Why do some people not believe in DID?

I don't have it (as far as I know) but I certainly believe it exists! But there are many people--even psychiatrists--who deny its existance. Why is that?

Around here where I live and work when I encounter someone that doesnt believe in DID its because if they did they would have to believe there are such horrors in the world that caused the DID...

Example one of my neighbors does not believe in DID. her reasoning is that if she believed in it, to her it would cause her emotional pain knowing I had been hurt in such horrible ways beyond her comprehension. She cares a lot for me and like a mother who is bonded to their child, it hurts the mother to know her child hurts. it would hurt her to know the pain I was in.

there are lots of general reasons why a person doesnt believe in this or that mental disorder but only those in your life can answer why they dont believe.

my suggestion - maybe you can do what I do.. when someone tells me they dont believe in something (no matter what it is.. angels, higher beings, mental disorders, physical health diseases.... what ever) I ask them why. that way I know the answer from their perspective.

I think also, sadly, the whole false memory syndrome thing that went around several years ago put a lot of doubt in people's minds about anyone who is diagnosed with DID. I also have known a couple of people who claimed to have it and then admitted they didn't really so that makes it harder on people who really do have it, I think.

You both mad some really good points. roseleigh7, I remember when that stuff was happening and I guess I didn't think about that. You both made a lot of sense--thanks!

Because I think DID is hard to grasp. What's behind it. What it is exactly. A lot of doctors haven't done the research to warrant an opinion, but they give one anyway.

That makes sense, Lydia. I'm also not sure if there is that much research done on it anyway. Do you know of a lot?

There are a lot of doctors and nurses in Australia who do not believe in it because it is not taught in the curriculum that the health professionals take to get trained.

There is a lot of research done by top experts. You can read a lot of scholarly articles written by people like Kluft, Lowenstein, Ross, Putnam

Here's some scholarly articles.

http://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl..._ylo=&as_vis=1

There just bottom of the barrel stuff. Technical, even cold. For you I'd rec'd the DID Source book. It's a huge eye opener for people with DID. You can buy it on amazon.

I'm reading "Multipule Personality Disorder from the Inside Out" right now.
MPD being DID's old name. If you want to see you're not alone, or crazy, it's good.
It's written by people who have DID/MPD. It's kind of a collection. I don't like the poetry much, but that's just me.
I have read the DID Sourcebook. It's good and full of information, but a bit cold. The contacts directory in the back can be valuable.
It depends on what you're looking for.
But as far as people not believing? There's as many reasons as their are people.
Some can't admit there's the kinds of abuse towards children, or the volume of abuse out there in the world, to cause such a thing. Some can't accept it because doing so means accepting something else. That they were abused. That they knew about it. That they were blind to it. That they are guilty of it. Maybe it's not an endless list, but it's pretty long.
Accepting having it myself is hard. for more reasons than I want to type out.

Jax

People dont believe in stuff they dont understand. Also i dont think the mefia sensationalizing DID and cheesey made for tv movies
about it helped at all.

Good professional organization: http://www.isst-d.org/

I shadowed a psychiatrist once who said that DID is sort of like a spectrum of 'personality disintegration'. He said everyone has 'modes' inside of them (modes are kind of like personalities). Modes are aspects of your personality that are associated with certain life experiences/life stages. In extreme cases (such as trauma), a mode can become like a distinct, separate personality. He said that 'normal' people also have modes, but that all these modes are well-integrated together. Someone with 'DID' has a problem with integrating and regulating all their modes 'under one roof'.

He said that the goal of therapy for a person with DID is to push the person to re-integrate their modes into one single identity. He said that some psychiatrists spend a lot time focusing on one 'personality' at a time, and that this can be harmful, because it further dis-integrates the person's identity, rather than re-integrating it. I watched him do psychotherapy with someone who had DID and it was very interesting. He would acknowledge the different personalities (although he would call them modes), but kept pushing the patient to see that they were aspects of one identity, rather than separate identities. It seemed to really help. By the end of the session, the patient was referring to her own personalities as 'modes' too, and she seemed to have a lot of insight into her illness. She definitely seemed a lot more 'whole' by the end of the session.

In movies and tv we see it being used an excuse for murder. And it's always a case of extreme DID where the character becomes a full new person but doesn't remember the other person or people they become.
It asks a lot from people to believe in such a thing.
I have trouble with that extreme version of it myself but I do know the lesser version of DID as I have suffered from it myself and I don't see it as being a whole new person as much as I do see it as one immersing them self very deep into an alternate reality to escape the one that is too painful to bear.

I think one reason that people don't want to believe in DID is because there is such a stigma to it. It is terrifying in so many ways when you realize that you are not in control all the time.

There are only 3 others who know about me (including my T). I wish the only person who knew was my T. I lost my bf because of it and because he knows. I warned a potential bf about it and he dumped me the next day. I am very sad that he knows. I'm not telling my family, workmates, or neighbors. They don't need the burden. They don't have to come to terms with it. And I'm not going the bf route any more. That makes me sad too.

I don't want to have to explain myself to anyone. I don't want to have to justify it or explain it. It isn't their business. It is difficult enough all ready.