DID Question

Hello, can someone tell me how to pronounce this? Do you say each individual letter like 'dee ii dee'? Or do you say it like the word 'did' as in 'I did not eat the last piece of pie'.

Also, what does the acronym stand for?

My daughter's friend was diagnosed with this at age 15. Is that a typical age for it to begin?

Thanks so much.

Dissociative Identity Disorder, I've always heard it pronounced "dee eye dee". It used to be called multiple personality disorder, but that's both somewhat inaccurate and got very sensationalized by TV.

It starts very young, as it develops with severe, sustained early childhood trauma, when a child has no real mentalization capacity yet.

It can begin at any age, I believe.

It's pronounced each letter individually, like you're spelling it.

And it stands for Dissociative Identity Disorder, otherwise known as Multiple Personality Disorder. It's almost always the result of severe abuse in early childhood.

CameraObscure, you beat me to it

From what I have read, severe trauma at a young age is necessary to produce DID. It may just be getting diagnosed at 15, but it is unlikely it just started at 15. [Again, this is just from what I have read, but I have read a lot.]

The art of the cross-post.

Thanks everyone! Do the multiple identities know about each other? This girl keeps getting in trouble at school for not doing her homework or handing in projects but she says she never knew about the homework/project, or didn't know how to do it, because another identity attended the class and she was unaware it even happened or that something was assigned. Is that typical? Do people with DID go through life not knowing what they did throughout the day, or having experiences with people they then have no recollection of? It sounds so difficult and scary for people.

Is there a 'cure' for it?

Having personalities be aware of one another (co-consciousness) often takes a lot of therapy. The dissociative process happens to split off awareness of overwhelming memories and feelings, so amnesia is the root and result of DID. DID is treatable, but it takes a therapist with special training and aptitude, and usually years of work.

It sounds like your daughter's friend is having a rough time of it, I hope she can find a therapist to help her with recovery. It can't be easy handling school and the social and academic issues DID would cause.

It might be good for her friend to do something like home schooling, where someone else keeps track of how she is doing and helps her with her schooling. That has to be so hard to deal with.

As for a cure, that's up for debate. There is "co-consciousness" like CameraObscure says, where they know what each other is doing and can interact among themselves. And there's integration where they merge together. But it's controversial whether that's a positive thing, and some DID people don't want to integrate.

Is she out of the home that caused this abuse? That should really be the first step.

I don't know what the abuse was, if any. I mean, I know it says abuse causes this, but I, personally, don't know of any. I've known this girl since she was a baby, but I know that means nothing. Her mom does not believe the diagnosis and they butt heads a lot. She wants to live with her father but her mother is protesting that. It's certainly difficult.

Can people with it live typical lives and get married and have relationships and such? I mean, I imagine they can, it just must help if others are aware of the DID.

I have had DID since i was about five years old. I am a professional, i have a family, and I have great relationships now. Teenage/ 20's were very very hard for me though, and it took a very healing therapist and a lot of my own hard work to get me to here. I still have lots of times i dont have co consciousness, and mysteries still pop up like "what did some other inside person do all day?" BUT i am in a good place these days.

Yes, of course they can.

But if the diagnosis is correct, she went through a lot of abuse at some point, extreme amounts. It takes a lot to cause DID, often only the most severe cases of abuse cause it, especially sexual abuse (which you wouldn't have noticed knowing her as a baby because it doesn't leave marks where others can see them).

However, there are T's out there who are wrong, or are "fishing" for abuse where none exists. It's possible that's the case, but they are relatively rare. I would say the T knows more about mental health than the mother, and they are probably to be trusted over the mother in that way.

But if the T believes abuse is ongoing (an underage child with DID would send up major red flags), it is required by law (in the USA) that they report the abuse to CPS. Either way, if the daughter says she was abused severely, it is absolutely horrible to say she's wrong or is lying. You can't know what might have happened in their home.

My family looked pretty normal from the outside. Abuse is easy to hide, especially when kids are small. It gets harder to hide as the kids get older. I was about the same age when a teacher figured out I was being abused, although I was extremely good at hiding the DID and no one suspected that until I was in college.

If you know the girl well, you might want to suggest she start making lists so the alters know what the homework assignments are. Also, as she gets older, lists of places she has to be when, and what she needs to buy, so everyone can stay on the same page and get done what needs to be done.

Hazel I assure you I am not saying this girl is wrong or lying. I am saying I don't know anything personally about any abuse. She lives in my neighborhood but I am not close with the family. The girl has said nothing about abuse to me or my daughter, nor has the family. I'm not saying it didn't happen, I am saying I have not been privy to that if it occurred.

If abuse is the only cause for DID then either abuse happened, or the DID diagnosis is wrong. I have no idea which is is.

Hi Austen,

This resource describes the different concepts of dissociation:

Dissociation FAQ’s

Yes, amnesia is typical, but many people don't realize it's happened to them. It is scary to find out you were somewhere or did something but have no recollection of it until the moment you discovered a 'clue' that the event took place.

It's generally accepted that many people with DID have experienced prolonged and/or severe abuse, but that's not always the case. Not only that, but I think some with DID don't remember the abuse as not remembering is a symptom of the disorder itself. Neglect, although often overlooked, is also a form of abuse.

Dissociation may also occur when there has been severe neglect or emotional abuse, even when there has been no overt physical or sexual abuse (Anderson & Alexander, 1996; West, Adam, Spreng, & Rose, 2001). Children may also become dissociative in families in which the parents are frightening, unpredictable, are dissociative themselves, or make highly contradictory communications (Blizard, 2001; Liotti, 1992, 1999a, b).

Take care.

There are people here who seem to have good relationships. I don't understand how they can, but I do believe there are people who really are committed to one another in both health and sickness.

It can be hell, though. I've thought I had, and have had intense fears of having schizophrenia...voices in my head, images of hurting myself. Lately an introject that takes over and feels like it has control over me. My curtains turned into a monster the other night. Depression, anxiety, depersonalization. Cognitive problems. I don't know if my symptoms are from DID, CPTSD, or BPD, since it all blends together anyway, but I do have most of the dissociative issues described on that site.

Is your friend worried about having close relationships? There are alternate times of wellness, so those are the times when people can likely establish relationships. Relationships trigger the symptoms though....

I have DID, but am rarely dissociative to the point of amnesia any more. Like Starry Night, it took a lot of hard work and some very healing therapy to get to where I am today. Also, there is a lot less stress in my life than there was even 10 years ago. I did not know about the DID until I was diagnosed in my early 30's, and was sometimes unaware of losing time. The old joke--"I don't remember having amnesia." I didn't have a lot of day-to-day difficulty with schedules, etc., because one of my alters had the job of staying organized and hiding the DID from myself and others. It can be quite possible to have good relationships. I was married for over 20 years, and I have close friends who are aware of my diagnosis and have been friends for a long time.

I did a lot of reading early on, both books by professionals who treat DID, and by people diagnosed with DID. I found that for the most part, individuals experience their DID in different ways, although there are some commonalities.

My DID, PTSD, and recurrent Major Depression, are all direct results of having been severely abused from the time I was an infant, up until I was in my mid-teens. I have been in therapy off and on (mostly on) for more than 20 years, and am still dealing with unresolved trauma. I also take antidepressants and see a Pdoc in addition to my T. I am at peace with my life, and actually find a lot of joy most of the time. I am not responsible for the abuse, nor I am responsible for the after-effects, but I am responsible for seeking treatment, IMO.

I just wanted to mention that people can do hard work and still not be well. If someone is not well, that doesn't necessarily mean that they are not working hard enough, or it is somehow their conscious fault that they are still suffering.

I absolutely agree. Thanks for saying this.

You sound as if you are second guessing this kid and/or her diagnosis. Why? I'm not saying this in a nasty way, I'm genuinely curious. What difference does it make to your life if either thing is right or wrong?

In reference to your questions about whether people with DID can be cured or have healthy relationships, I think it's impossible to know ahead of time who can or cannot. I do not think I will ever be 'cured' from how separate things are in my head. There is chaos in my head when integration gets discussed. However, I have been married for more than 20 years, and while we've struggled, it has been a good marriage overall and we're in a good place now. I have friendships that have lasted many years as well. I think so much depends on the individual and the nature of the alters and whether some working system can be created for the person to at least function as a cohesive unit on some level.

That's a good point-there is a good bit of variability with functioning. eg, It's not uncommon for extras those with DID to get misdiagnosed with schizophrenia...but that might be an example of a worst case scenario.

I think trying to get insight into a neighbours child is rather intrusive. Plus no one here can give a dx.
People can project their own ideas of what such and such would be like.
.I'm sure your neoghbours will eventually get where they need to be without neighbours working it out for them.