[celtic.starlite]

Apparently, I've been dissociating a lot in my therapy sessions or something. I'll have to ask my T if that's what has been happening. The reason I say that is because she gave me a dissociation questionnaire.
I am so frustrated answering the questions. I hate scales! and on top of that, how am I supposed to know if I don't remember certain things?
I want to just rip the darn thing up!

Celtic

[amandalouise]

Originally Posted by celtic.starlite

Apparently, I've been dissociating a lot in my therapy sessions or something. I'll have to ask my T if that's what has been happening. The reason I say that is because she gave me a dissociation questionnaire.
I am so frustrated answering the questions. I hate scales! and on top of that, how am I supposed to know if I don't remember certain things?
I want to just rip the darn thing up!

Celtic

breath and relax. try not to make it harder than it is or read more into the questions then what the questions are....

normal people, people with depression, people with bipolar, people with all kinds of problems even dissociatives know whether or not they have trouble remembering things.....

example can you remember what you had for breakfast this morning? sometimes yes sometimes no, guess what... thats normal forgetfulness, but on the other hand it could be a mental or physical problem...depending on....other accompanying symptoms....

there are all kinds of dissociative questionaires that look at many different types of dissociation symptoms and dissociative type memory problems....

but over all they are meant to be taken /answered as fast as you can or in other words with out the test taker self analyzing/over analyzing the questions. kind of like theres a therapy technique called word association where one person says a word and the other person says the first word that pops into their minds...

test taking for mental disorders is like that you just answer the questions with the first thing that comes to mind.. if you have suicidal thoughts then mark yes, if you dont mark no, if you sometimes forget your keys mark yes if you dont sometimes forget your keys mark no, if you when some one is talking to you then afterwards you dont remember what they said then mark yes if this doesnt happen to you mark no. if you wake up places and dont remember how you got there mark yes if you wake up and remember how you got there mark no (these are not actual questions on any dissociative tests we use at the crisis center but can be found online in outdated no longer used versions of dissociation tests. but they will give you an idea of what to do. its a test about you and you know you the best so just fill it in as fast as you can without interpretting and worry about what the results are going to be. )

even the worst dissociation problems people do know when they have forgotten something. they may not know what that something is but they know theres a small or large chunk of time where something happened that they can not remember. just how the brain normally works and even more so with people of all kinds of mental or physical problems.

[celtic.starlite]

Thank you for the reply.

I have huge chunks of time (and small ones) missing in my life, but I have no idea if any major events happened during those times and that's what the one question asks.

I am thinking too much about the questions because I want to be accurate. If my T looks at all my first answers my score will be extremely high and I don't think it will be accurate. If she looks at my current answers, I don't know how accurate they are but my score will still be high.

I was diagnosed with DDNS years ago but I'm not sure they diagnosed me properly because they didn't give me any tests (the T that diagnosed me didn't believe in DID either but did believe in dissociative disorders). I don't know. T and I discussed DID in a session and then two sessions later she gave me this questionnaire.

I have two wonderful friends with DID and I think it is extremely interesting and I have no problem knowing they have it. However, I don't want to be told I have it and then find out I was misdiagnosed or something. Both of these friends have told me multiple times in the past that I needed to talk to a T about DID because they claimed they have met an alter(s) of mine.

I don't know I'm just freaking out right now.

Celtic

[amandalouise]

Originally Posted by celtic.starlite

Thank you for the reply.

I have huge chunks of time (and small ones) missing in my life, but I have no idea if any major events happened during those times and that's what the one question asks.

I am thinking too much about the questions because I want to be accurate. If my T looks at all my first answers my score will be extremely high and I don't think it will be accurate. If she looks at my current answers, I don't know how accurate they are but my score will still be high.

I was diagnosed with DDNS years ago but I'm not sure they diagnosed me properly because they didn't give me any tests. I don't know. T and I discussed DID in a session and then two sessions later she gave me this questionnaire.

I have two wonderful friends with DID and I think it is extremely interesting and I have no problem knowing they have it. However, I don't want to be told I have it and then find out I was misdiagnosed or something. Both of these friends have told me multiple times in the past that I needed to talk to a T about DID because they claimed they have met an alter(s) of mine.

I don't know I'm just freaking out right now.

Celtic

so the question is askinng....did something major happen during the time of the memory gap (space of time in which you dont remember)....

first off the word major is subjective. it doesn't mean major according to the testor, or your family or anyone else but you....

think event wise. you know how sometimes people can say during normal conversations with others....yea I went here or there with my parents but I was too young to remember it. I know it happened, my family tells me about it, shows me pictures of the trip, but I just dont remember it. another example you know how sometimes under normal situations someone can say I was on my way home and forgot to pick up the bread for dinner tonight. At work we had a party so I just lost track of time and buying the bread....

for these two people that can be a major memory loss problem. for others it isnt, when taking the tests thhese two people may mark yes on that problem or they may mark no depending upon whether forgetting the bread for dinner or forgetting a family vacation trip was major ....to them...

do you keep a journal....maybe you can look in your journal/diary for the dates to see what went on during those times in which you dont remember. sometimes people with mental/or physical problems dont always know how things have affected them/what they have done one day to the next so they keep a journal/diary...

maybe you can also read some of your past posts to see if there are any things of what you consider were major events in your life that you dont remember writing about, ...

one thing we know about dissociative type memory problems is that there is always evidence that surounds that memory gap. it may be a ticket stub, or a notation in a diary, or even documents/paperwork that the dissociative does not remember.....theres all kinds of evidence...if there wasnt a shred of evidence to that memory gap then you wouldnt even know you were losing time....

example if you dont see that coffee cup sitting on a table or in the sink a person would not know they drank coffee that morning. or if you are not standing there with your coat on, or other clues you would not know that you had gone outside for a walk. or how about here on psych central...you know you have posted whether or not you remember doing it..how...by seeing your own posts...or how about how do you know whether you ate dinner last night...you follow the clues you see the dirty or clean dishes, how your belly feels, ...

A person doesnt know they forgot something unless there is some sort of evidence pointing to the fact that it happened. if you feel you have memory gaps then just think about what makes you think you have forgotten something.....thats evidence.

[celtic.starlite]

Thank you, Amanda.

A lot of what you mentioned fell into other question categories.
I have experienced most if not all of your examples. T got to see how bad my dissociation has been this week since I couldn't stay present in my session yesterday. We had to go over my time by 15 min just so she could get me to be present. I hate this. I know it is possibly what saved me through all the ab**e growing up, but I just don't like it right now.
This one question I was just using as an example but it did specifically say major events with the examples of graduation and wedding.
I turned the questionnaire into my T, she is going to score it this weekend.

Thanks again.

Celtic

[Kiya]

Heh - i hear ya! And - I don't know about you - I "think" a lot of different answers and it depends situationally and all these 'what if's' and I don't like the questions! Or i might fill one out one day, and then look at it several days later and think 'who wrote this???"! I don't think that!!! LOL. The fun of being DD

Originally Posted by celtic.starlite

Apparently, I've been dissociating a lot in my therapy sessions or something. I'll have to ask my T if that's what has been happening. The reason I say that is because she gave me a dissociation questionnaire.
I am so frustrated answering the questions. I hate scales! and on top of that, how am I supposed to know if I don't remember certain things?
I want to just rip the darn thing up!

Celtic