissociative disorders to various degrees including they all have DID.

yes DID has diagnostic criteria that is hard to meet But everyone with DID can have it to different degrees. one may have all the diagnostic criteria and have co consciousness, another can meet all the diagnostics and have no co consciousness and other can meet all the diagnostics and have a multitude of variances in how much co consciousness they have with each alter/part. look at all the people here that have DID. no two members have it the same way but all have it.

in this case a teacher recognized bruising and other tell tale markers of abuse, reported it and the children placed in protective custody.all were abused from the ages of three and ongoing. all three were abused by their father, these boys were in family dynamics terms the "scape goats." their father abused them all starting at age three. how he started and proceeded was the same (his mode of operation, his pattern of abusing his children) So all three boys underwent the same extreme abuse.

in our work at the crisis center we treat many family members that end up having the same dissociative problems, same PTSD problems and same Depression problems when ever the abuser is a family member. our statistics show that a majority of our clients where we are working with more than one victim in the family theres a high rate for family members having the same problems. like any other problem in family units dissociative disorders is like they say in AA about having an alcoholic in the family.. its not just the alcoholics problem its the whole families problem too because it affects the whole family.

how does it work with multiple family members having DID and alters interacting.. it works the same way as having only one member of the family with DID and their alters interact with family members. DID is a trauma / trigger related disorder. the person with the disorder encounters something they cant handle, they dissociate and their alters take over control.

as far as I know through my training, work and having DID alters interacting with family members regardless of how many family members have DID it isnt a case where the family member chooses to dissociate so little Jan inside big Jan can play with little Greg who resides inside big greg.

Also the diagnostic criteria is that which says the alters "take" control. the diagnostic criteria also says in children the alters cant be there to be invisable friends or other fantasy play.

you can find the diagnostic criteria here http://www.behavenet.com/capsules/disorders/did.htm

[Betty_Banana]

Thanks for the replies. Interesting how very different they are though....

[amandalouise]

Originally Posted by Lost_In_Thought

Thanks for the replies. Interesting how very different they are though....

different replies because we are all different, and come from different locations around the world and have different treatment providers that have different ways of working with us and different ways of explaining things to us.

[10/6]

I don't know how useful this will be but I figured I might as well share. My sister (who is bipolar) and I (DID) had some odd interactions growing up. The most notable were our fights.

Somehow, don't ask me how, my sister figured out in grade school that I had weird triggers that she could use when we got into a fight (this was long before I was diagnosed). She would purposefully draw out my different personalities to lead the fight to where she wanted it to go. Now that I look back on it, I'm completely baffled by this dynamic.

Another odd interaction came about in high school. My sister was always able to tell when I was talking with the others. I shouldn't have had any tell tale signs since I was well used to hiding my discussions by this time and she never noticed when the others were talking amongst themselves (or just talking in general), but as soon as I started to respond to one of the others she would know. It weirded all of us out (and angered a few of us), especially when she decided to use it as a new toy.

[Betty_Banana]

Just remembered that my T had said once that it's possible for an entire family to be DID. I am guessing that dissociation can be a learned reaction. If everyone in your family is dissociating from the time you are born....well, children do live what they learn, right?