Question

[hanna-grace.livejournal.com]

Can DID have an adult onslaught even if the personality was created as the result of childhood abuse? I have gotten conflicting answers about this question. I have a friend who wasn't diagnosed with DID until she was a teenager in high school, but it's suspected that she had other personalities before they were actually identified. She doesn't know if she ever dissociated before age 14. Is this possible? I mean, does it fit the clinical diagnostics or is there something fishy about her story?

I personally do not suffer from DID or multiplicity, but I know two people who have claimed the disorder (sorry if it seems that I'm skeptical, I just like to keep my words true). My heart goes out to whoever does, though, and I find the disorder very interesting. I'm looking forward to answers to my questions.

Comments

I see

[hanna-grace.livejournal.com]

Thanks. I think she actually has it. Sorry that I appear to be a troll. I'm just a creative writing student, using something that I find interesting to get a little bit of creative writing out. Hopefully you saw my disclaimer.

The girl in question was treated for her disorder over the course of 4 years and according to her fully integrated and now doesn't really care to think much about that episode of her life. Is it possible that a person with DID can be cured in 4 years?

[shandra.livejournal.com]

To answer the question straight up, when people start to ask "is this possible" or "is this fishy?" I always sort of wonder about their motivation in asking.

Is your friend generally truthful? Are you looking for a reason to disbelieve her? Do you want to believe that people who are abused are never affected? Are you being asked to support her in some way that is uncomfortable for you?

As a friend, lover, or relative you have a right to be treated with respect and dignity, and you have a right not to be put into uncomfortable situations like being asked for money or constantly called at awful hours of the night. If you need to set boundaries with someone, set them.

In terms of "adult onset" (which is what I think you mean, even if it can feel like an onslaught; if you're a creative writing student you might want to be careful with words) DID, the traditional, trauma-based model holds that MOST people are not aware of their multiplicity until well into their adult years, because the trauma is so effectly suppressed and the dissociation is so profound.

Almost any literature on the subject will cover that.

So it's not the onset of "when someone became multiple" but when they became aware of it (selves-aware). And then, of course, yes, the people/personalities would have been there since whenever they came to be there - in talking about childhood trauma, in childhood. Again this is very very very basic stuff here.

If you're creating a parody to make fun of people, as it seems you are, it would be a better parody if you did some research; of course the risk is that you might find that people you're treating so disrespectfully are both more articulate and more intelligent than you thought.

[crystalseraph.livejournal.com]

I don't quite see the point of your lj exercise. Are you going to write poor sendups of other minority groups? What about illnesses! I'm sure a mock-journal based on Hashimoto's Disorder would be hi-larious. Or AIDs. You could even pretend to be gay, just to make it even more 'authentic'!

I agree with Shandra and stray_girl, otherwise. Multiplicity has had too many trolls, lately.

[cactus-guys.livejournal.com]

We don't see it as 'suffering with' anything. The only thing we 'suffer' with is being forced to take a female body from time to time, and that's much preferable to being integrated, which seems like a euphemism for 'destroyed'.

Andy ♥

[cactus-guys.livejournal.com]

andy, has her journal been deletd? i clicked to look... says it's gone... naah. she was only a troll anyway, the less the better in me opinion. =)
pete

[cactus-guys.livejournal.com]

she wasn't saying she were multiple... she said friends were and that... i dunno, out of it here. but read it properley, love. she didn't say she was multiple, she said a friend was. if youre saying she's multiple and just not admitting it, go take it up with her.

pete

[sethrenn.livejournal.com]

I note the OP's journal is now deleted.

I didn't think she was a troll (although admittedly I did not get to read her userinfo before she deleted her LJ-- what was in it?), just someone who hadn't bothered to do any research and came off condescending/insulting as a result. (Read the userinfo, read the userinfo... seriously, is it too long? Should we focus on making it shorter?)

-Lilac

[tej-agni.livejournal.com]

your journal has been BALEETED!!!!

*LiSa*

[eridanusus.livejournal.com]

I have a friend who wasn't diagnosed with DID until she was a teenager in high school, but it's suspected that she had other personalities before they were actually identified.

LOL. That's like saying someone who's just been diagnosed with cancer didn't have it until it was identified. Those pesky diagnoses, creating illness out of thin air!

[tej-agni.livejournal.com]

rlol!!!!!!!!!!!!

*LiSa*