✨Possibly triggering✨ What if DID, was actually……………

was caused by, being programmed in a cult as a child.

@Citrine22 I am not really familiar with DID. Do you feel like you have some of the symptoms?

CANDC

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@CANDC No, I am not DID. I grew up in a cult, until I was sixteen, when I was kicked out, for being too difficult. I did not know about my cult background until
I was around 45, after many years of therapy.
One of the people who has helped me heal, is an intuitive energy worker.. She told me years ago, that she thought that people with DID, had it programmed into them in a cult. The reason, I did not have DID was, I was not that programmable..
The energy worker says, anyone who has DID, was programmed in a cult. I have come to believe recently, she is correct.

This is interesting. My parents were immigrants and very invested in holding onto the old ways. "In this house it's the old country." A set of puzzling beliefs with no regard for my reality, so i had to turn myself away. I never thought of it as a cult before but the concept does explain a lot.

There are a few other mental disorders in the Diagnostic manuals that address cults. Dissociative Identity Disorder is not one of them.

if you read diagnostic manuals, you will see that in order to be diagnosed with Dissociative Identity Disorder the symptoms, problems and behaviors cannot be because of -

1. Drugs, alcohol,
2. other physical and mental health conditions, disorders,
3. imaginary friends (some USA states call imaginary friends fictives, factives, cosplay, role playing, fan fiction)
4. cultural and religious practices.

As for the "what if" in your post title -

when I am working on my dissociative issues or think about my dissociative issues I don't think in terms of "what if" my disorders were not what they really are. or "what if" my disorder criteria included things it does not include.

my reality testing remains intact with my dissociative issues.

That means when I am dealing with my dissociative issues or thinking about my dissociative issues, I deal with how they are right now in the moment, not "what if" this or "what if" that.

I have been dissociative my whole lifetime due to trauma in very early childhood. so, I already know what my triggers are and what dissociation feels like, there's no need for me to "what if".

for me and my reality remains intact thinking about my disorders is -

ok Im feeling this. This is whats happening physically in my brain. I am reacting to this trigger, Now what do I need to do in order to get grounded, present, more focused and aware so that I am no longer dissociating.

then I follow through with doing my grounding, therapy work that brings me into being grounded and present instead of dissociating.

"What if's" don't figure into my thinking process around my mental disorders nor my therapy program that my therapist and I am doing (IFS which is similar if not the same as AIR Network Therapy)

my suggestion - if I remember right from your other posts, you are in a reality-based therapy also that is similar to IFS.

talk with your treatment providers. explain to them you are interested in a disorder you stated in your post that you do not have,

then they can provide you with what you need so that you can learn about the differences between the disorders you are interested in vs what you are diagnosed with.

They can explain to you why some disorders in diagnostic manuals do not include cult issues in the disorders criteria.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Citrine22 @CANDC No, I am not DID. I grew up in a cult, until I was sixteen, when I was kicked out, for being too difficult. I did not know about my cult background until I was around 45, after many years of therapy. One of the people who has helped me heal, is an intuitive energy worker.. She told me years ago, that she thought that people with DID, had it programmed into them in a cult. The reason, I did not have DID was, I was not that programmable.. The energy worker says, anyone who has DID, was programmed in a cult. I have come to believe recently, she is correct.

@Citrine22 I hear you. Growing up in a cult or joining a cult can be very traumatic. I have met people diagnosed with DID and many of them have experienced trauma in their youth.

It may be that people traumatized by a cult could become afflicted with DID but it is also possible that other mental health condtiions could result. A lot depends on the individual and their personality.

Glad you were able to get free of the cult and come to terms with it.

CANDC

[If you want me to see your reply to this post please include @CANDC in your message - not in requoting my message]

I know a licensed marriage and family therapist in San Francisco, a much older woman, whose speciality is treating DID and specifically working with adults who, as kids, were traumatized in a cult. Yes, this kind of upbringing often results in DID, per her. No, not everyone who has DID was programmed in a cult. That your energy worker says something like this makes me suspect that she lacks proper grounding in mental health (which is not surprising for an "energy worker"). That she helped you is astounding and great news, but take what she tells you about the provenance of mental health disorders with more than a grain of salt: she lacks qualifications and training to give expert opinions in these matters. It takes years to get trained and licensed to practice therapy, and specializing in DID is an extra step on top of that.

For a very interesting account of finding DID in a woman who was not raised in a cult, please check out this book by a renowned Canadian therapist:

Good Morning, Monster
A Therapist Shares Five Heroic Stories of Emotional Recovery
By: Catherine Gildiner (@MuddyBoots, if you can get this book from a library, I recommend it to you too)

There are other stories there, one more fascinating than the next, and just one of them is about DID. An excellent read (or a listen, on Audible).

Very glad to hear that you have healed and definitely it was a fortunate occasion that you and the energy healer crossed paths, so I am not discounting how she helped YOU, I am just warning that her sweeping generalizations are not in accord with the opinions of experts in the field.

I just remembered one more thing about the DID case in Good Morning, Monster

When the author, a highly experienced therapist, started suspecting DID, she reached out to someone more knowledgeable in the area of DID. This just shows how much of a specialization (and a big challenge!!) the DID treatment is.

Some of it os. For instance, me,

Hi Jesla,
Did not understand, your comment? What does os, mean?
Thank you🙂