[krisakira]

When will people get it through their thick skulls that dissociative disorder does NOT really mean dissociative identity disorder!! I have dissociative disorder NOS. I get depersonalization, derealization, and zone out so bad that sometimes my legs stop working. Medication helps but it's still there. I have a few symptoms of DID but its not enough to call it that. Such as I have parts but they don't take over. The main thing is that I zone out! and feel detached from the universe, and my legs won't move.

[Gr3tta]

Originally Posted by krisakira

When will people get it through their thick skulls that dissociative disorder does NOT really mean dissociative identity disorder!! I have dissociative disorder NOS. I get depersonalization, derealization, and zone out so bad that sometimes my legs stop working. Medication helps but it's still there. I have a few symptoms of DID but its not enough to call it that. Such as I have parts but they don't take over. The main thing is that I zone out! and feel detached from the universe, and my legs won't move.

a lot of people really don't know that other kinds of dissociative disorders exist. maybe you can educate them? i do understand that it is frustrating though.

[krisakira]

DID is only a *type* of dissociative disorder. I will try to do some educating then.

[PurpleFlyingMonkeys]

I think often any kind of dissociative disorder is hard to understand, the only reason people think automatically DID is because the way the media has made it into a huge deal.

Like psychosis. People can say "I am schizoeffective" and in turn their peers will say "Oh you're schizophrenic"

I can't explain DID it seems to save my life so I just explain dissociation. I don't even given them the name I just tell them I have a dissociative issue and when they get confused I explain the spectrum. That everyone dissociates by at least day dreaming, however because of a difficult childhood, my dissociation gets more intense where I actually leave all together not remembering anything" That's about as much detail as I can give before they get confused. And I've tried and tried and tried to explain.

If they ask if it's DID just kindly say "No it's not DID, it's a dissociative disorder, everyone dissociates even you when you are daydreaming, it's a disorder because it's more developed than day dreaming but no I do not split into seperate personalities" Maybe that will help?

I've even had people when trying to explain DID say that it sounded like schizophrenia, so I try to explain in as simple words as possible and only what they need to know or what I think they will actually understand of the disorder

[eskielover]

I have experienced the depersonalization after going through a trauma in 2004/2005 & there are times now when stress gets high or triggers from the trauma hit me that the depersonalization is what I experience.

First time it hit mildly was when I was staying at the hospital in the fold out chair next to my mother who was dying of cancer right after the major part of the trauma hit.....it was an erie feeling but the worst that I had a hard time shaking was several months after that when I was at the ranch feeding the horses. I was pulling apart the bales of hay for feeding & my trainer said something to me.....I remember hearing what she said & I remember a voice responding to her, & I remember it was like I was watching myself & hearing myself speak, but there was a disconnect between what I was hearing & what I was saying. All of a sudden, I got afraid to say anything because I didn't know how the brain that was figuring out what to say was connected to the voice that was answering........I ended up just shutting down.

Worst part was that my H was driving & he had to stop at the grocery store. I didn't want to sit outside in the car, but felt like I was so out of my body & watching what I was doing & walking through the grocery store isles, not really knowing where I was.....I should have stayed in the car, but I didn't understand what was going on with me until I later explained it to my pdoc & he said it was depersonalization.

It has hit me several times after that when a highly stressful situations. For me, those experiences are situational. It doesn't give me any but it's enough to relate to what you are going through.....it's important for people to understand what you are dealing. Knowledge & I have also found that teaching others about something, I learn even more myself

[PurpleFlyingMonkeys]

Eskie, you just reminded me of something...

As a teen I was put on a very high dose of lithium. (1,250mg a day) and it pushed me over the edge. I would sit for dinner and I would hear them talking, see them talking, see myself on the other side of the table and hear myself interacting as if nothing were wrong, but I wasn't in there, I was across the table watching. It happened so much I made my mom take me to the hospital because I was afraid it was a tumor or something. She blamed it on migraines until I went back to my pdoc who took me off the lithium.

It's really scary and I'm sorry for those who have to cope with this. That was the most extreme it was ever for me in depersonalization, but it was enough for me to see how scary it could get. Usually it's just hints of hearing and watching but that's a whole other diagnosis there. Just wanted to add my support, although I don't have it per se, I can see how frightening it is and it's hard. Hugs to all who have to deal with it

Hmm that's odd usually I get the opposite. People know what dissociation is, but don't know what DID is. I just typically say "I have a dissociative disorder". People will know "Multiple personality disorder". But a lot of "Norms" don't know the disorder DID.

[likewater]

I just gave up trying to explain DID. I have cards that explain it off the internet I can hand people.

[LouR]

I explain the 5 different types of DID to people that I trust to tell them my diagnosis only my husband, bestfriend and one of my sister in laws know and they accepted it pretty well.
Mother overheard my husband and I talking about it and had an anuersym she didn't understand DID until I said used to be known as MPD, then she was in denial for a while.
The thing is I believe there a various states of each its not uniform at all.
MPD is the most common one due to media its new name DID is less common and the other 4 dissociative disorders not many people have heard of before.
It's hard for me to explain it too and I guess if I had DDNOS it would be harder and I do understand what you are saying my friend.

[jax01]

I only explain to people I believe are smart enough, and open enough to understand that there is a difference.
like my sister is smart enough to understand, she wouldn't care to know the difference.
my father while not a stupid man would have no idea what any of it means.
so I'm not telling them. He'd also probably feel I'm pointing the finger of blame right at his nose. I'm not interseted in blame, and the abuse didn't start with him. He's as much a victim as I am. but I'm getting off topic.
There are Doctors I wouldn't tell unless I absolutely had to, because they've shown themselves to be judgemental in the past.
telling people is a pretty serious subject.
expecting them to know anything, even medical professionals, is asking too much.
I treat it as a pleasent surprise if i have to tell, and they even know what the letters stand for.
becareful who you tell.
you can set yourself up for some unpleasent expirence. even in medical settings. especialy in medical settings.
you can find yourself being treated as potentialy dangerous, being labeled as a "problem patient" being treated as if you have an IQ in the single digits, or straght up called a liar, and a faker, and not to pull any of your BS on them, because they won't put up with it.
Oh, I also don't explain anything to any one who says "Oh! you're like Sybil, right? Can I talk to them?"

[Helluva]

I'm pretty sure no one I know knows what a dissociative disorder is let alone introspective enough to understand it. Everyone I know has heard of multiple personality disorder (I'm guessing :-)) and half of them would think that's schizophrenia. Certainly would mention schizoaffective )

[krisakira]

This is from NAMI.org

Dissociative amnesia:
This disorder is characterized by a blocking out of critical personal information, usually of a traumatic or stressful nature. Dissociative amnesia, unlike other types of amnesia, does not result from other medical trauma (e.g. a blow to the head). Dissociative amnesia has several subtypes:

• Localized amnesia is present in an individual who has no memory of specific events that took place, usually traumatic. The loss of memory is localized with a specific window of time. For example, a survivor of a car wreck who has no memory of the experience until two days later is experiencing localized amnesia.
• Selective amnesia happens when a person can recall only small parts of events that took place in a defined period of time. For example, an abuse victim may recall only some parts of the series of events around the abuse.
• Generalized amnesia is diagnosed when a person's amnesia encompasses his or her entire life.
• Systematized amnesia is characterized by a loss of memory for a specific category of information. A person with this disorder might, for example, be missing all memories about one specific family member.

.

Dissociative fugue is a rare disorder. An individual with dissociative fugue suddenly and unexpectedly takes physical leave of his or her surroundings and sets off on a journey of some kind. These journeys can last hours, or even several days or months. Individuals experiencing a dissociative fugue have traveled over thousands of miles. An individual in a fugue state is unaware of or confused about his identity, and in some cases will assume a new identity (although this is the exception)

Dissociative identity disorder (DID), which has been known as multiple personality disorder, is the most famous of the dissociative disorders. An individual suffering from DID has more than one distinct identity or personality state that surfaces in the individual on a recurring basis. This disorder is also marked by differences in memory which vary with the individual's "alters," or other personalities. For more information on this, see the NAMI factsheet on dissociative identity disorder.

Depersonalization disorder is marked by a feeling of detachment or distance from one's own experience, body, or self. These feelings of depersonalization are recurrent. Of the dissociative disorders, depersonalization is the one most easily identified with by the general public; one can easily relate to feeling as they in a dream, or being "spaced out." Feeling out of control of one's actions and movements is something that people describe when intoxicated. An individual with depersonalization disorder has this experience so frequently and so severely that it interrupts his or her functioning and experience. A person's experience with depersonalization can be so severe that he or she believes the external world is unreal or distorted.

Then there is Dissociative Disorder NOS, meaning it doesn't fit exactly just one type of dissociative disorder. THat is what I have, because I have depersonalization as well as a few symptoms of DID, but not enough to say I have DID.

[unaluna]

I use DID on here and with my T as an abbr for the whole dissociative shebang.

Originally Posted by jax01

I only explain to people I believe are smart enough, and open enough to understand that there is a difference.
like my sister is smart enough to understand, she wouldn't care to know the difference.
my father while not a stupid man would have no idea what any of it means.
so I'm not telling them. He'd also probably feel I'm pointing the finger of blame right at his nose. I'm not interseted in blame, and the abuse didn't start with him. He's as much a victim as I am. but I'm getting off topic.
There are Doctors I wouldn't tell unless I absolutely had to, because they've shown themselves to be judgemental in the past.
telling people is a pretty serious subject.
expecting them to know anything, even medical professionals, is asking too much.
I treat it as a pleasent surprise if i have to tell, and they even know what the letters stand for.
becareful who you tell.
you can set yourself up for some unpleasent expirence. even in medical settings. especialy in medical settings.
you can find yourself being treated as potentialy dangerous, being labeled as a "problem patient" being treated as if you have an IQ in the single digits, or straght up called a liar, and a faker, and not to pull any of your BS on them, because they won't put up with it.
Oh, I also don't explain anything to any one who says "Oh! you're like Sybil, right? Can I talk to them?"

I have been treated like a faker/liar on a few occasions and it's distressing. I just usually shut up and take it, because really getting upset about it does nothing. I always have the philosophy. "Well I know the truth". One time I was in a psych ward and all the staff believed me, but the doctor didn't believe in the disorder. One of my parts wrote her a huge letter telling her to educate herself with the DSM 4 and standing up for us, and it actually worked, but I don't trust myself to stand up for us, because I'd just look like a mess. So I just let it go if say I'm in an ER at crisis and they have my diagnosis on record. That's kind of what sucks about having a community team, is that they have big mouths and I probably can't go to any ER within a 50 mile radius, without being known.

[krisakira]

Originally Posted by LouR

I explain the 5 different types of DID to people that I trust to tell them my diagnosis only my husband, bestfriend and one of my sister in laws know and they accepted it pretty well.
Mother overheard my husband and I talking about it and had an anuersym she didn't understand DID until I said used to be known as MPD, then she was in denial for a while.
The thing is I believe there a various states of each its not uniform at all.
MPD is the most common one due to media its new name DID is less common and the other 4 dissociative disorders not many people have heard of before.
It's hard for me to explain it too and I guess if I had DDNOS it would be harder and I do understand what you are saying my friend.

I bet you probably didnt even mean to say this but, when you say "I explain the 5 different types of DID..." I have to correct you and say "the 5 types of Dissociative disorders", not DID. DID is one of the types. Sorry, it was just bugging me... no offense at all