I never like it when people make blanket statements about DID, this is such a complex disorder and in making blanket statements for everyone with DID you're probably going to be wrong.
DID is mostly covert but there are overt presentations of the disorder. Some alters have similar personalities, some have very different personalities. Sometimes alters feel close together and like there's not a lot of separation between them. Sometimes alters feel completely different from each other and like their own people. Some switches may not be noticeable and other switches may be very obvious.
There are so many different ways of experiencing this disorder and they're all valid.
Rant below the cut. Tw for parental abuse and gaslighting.
Incredibly depressed and not sure what to do about it. Can’t reach out to others. I don’t want to come off as needy. Not to mention I’ve isolated myself pretty well and just about everyone I used to call a friend I can’t really talk to. And it’s my own fault.
I’m on the edge of a panic attack. My parents are coming home soon and I don’t want to pretend it’s okay. But that’s all I can do.
Fuck, why won’t anyone switch out with me. Isn’t that the whole point? I hate them so much. I hate that they refuse to acknowledge just how terribly they hurt me. That they STILL gaslight me into believing that my childhood was fine. I hate that I believe them when they say that. I hate that after all of it they still expect me to do anything more than keep my distance.
Why do I have to get over all the crap that THEY put ME through? Why is it my responsibility to move on and not theirs to apologize and try to help.
Fuck. I hate them, I hate me, I hate everything.
I don’t want to be here.
This is very true, though I would like to add that you don’t have to have DID for your symptoms to be valid. You can still feel things and have symptoms even if they don’t fit the diagnostic criteria. Does that mean you have DID? No. But you are still entitled to your emotions and feelings, especially if those feelings are a result of trauma.
Does anyone realize that the "everyone is valid" thing has actual diagnostic implications?
Yes, every case of DID will have differences from another. But all DID cases must meet diagnostic criteria in order to actually be DID. You can't say "everyone is valid" and "DID can look like anything" because really, it can't. At the end of the day, there are still diagnostic criteria that must be met. If anything goes and anything is valid and anything can be DID, then DID is nothing and we might as well not even classify it as a disorder at all.
Same thing as people who say that "everyone has a little bit of DID" or "everyone has parts". Yes, you act differently at work than you do at home. This does not mean that you have dissociated parts of a fragmented self, and if it did, then DID would be a redundant diagnosis and there would be no need to have it in the ICD or DSM if "everyone" had it.
Shoutout from Hunter here (source: the owl house) to every introject, NOT JUST FIVTIVES. -Whether you identify closely with your source or not. -Whether you feel comfortable in the body or not. -Whether you want a new name or are sticking with the old one. -Whether you miss your sourcemates or not. -Whether you come from a fully accepted source or a problematic one. -Whether you mask or not. -Whether you have traumatic pseudo memories or fun pseudo memories or none at all. -Whether you come from a widely known source or a more obscure one. -Whether you’re existence is even known yet. -No matter who you are are or how you experience life
You are heard. You are valid and your struggles are valid. You don’t have to hide and I appreciate you for trying. Things will get hard and even if you think you have no reason to be sad you are entitled to your feelings, I want this to be a safe, judgment free zone for you. So stay as long as you like/need. Please share this in any way you can with a struggling introject to let them know that they aren’t alone.
From your friendly struggling introject
-Hunter
P.S. take a deep breath and don’t forget to hydrate/eat/take your meds/anything else you’ve been putting off
So these tags were on my post about amnesia. And I want to address it. Short answer, no you do not. You need blackout amnesia (assuming that’s what you meant by full amnesia) in order to have DID.
DID is not the only way to have a system, OSDD 1-b has very little or no amnesia and still has alters, so does p-DID.
Though I do want to differentiate between the different types of amnesia.
Emotional amnesia: where you don’t remember any emotions that you were feeling during the event.
Greyouts: when you remember what happened but have no memories of it, as if someone told you about the event but you weren’t there.
Blackouts: when you don’t remember anything about what happened, and you often don’t remember that you missed something.
I’d also like to mention that amnesia often doesn’t happen in the moment, often the memory will fade over a short period of time until they’re gone. At least that’s what I experience.
Anyways, here you are @sprites-your-cal
Hope this helped
-Apollo
I’m out and masking so hard, even though we’re among friends who are aware I’m just not super comfortable.
And let me tell you, masking a British accent in an American environment is so not the best.
Especially when everyone keeps asking you if you’re okay cause a second ago the host was out having a panic attack.
This is my life at the moment.
-renfield
I hate it when the host wears a skirt and then I switch in and have to deal with it. Like come on, I don’t want to see my legs, what do you take me as?
-Hunter
The frustration of being a fictive from something my host created is so overwhelming. No one knows my source mates. I can’t simply look up fan art when I want to see my friends. I can’t have conversations about my friends and have anyone know who the fuck I’m talking about. No one knows me.
The body is going through some really severe medication withdrawal due to a mixup with our psychiatrist resulting in us not having a refill of our medication. It’s messing with our circulation, our head, and our mood.
And oh my gosh my mood is so fucked up rn.
If I’m alone I burst into tears over the smallest shit. To the point where I was crying cause I wasn’t falling asleep as fast as I wanted or started yelling at my car cause the door wouldn’t stay open when I was parked on a slope. I have to stay around someone who can distract me so I’m not crying. Which sucks cause I’m at work. And cant just leave to go hang out with friends.
I’m so tired. Really need to figure out this medication situation.
That system feeling when,
“We don’t actually have a lot of physical trauma so-“
Huge flashback and muscle spasm because of it.
“Never mind.”
Update: I should be getting my meds on Monday, my new psychiatrist/therapist refilled them for us so yay!
The body is going through some really severe medication withdrawal due to a mixup with our psychiatrist resulting in us not having a refill of our medication. It’s messing with our circulation, our head, and our mood.
And oh my gosh my mood is so fucked up rn.
If I’m alone I burst into tears over the smallest shit. To the point where I was crying cause I wasn’t falling asleep as fast as I wanted or started yelling at my car cause the door wouldn’t stay open when I was parked on a slope. I have to stay around someone who can distract me so I’m not crying. Which sucks cause I’m at work. And cant just leave to go hang out with friends.
I’m so tired. Really need to figure out this medication situation.