multiple diagnoses

Learned that I have multiple diagnoses. Not sure what to make of this. DID seemed to be enough.

Knowing doesn't change who I am--same as yesterday.
God, I have a headache.

Good to see you back here FP - you were conspicuous in your absence!

Is it wrong that Im actually jealous? I can't even get one diagnosis!

So whats going on with you? From what I've read, its really common for DID to be comorbid with other disorders. Is anything you've been told a surprise? I have a whole list of stuff I suspect I could be diagnosed with.

Hope your headache eases soon

I know its confusing right now but maybe this will help DID now has a more narrowed down, precise criteria and symptoms list. what used to be considered a DID or dissociative problem has been changed and added to other mental disorders and dissociative disorders have a criteria that states the problem can not be better explained by another mental disorder.

what that means is each problem a person has now has to be looked at and the treatment provider must decide whether that problem fits in with a dissociative disorder or whether the problem is better explained by another mental disorder...

let me give you an example...

before 2013 any dissociative symptoms I had related to my medications was called dissociation problems. now that symptom has been removed from dissociative symptoms and placed in their own category of medication induced problems (side effects) the result for a while i was a bit confused and upset that my numbness\spaciness from meds was not called dissociation but I had received yet another diagnosis that fits the medication induced symptoms.

another example my dissociation problems due to work stress used to be called a part of my dissociative problems. but now because of the new standards this is now in with the trauma and stress related disorders. since stress better explained my problem I gained a trauma and stress related disorder diagnosis.

it is confusing and heartbreaking\depressing when this happens but the good news is with the new way of diagnosing comes more and better treatment options are now open to you.

talk with your treatment providers they will explain to you the new diagnostic process and how it relates to you and your new diagnosis's

i also do. i find it confusing. i cannot figure out what symptoms are from 'what' diagnoses. i have diagnoses of borderline personality, which i think actually were just symptoms seen over the years indicative of the dissociation/DID because when things are stable, those symptoms do not come up and directly correlate with dissociation. and then diagnoses of dissociation/DID and OCD. i didn't think you could have diagnoses of both borderline AND DID since things can look similar. but i think they had the borderline diagnosis wrong from the start, but once it stuck, it stuck.

i mean, i'm quite an intelligent person, so when i fail to see what symptoms are even borderline, it is very confusing to me. and i know myself best, i'd think too, so it's just weird.

It is very confusing. I think the important thing is to remember you are not your diagnosis or diagnoses. That is part of your life experience, perhaps a big part. But still only a part. Personally, I like certainty and diagnosis isn't always that.

I try to live as best as I can. So when I recently learned of multiple diagnoses at first I was like, "what the heck?" Then I pondered it and it actually made sense.
The diagnoses have helped me understand my past more clearly.

I still have huge memory gaps, but now I know why. That helps.
But part of me hates that this is the situation at all.

I have multiple diagnoses that fit various 'energies' (what we call parts). For eg I suffer anxiety & OCD. Another part has been dx'd with chronic clinical depression. Another part has been dx'd with BPD. Other parts have their own issues/dx's. Could this be what has happened for you?

Just wondering...
Hope your headache eases.
kp

The 'client' who shows up to therapy received all the diagnoses, but the idea that different parts could contain different conditions makes sense.

I have several also. I guess i am used to it because it doesnt bother me anymore, but it used to be really hard for me.

I too have multiple diagnoses and former t said that different diagnoses for different parts was what was going on. It makes sense to me. For example, I have 3 personality disorders: dependent and avoidant and schizoid. How they heck can I be all 3? But I can see that there are dependent parts and schizoid parts and avoidant parts. And there is one part that never has had MDD, but most of the rest sure have been depressed.