Posted by Toby on January 29, 1999, at 12:10:05
In reply to Re: Abnormal DID/MPD??, posted by Craig on January 29, 1999, at 3:25:31
I have heard countless stories from patients who were told by therapists they had DID/MPD but who demonstrated no signs of it except in the therapist's office. Many of these patients are angry about the time they feel they lost over messing around with this diagnosis rather than addressing their true difficulties.
Why did you originally seek therapy? If you were consciously aware of the times when you acted childlike in the therapist's office (not told about it later) it seems highly likely that this was not an alter, but an attempt on your subconscious level to either please the therapist or to "try it out" to see if the diagnosis really could explain whatever problems you initially went to the therapist for. Many therapists diagnose DID first, before ruling out other treatable illnesses such as depression, bipolar disorder, anxiety or even PTSD if trauma was indeed present. They assume that if any of the symptoms of these other illnesses are present in a person with a history of trauma, that they must represent DID and then focus solely on that one diagnosis (some therapists are such zealots of this diagnosis that they make the diagnosis even without a history of trauma because they firmly believe that trauma is the direct cause of all mental illness and that if the patient denies trauma it is only because the trauma is repressed, not because no trauma actually occurred). As a result, the other problems don't get treated and a whole host of new problems gets created once the patient "learns" how to dissociate into different personalities. DID does indeed exist but there are -usually- other explanations for most people's tendencies to dissociate (such as depression where people tend to concentrate poorly or "zone out" or anxiety where people tend to "feel outside themselves" during panic attacks or PTSD where traumas are relived in flashbacks or mania where people are so irritable or elated for discrete periods of time that loved ones perceive them as "different people"). Those other illnesses can be treated with therapy and medication that directly address the problems rather than focusing on "interesting phenomena" (to the therapist) like alter personalities. For those people who really have DID, it is a very painful experience and I do not wish to belittle them or the brave therapists who treat them, but if this diagnosis seems not to fit what you and your family/friends know about you, please seek a second opinion.
poster:Toby
thread:2737
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/19990101/msgs/2744.html