[beautifuldisaster78]

If you have DID, and if you are willing to share, I want to know specifics of how you were diagnosed, how you came to accept the diagnosis (if you denied it or not), and how you first started to realize that there were alters, how you came to name them or know their names. I also, and most importantly I guess, want to know if your diagnosis, and finding the names of the alters and all that process, made things worse for you? What changed before and after the diagnosis?

My therapist and I are exploring something similar though I don't think it's quite DID- I do lose time, but for the most part I think I remain pretty much what I guess you'd call co-conscious. Anyway I'm still in a phase of finding a correct diagnosis and really would like to hear other's experiences. I know with DID that it's not exactly as portrayed in the movies and that people with DID can actually appear to lead normal lives without anyone ever knowing that they switch alters. It seems to me like a scary diagnosis. Don't get me wrong, I believe it's real, it just worries me that a diagnosis would bring more attention to it and make the symptoms worse.

Anyway would love to hear your before/during/after diagnosis stories.

Thanks.

Oh and one more thing... how long were you in mental health treatment before finding the right diagnosis?

[amandalouise]

Originally Posted by beautifuldisaster78

If you have DID, and if you are willing to share, I want to know specifics of how you were diagnosed, how you came to accept the diagnosis (if you denied it or not), and how you first started to realize that there were alters, how you came to name them or know their names. I also, and most importantly I guess, want to know if your diagnosis, and finding the names of the alters and all that process, made things worse for you? What changed before and after the diagnosis?

My therapist and I are exploring something similar though I don't think it's quite DID- I do lose time, but for the most part I think I remain pretty much what I guess you'd call co-conscious. Anyway I'm still in a phase of finding a correct diagnosis and really would like to hear other's experiences. I know with DID that it's not exactly as portrayed in the movies and that people with DID can actually appear to lead normal lives without anyone ever knowing that they switch alters. It seems to me like a scary diagnosis. Don't get me wrong, I believe it's real, it just worries me that a diagnosis would bring more attention to it and make the symptoms worse.

Anyway would love to hear your before/during/after diagnosis stories.

Thanks.

Oh and one more thing... how long were you in mental health treatment before finding the right diagnosis?

Hmmmm now you have my curiousness up...

let me get this straight you dont have DID and your therapist and you are not treating you for DID but you want us to tell you all our details like.. how we got diagnosed with DID, how we accepted it and what we go through because of having DID?

sounds to me like you are fishing (doing research /using us as your research subjects)

how about you tell us what your problem is and we will tell you if we have the same problems that you have and how we have handled those problems...

because thats what we do here. we are a support group... people helping each other through tough times.

In general the diagnosis process is different for everyone, by that I mean people who have DID have to meet the same diagnostic criteria but how and what tests are done depends upon each persons own location and how those treatment providers test for mental disorders..

your therapist can tell you what tests you need to do for diagnosis of DID / mental disorders..

you say you lose time.. if you are here where I live and work, for that symptom I had to go through extensive brain scans like CAT scan, EEG, EKG, MRI, MRA, blood tests, urine tests, stress tests, drug and alcohol testing, thyroid testing, angiography, psychometric tests, lumbar puncture and many more to rule out any medical and mental health problems that can cause a person to have memory/cognitive problems that can result in loss of time...example anemia, heart disease, brain tumors, cancer, epilepsy and other seizure disorders, (and many others) that share or cause this same symptom.

how long does it take to be diagnosed DID.. again it all depends upon what the diagnostic process is where you are. for me it took being tested for it once over the course of a month or so. for others it can take yrs before receiving the diagnosis.

your therapist can tell you how long it will take you to complete the diagnostic process where you are.

I found out my alters were there when I was diagnosed. i had the symptom of hearing voices all my life.

I did not name my alters some had names some didnt. where I live and work it is considered unethical for therapists to require their clients to name the alters. it is believed doing so would possibly cause the client to make up alters that really are not there. plus when I asked my therapist if I should name the alters she told me my giving them names would probably result in giving them names of which they dont like, dont want or is the wrong name for them. it ws best to wait and see if they had their own names before I forced a name of my own on them.

being diagnosed changed nothing other than putting a name to which has already been there since I was under 5 yrs old.

Originally Posted by beautifuldisaster78

If you have DID, and if you are willing to share, I want to know specifics of how you were diagnosed, how you came to accept the diagnosis (if you denied it or not), and how you first started to realize that there were alters, how you came to name them or know their names. I also, and most importantly I guess, want to know if your diagnosis, and finding the names of the alters and all that process, made things worse for you? What changed before and after the diagnosis?

My therapist and I are exploring something similar though I don't think it's quite DID- I do lose time, but for the most part I think I remain pretty much what I guess you'd call co-conscious. Anyway I'm still in a phase of finding a correct diagnosis and really would like to hear other's experiences. I know with DID that it's not exactly as portrayed in the movies and that people with DID can actually appear to lead normal lives without anyone ever knowing that they switch alters. It seems to me like a scary diagnosis. Don't get me wrong, I believe it's real, it just worries me that a diagnosis would bring more attention to it and make the symptoms worse.

Anyway would love to hear your before/during/after diagnosis stories.

Thanks.

Oh and one more thing... how long were you in mental health treatment before finding the right diagnosis?

I will answer most of your questions, but just give me a little time... it's a loaded question.

glad we dont live where you do-be da**ed if anyones gonna stick things in us to figure out we exist!!!!

[beautifuldisaster78]

Thanks for your replies. AmandaLouise, I can see how it would come across that way but I'm really not doing any weird research or anything. About a year ago I was told I dissociate. I didn't even have a clue what that meant back then. After reading about it, denying it, reading more (and talking with my therapist) I accepted that I do have depersonalization/derealization. Now it seems my diagnosis is headed more into the DID or DDNOS category. I was so adamant for so long that there was no way I had anything like that (my knowledge of DID came from watching Sybil). But the more I read about it the more I think it fits... I'm not trying to diagnose myself I just think its a scary process to go through- for me anyways even to consider it as a possibility- that I just wanted to hear how others came to accept it.

[anderson]

When we were first dx, i had a surpotive group around me. Those that I lived with would sit down with us daily and go over the events to help my parts learn that we were safe in the moment.

that was were journaling came in big time for us. our T was certified in TFT/EFT and tought us the skills to decompress as the memiors surfaced.

I think that at times because of our abuse that others first think that when others ask questions of each other that it is for a bad thing.

sybil debunk auther is now getting debunked herself. Those with DID are starting to join together to help each other. The key is compasion and accepting that there is no such thing as being "A GOOD MULTIPLY" Unlike chemical inbalances, It is our ego that created our inner world.

listening and caring

[likewater]

I was misdiagnosed schizophrenic before DID