[rise13eyond]

OK I'm gonna try and type this out in some sort of coherent order, because it's really just a bunch of connected thoughts that make sense to me but probably not anyone else like that.
Anyway to start off I was diagnosed with a few separate issues years ago, just getting that out of the way. And I've been seeing a therapist for many years for many things. Now normally I like having a diagnosis, it's nice to have a name for something, it's nice to be able to find resources for that specifically and it connects to other people with it. But when it comes to the DID (or OSDD I'm not a mental health professional so I can't say one way or the other) I'm really hesitant to get one. My therapist said she could give one but so far none of us in the system have really wanted it. And here's why...
Some kind of problems arise with or without that diagnosis. Most of us talk to the same people so many people are aware of all of us, however none of us explicitly tell everyone everything. It doesn't go over well with everyone. We've had people outright tell us never to contact them because of it. You know some people will reject you because they believe you (I guess they have some warped image of DID?) but then you also get people who reject you because they don't.
This actually happens mostly with people who've been formally diagnosed with it. They hate any sort of "self diagnosis". Which isn't something I'm huge on. And non of us can claim to be experts on the subject, but we all know what we experience and we know we all exist. Yet some of these people refuse to let us anywhere near their little community without something official.
But like said before we've all declined one because we don't want everyone knowing. Having an official diagnosis would mean other people would find out. It would go on important legal documents. We have SSI right now and they would probably find out...which in turn makes it possible for family to find out and just all kinds of stuff. Maybe it's one of those things you worry about that isn't as bad as you think it will be. Dunno. But we, most of all me, are still afraid of it, because you know...some people are well judgmental jerks about it.
Again without one we still run into problems. I have one "friend" who will only talk to me, none of the others. In fact she says I can't talk about them, or anything related to them....she refuses to acknowledge whats going on until we have an official diagnosis.
I think I might have gone a bit off topic, but there it is.

[kecanoe]

I find it difficult to tell people that I have DID. I have a service dog-he alerts when I dissociate and people are very curious, nosy even, about why I have the dog. I sometimes describe dissociation as a normal thing (like forgetting why you went to the kitchen) that I do to an extreme. Occasionally someone that asks will clearly know what dissociation is. But I still don't share that I have DID. I think that many don't understand it and others don't believe in it.


With that said, I do have an official diagnosis. But I don't think that the official diagnosis gets spread around. My insurance company knows that one of my Ts is treating me for DID. But other Ts have used codes for stuff that I don't have. I have never had a problem with the fact that the insurance company thinks I have a whole bunch of stuff that I don't actually have.

[rise13eyond]

Originally Posted by kecanoe

I find it difficult to tell people that I have DID. I have a service dog-he alerts when I dissociate and people are very curious, nosy even, about why I have the dog. I sometimes describe dissociation as a normal thing (like forgetting why you went to the kitchen) that I do to an extreme. Occasionally someone that asks will clearly know what dissociation is. But I still don't share that I have DID. I think that many don't understand it and others don't believe in it.


With that said, I do have an official diagnosis. But I don't think that the official diagnosis gets spread around. My insurance company knows that one of my Ts is treating me for DID. But other Ts have used codes for stuff that I don't have. I have never had a problem with the fact that the insurance company thinks I have a whole bunch of stuff that I don't actually have.

Ah yeah I guess aside from mental health professionals and insurance companies I guess no one else has to know. Honestly it's how the people we live with could respond. This get's kinda messy and complicated. None of us are quite sure how long we've been around because we haven't pinned that down. the host spent a long time denying while all the rest of us were trying to figure out what was going on. Because having DID? that couldn't ever happen to me. Although the host has experienced dissociation without complete memory loss for as long as he can remember (kinda lacks many memories from before the age of 12). BUT not all us had been around since then. Gosh that's getting off topic.
Anyway like in the original post we could run into the problem of not being liked or wanted, which would suck for obvious reasons. But most of us feel it would be equally as bad if the host's mother and stepdad flat out didn't believe it. We don't mind keeping it all hush hush but we don't like it when someone denies our existence or the trauma we went through. They have met all of us without knowing it. But you see the host's mother is a bit of a psychology nerd. Psychology was her favorite subject, so much that she has a masters in school counseling, basically she's familiar with this kind of thing. And the fear here is that she or other people could fail to believe us because we might not fit the mold in every way.

[Amyjay]

Hi and welcome.It sounds like you are most concerned about sharing a DID diagnosis with others and how they might react to it.
I was officially diagnosed with DID just over a year ago. The only people who know are my psychiatrist and my psychologist. I don't need or want to tell anyone else. So instead of worrying about whether others will leave or stay you could just not tell them if you want. Nobody needs to know if you don't want them to. I don't even tell my PCP. She doesn't need to know either.

[rise13eyond]

Originally Posted by Amyjay

Hi and welcome.It sounds like you are most concerned about sharing a DID diagnosis with others and how they might react to it.
I was officially diagnosed with DID just over a year ago. The only people who know are my psychiatrist and my psychologist. I don't need or want to tell anyone else. So instead of worrying about whether others will leave or stay you could just not tell them if you want. Nobody needs to know if you don't want them to. I don't even tell my PCP. She doesn't need to know either.

Mm yeah I suppose that is the problem here. Well the worry anyway. And I'm well aware that a worry is just that, but it doesn't make it go away. The thing is, it would just be so much easier to explain things or just be able to open up...My mom knows me and she did notice my alters behave different from me but she doesn't know why. It's just be nice to be able to explain some of the things that make us different from each other. I absolutely love socks but Beyond hates them, just as an example. I can't really speak much for him or any of the others but I'll bet you anything they'd like to be acknowledged for who they are. In any case right now would be a horrible time to bring it up, my family just has so much going on right now.