It's not just from 6 to 9 years old. Those of us who were abused as infants also can have DID/OSDD. The thing is that the trauma has to happen prior to the integration of the personality, which typically happens between the ages of 6 and 9, and before the age of 10 years old. Alters can also be fantasy figures, animals, or even inanimate objects - not just other human people. Thank you for giving this talk.
this is true. we developed this before six, so when things went really bad, we already had a way to deal with it. we were labelled a genius. now we are completely dependent on other people what a waste..
I heard that too. I think he meant that it’s cemented during that time. I could be wrong. Mine started at infancy as well. So it would be interesting to see his answer to this.
I am so glad Tedx Talks did a video about Dissociative Identity Disorder. The looks and comments I get when I tell people that I have DID. Is very hard to take sometimes. I just have to remind myself people just do not know.
Although I do not have DID, I find it interresting and I have a freind who does. It enlightens me so much whenever somebody steps fowards and opens up, Screw the people who don't understand, all of you have an fascinating and unique thing. Don't ever let that go, any of you
We too have DID. I as the main fronting alter am always open about our mental health struggles. However only 8 people who are super close to us know we have DID.
Finding out so much about my life, my DID, organized abuse along with organized abuse with technology and human/child trafficking also different forms of abuse Ive went through since childhood. Alot of which my core personality knew absolutely nothing about. Im still coming to come to grasp with it all.....what a mid life experience im going through. The scariest thing about DID is that there are parts of me that know things and that knows certain people. Different people that are all totally different. So different that I was out at the store one day and this guy was waiving at me then he was trying to flag me down. I could tell this man knew me but I had no clue who he was. That wasnt the first time that happened but that time that person stood out because he really wanted to talk to me. Strange yet eye opening.
This is honestly such a relief to see someone out there who openly talks about DID and is willing to teach others who don’t understand. I myself have DID and it’s rare that I find people who understand or are willing to accept that I have it. Please keep doing talks like this and continue to educate others you’re doing such a great job.
something really interesting and subtle i noticed is that fox only spoke with one hand / no hands and then the times that ros speaks they use both hands
I have did and i do love my alters :') my family was abusive and neglectful and my alters formed from my trauma and became the family i needed and helped take care of me.
Same. But I lost them as I grew older and learned to handle pain a little better. I’m still very mich stuck in my mind and can’t escape my escapist tendencies.
@@yoongimin2907 I haven't told the host's mom about this until we get diagnosed with DID, there are 30 of us and I'm making sure we talk to only a couple of people and get advice etc from an expert who's helped many people who have D.I.D too. I'm sorry your mother thinks you're faking it (I'm an alter the host hasn't been in control for months)
I was diagnosed with DID when I was 15 almost, medications by themselves never worked, except for the depression symptoms. Since I started therapy, in a therapy center that uses multiple and integrated approaches to mental care, Im rising and recognizing myself more and more as the year pass. The process is long. I won’t tell how many times I was about to leave because it was to hard to face emotions wich ‘i don’t want to touch’ (it’s hard to explain), or faking I wasn’t having troubles with my sense of self. Before therapy I attempted suicide, tried to mess my brain with drugs and physical mutilation, I was vomiting and restricting food every day in my life. I wasn’t able to realize what was good and bad to myself. Now I started studying again, Im in my 2nd year in Psychological studies at the University, I don’t starve myself anymore, learned that taking care of myself was not by isolation of emotive parts, but living. Im in an healthy and not abusive relationship for the first time, after years with people psychologically and physically abusing me. I feel like a child sometimes discovering the world, people, situations, for the first time. There still are not enough reports and voices from people having diagnosis on them. They’re not your story. Your symptoms neither. Your story is now, and has different perspectives, thank you for your words
Yeah, we're thirty and have been diagnosed last year...Definitely feels like we're a bunch of traumatized little children sometimes, having to learn what's healthy and "normal" and how to trust our perception
Seeing them switch so easily and quickly was so interesting to me. I don’t have DID/OSDD but I’ve been learning about it for over a year, mainly through TH-cam, and I’ve never seen such a smooth switch, especially when there wasn’t a trigger to cause it. I know a lot of systems aren’t very comfortable switching in front of others so I also find this very brave of them :)
I saw one switch go that smoothly on an interveiw and they said it was only easy because they were co conscious and they said switches are different from everyone
Ours can go like that a lot of the time. Though it's exhausting regardless, the better the communication, the smoother the transition is able to go, in our experience. If someone's co-conscious it is soooo much easier for us than if someone comes up to front who has no clue what we were doing prior to that. Think of it as like an airplane cockpit-- if the pilot needed a break, the co-pilot would be vastly more capable of smoothly switching places with them than someone who was sitting elsewhere in the plane, even if that person had piloting experience.
It really depends on the system. Me and our cohost can switch pretty easily because we had to be able to do that. But me and others take minutes to hours to switch properly. It all depends how much dissociation there is between you guys and the roles each of you take in the system (but remember that roles dont define someone as theyre very 2d and not always a great way to describe a person)
I was diagnosed with DID two months ago. We've been stressing about the concept of "Integration" because it's difficult to comprehend not existing. We had no idea there were other options. The last two months have been very, very difficult. Realizing that I, personally don't know what happened and how this happened is ridiculously hard to cope with. The fact that the alters that speak to me don't know all of the trauma scares me. The fact that there is little to no information about this online, and when there is it's sparse is terrifying. The fact that no support groups exist (that I could find) and that many mental illness sites don't even state it as a disorder makes me scared that I wont be taken seriously. But the fact that this is the first I've heard of someone coming to talk about their experiences, it makes me thankful that they did. I've been struggling mostly at the moment (and after watching this, I've realized that this is definitely because of the stigma surrounding DID) with the concept of "somehow I'm faking this" and "I'm not crazy" and "This is ridiculous" etc etc. Hearing about someone else's experiences are helping to validate the fact that what I am going through is real. Down to the "it's like having roomates in one space" and "thoughts that you hear with other's voices, because they are different people" Thank you for this. Thank you so, so very much.
If you are looking for more DID information I recommend the youtube channels MultiplicityAndMe, DissociaDID, and The Entropy System. They are all channels made by systems who share their experiences and also do educational stuff about DID. They have a big focus about ending stigma, so hopefully they can help you realise that DID doesn't mean that "you're crazy". I wish you all the best :)
@@hummingbird4932 warning to others; dissociadid is a little problematic (im not gonna go into it. You can look it up yourself) and can be a bit controversial in the community
I'm 51 years old ,trained therapist in process and have d i d and now I accept this. I have decided to focus on what helped and helps me and work with this , to help others. On ya, and empathy training and self care.
I don't have DID but I heard an interesting metaphor once; the trauma forces a child's mind to fragment into different identities/alters so that the crushing weight of the trauma can be carried by multiple people and one person does not have to carry that burden by themselves. I think it makes a lot of sense; usually you will go to other people to share the weight of something traumatic, but if you cannot go to other people for support and there is NOBODY, then your brain makes more people to be there for you.
@@UNOwen-pe1bj exactly. I realized recently, that Sorrow, one I had not be very aware of, has handled the bulk of the grief. I actually believe I am an alter and Pixie is the core/child. She seems untouched by much of it. So I guess it has been working.
Very grateful this talk was done. Thank you. I have DID. It’s been a long and hurtful trip in the psychiatric system, both beforehand after getting diagnosed. Unfortunately for me, where I was diagnosed, (a hospital) I was made to feel shameful and was met with anger when I couldn’t get my alters to come out and talk to anyone, or wasn’t sure what/who was going on inside. This ended with me having fabrications tied to my very real alters that I had made in order to please the doctors, that took me years to sort out. Now though, we know who we are. And I’m very grateful for that.
You're so brave to talk about this. We've been diagnosed for two years and still we're scared to talk about our condition and it's origins because we're scared people will laugh at us and abuse us even more.
You might consider joining "The Plural Association AlterNation Dissociative Identity Disorder Support" group on Facebook. Anyone who is plural, or identifies as such, is welcome, and everyone is so nice there!
There's a small miscommunication in this video. Not all alters are three dimensional and entirely they're own person. There are what are known to be fragments, identities in a system that do not have their own thoughts, personalities, ect, and only exist for specific reasons such as to hold trauma memories, to handle specific tasks, respond to specific triggers. Just some extra information to go along with whats provided in the video.
I, myself, don't have DID but I've been doing a lot of research on it to try to better understand it. It really really fascinates me and it's actually making me think of studying psychological disorders like this in college.
Thank you for sharing. Every person with DID sharing helps others suffering to deal with it and to people observing understand better. It is not often that you see a system so well communicating. I am working with my husband on daily basis and we managed to get pretty much as close as you are communicating in between the fragments but never ever really saw someone being so far with it so it is very nice to see we are not alone working on this. Your talk definitely gives people hope. Much love to all of you in there :-)
It takes a brave person to talk about deeply personal info on a public platform. All forms of mental illness need to be destigmatized. Too many suffer in silence
I suffered from extreme schizophrenia when i was little and couldn't handle it on my own. I suffered many traumas after that and my alters have been with me forever. we have a beautiful system with 9 alters :) Im so glad it is finally being talked about.
That was the BEST most informative talk I’ve heard about this . Thank you. My best friend just committed suicide. We lived 2000 miles apart. She was terribly abused as a child (every day was violent). She never talked about it until we were good friends for a few years (we were friends 51 years). She opened up slowly. She had CPTSD ...but that diagnosis wasn’t around then. She had bouts of depression, would “shutdown” and resurface some months later. She had symptoms if bipolar (extreme high ...and energy...only to fall flat again). Here’s the thing...she sometimes became in a moment (it seemed) another person...with a different personality. I tried once to tell her my observation but she seemed to dismiss it. I see that the little bit you’ve said might’ve been similar to her way of dealing with life. She denied herself of having much ...she was strikingly beautiful & attracted many but she told me she had no real friends except me. She said recent years the depression was getting worse. Last year she gave away everything & was going to swim out into the ocean until she was too weak to swim back. She made a phone call to a sympathetic employer who asked her to stop over . That saved her. She promised me she’d never do that again. This year she went off the pier at night & her body was found 4 days later. I’m heartbroken 💔 that I didn’t KNOW...i missed things....fully expecting her to resurface ...now all our long talks...our massive love ❤️ for each other...just gone. I’ve tried to “sense” her around in spirit....asked God to heal her completely, give her a place very high up there & give her all the love all the time possible. Thank you once again.
It's refreshing to see a system so similar to ours be so open about it. The little girl who used to be around for most of our childhood is also no longer around, leaving us in control. We've also worked our butts off to achieve good communication. I've had dreams about giving a presentation like this (probably without the switching- having that happen in front of people still feels like being caught changing or smth) thank you for giving this talk. It's reaching people even now, years later, who need to see it. I hope you're still doing well.
Respect to you, Roswell Ecker. It took me years to tell my mother about my DID. Our host (I'm the original but not the host) had to up and tell my parents herself.
Wow, I am just blown away by the courage they all must have. They make a great team together. All "disorders" should be more accurately described as adaptations. Like "Dissociative Identity Adaptation" and "Complex Post Traumatic Stress Adaptation". "Disorders" implies there is a lack of order, while "adaptation" suggests the brain is plastic. Actually, I changed my mind. We should let the people who theses terms describe to name themselves. Just like how we let other marginalized community name themselves.
Legion93 yeah but by your same line of reasoning, that individual has every right to be upset if they’re ignored. I do agree that it’s in their own best interest to not expect that they’ll be listened to. But it’s understandable to feel upset regardless.
Thank you so much for this talk! I was diagnosed with PTSD and OSDD in my mid-twenties, following a mental breakdown, and it's taken me literal DECADES to accept the idea that I really DO, in fact, have alters and I wasn't just imagining it or 'falsely' claiming the people in my 'team' were not me just for the 'kudos.' It's not hard to fall into this kind of denial, particularly with the advent of TH-cam and those creators whose content revolves around them having DID. So many of them turn the condition almost into a kind of cosplay show - I appreciate they want to draw in viewers, and part of doing that IS to give them something 'interesting' to watch, but it seems like so many of them, when they 'switch,' do it almost like a Jekyll-and-Hyde thing; their voice completely changes, their mannerisms, their whole persona - some of them even dress differently and do wildly different make-up and hairstyles, depending on who's 'fronting.' While my people are definitely very different from each other, they don't have this urge to completely transform into themselves if/when they 'front' - if my middle-aged male alter comes forward, for example, he's not suddenly horrified he's wearing womens' clothes and desperate to run off and change into a man-shirt and cordrouys ASAP. This is what made me believe for a long time that I couldn't possibly have an identity disorder - precisely because there was no urge to 'transform' to 'match' whichever alter who was driving (at least, not as far as I know.) It was reassuring to see that, when you switched to another alter, your voice and mannerisms didn't dramatically change - that's much more like my experience than many of the DID TH-camrs. I have since learned that there are two types of ID systems; 'covert' and 'overt.' I'd definitely put us in the former category; we don't want the whole world knowing our secret, so it's in our own interests to always appear to be only one person, even if that means acting a role (and some of us are better at pulling that off than others!) The 'overt' ones are, I guess, those aforementioned TH-cam creators. And yes, Hollywood has a LOT to answer for in its depiction of identity disorders. The only one I think got close to it was, surprisingly, Peter Jackson's 'The Two Towers' movie from the Lord of The Rings trilogy, in that scene with Gollum and Smeagol arguing with each other. I still remember watching that scene and thinking "YES! That's it! THAT'S how it feels when you're in a fight with one of your alters!"
He’s the only person I’ve heard discuss integration. And I like how he closed with reminding people to listen to their children, not listening to kids or being too busy to see what’s under your nose is perpetuating a lot of this trauma. Parents please check in and know most victims are in your own home and by hurt by someone you know. It is pervasive.
This is so well expressed and so interesting. Thank you, Ros, for your courage and strength and for bringing this very important topic to our attention.
It is so interesting that Maddie is not a main alter anymore since they were born into the body, but now don't come out often and leave it mostly up to the other alters. From what I've seen, the original alter seems to remain one of the main ones fronting most of the time, but in this situation it's like an entirely new person took over the body. Maddie replaced themself with someone else who could survive better in their body. It's astonishing what the body and mind are capable of. This was such a great TED talk!
We don't think that's actually that uncommon. The more we get to know ourselves, the more, thinking back, we realize that our "original" wasn't fronting as often as they previously believed they were. They often remain co-conscious, or semi co-conscious, but we feel that may largely be due to their still having a very difficult time accepting that this is and has been our reality.
That whole therapy thing is like...such a grey area because like, you don't want to be with a therapist who doesn't want to work with your illness because they could say horrible things, do horrible things, and like, make your illness worse but also...it just seems wrong for a therapist to pick and choose who they want to help and that just...that just doesn't sit well. Because I mean, it could leave people suffering their whole lives because no one wants to help them... But also, this was amazing in terms of explaining things.
A huge thank you for giving this talk! DID and OSDD are very often stigmatised and misunderstood so I‘m very glad for videos like this who take part in breaking down the stigma! Thank you very much, you are brave!
Yea...we recently came out with our system and is been both scary and relieving because our roommate is amazing but in public its terrifying. Our alters are so different
The key is forgetting the movie Sybil. Accept people for where they are at and just let them be, whomever that should be. Its more common than people realize being dissociated into different states or parts. Everything is disconnected inside the person. Thoughts, feelings and memories. Nothing is one and the thoughts, feelings and memories each formed a life of their own. Thats all it is.
I agree that people should be accepted as they are. Your explanation of DID and OSDD isn't quite correct, though. Alters, fragments, and parts can be fictives and even inanimate objects, too, and not all have feelings and memories, per se.
I would like to thank all within system for helping others out there to understand. This should be seen by all therapists and in general by anybody so they understand it better. Me personally I've and the name of being eclectic and excentric due to people not understanding or believing. Thanks again
When my psychiatrist fired me not one single therapist would not take me on with my history and diagnosis of DID. What really triggered all the memories that I didn't have access to was when a counsellor was doing inner child therapy to get to my PTSD. I'm older now, and don't really share myself with anyone. Nobody to share myself with that cares to listen. Basically just waiting to go Home to Heaven when all this will be over finally.
very eye opening...especially the daddy part.It's important to keep an open mind to all different kinds of people and this TH-cam channel does just that. Ive learned a lot from listening to peoples stories on here
Thank you so so much for talking out about this. I have DID and integration is something doctor who does med management is trying to force on our system. Thank you thank you!
This talk stated that DID is caused by trauma between ages 6 to 9, but actually it takes trauma *before* age 6 to 9. The cut-off is usually age 6, up to age 9 to account for those with developmental delays. This is because the personality is fully integrated by age 6 to 9, so DID cannot form after this integration into one personality. (According to structural dissociation, backed by research.) Otherwise great talk, thank you to the speaker.
It feels so strange hearing about other people's experiences with DID, I so far know of about 6 IDs in my system but for me it isn't like I'm able to "talk" or communicate with my other "moods". Only 2 or 3 of them have names different from our birth name and all I notice when it comes to "switching" is that my most recent memories are from 2-3 weeks ago or going by my chat history that my approach to other people has taken a complete 180* from the day before. I think part of the reason for all of this might be that I still connect DiD with "being insane" or it being seen as such by others, so even though there are some real telltale signs I suffer some sort of dissociation disorder or DID I'm still subconciously denying it because I fear I'll be ostracized
My husband has DID and I fully accept and support him. Him and his alters are very loved . Dissociadid is a good channel to go to as its helped educate me more. I wish you the best as being fearful of what other might do/think can make a person feel caged. If you have any questions or need support feel free to shoot me an email.
@@HaldisPyralistacticalThank you ^^. I wish I wouldn't have to worry about it but unfortunately mental disorders like DID are still really looked down on as some type of psychosis or attention seeking behavior. For the most part I don't actually get to connect with people because a couple of days or hours after meeting someone I switch and weird them out or scare them away
Your welcome, all you can be is just you. Whoever is meant to stay will stay. I'd be your friend if I could and I know my husband would be your friend too.
i know people dont blv it easily that DID is not scary personality . first i didnt blv it either not until it happened to believe that inside me i am one of them . it starts with only two person living inside me . one always talking ans asking questions and other listen and answer .. then i have been thrown some very difficult time in life ... after that there are several persons born inside me .. now i have like five person inside one body . never talked about this before here . so its kinda finding less words how to explain how am i coping with them and the impact on me ... in society 98% people dont understand me . So you must be know how my life is . i talk less more after that and never let open that im not one person i am multiple person . but when it comes to close to someone and talking day after day , switching into distinct me people dont take it easily and hurt me without knowing . i am glad that at last i talk about me .
I did not know the thing about "Daddy", which kinda surprised me, cause looking back it's not a difficult connection to make, I guess I just always took it for granted. Anyhow thanks for informing me about that.
I am currently making a short film for school about a character with DID. I want to shed light on the disorder. with an accurate depiction. this was very helpful
Therapists like that shouldn't even be therapists. That's literally their job and they're just refusing to do it. If any other person refused to do their job they'd be fired. Can you imagine that? Police officer: I refuse to arrest armed criminals they're just too dangerous. Mechanic: I refuse to fix a car with more than 42,000 miles on it, it's just too broken. Janitor, I refuse to clean up after more than 10 people, that's just too much mess. Ect. Seriously try that with any other job you won't have a job. So why does a therapist get to do it?
You're not broken! It's actually good that a bad therapist isn't working with you because bad therapists can cause major harm to systems. Please try to find a competent therapist who works with people with dissociative disorders because they'll know how best to help you and the rest of your system. I wish you well.
@@RialVestro It's not that easy. A police officer can learn the laws which govern everyone, a mechanic can learn how to fix certain types of cars because they're all the same, and the janitor one kind of doesn't fit here. A therapist has to be able to help the patient that they treat, and if they don't know how to help stabilize a system with DID/OSDD, and then help them deal with the trauma that caused the disorder in the first place, then they can cause horrible harm to the system. It's good that the therapist(s) didn't even try, but they absolutely shouldn't have just dropped the o.p. or said that they were broken. Every case of DID and OSDD is different, and the therapy needs to be individualized to their system.
Ddlg has to do with two adults only so do not stimatize ageplay u must be 18 and up to be into bdsm community we hate when minors try to get into the kink community And as my therepist said age regression for mental health existed way before kink and many mental health proffessionals are pissed off about ageplayers in kink.
I'm here as someone interested in DID to be able to write some of my characters well and oh goddesses! I know it's probably not comfortable switching and trauma is still a trauma, but imagine having one person who isn't you who are all your friends. You can have huge parties even when there are only two physical bodies (of course sometimes only one alter shows up but when you are making a party there is still a possibility that only one friend will show up) I'm sorry if it's rude or something I just like the idea. Btw how does the fast switching feels? I know car analogy so i suppose that Ross and Fox were at driver and seat next to driver positions, but how does it feel when you are switching back and forth this fast? Is that part which isn't your alter fronting feeling differently? Thank you for answers!
I haven’t been diagnosed as I never realised it wasn’t something that everyone has. I thought that my girls (4) was something wired into every humans brain.... I’m 19 and I’m finally realising that my trauma is the cause of possibly DID. Does anyone have a much longer process of changing from alters? I’m trying to understand myself more. I have a counsellor who I’ve talked to about it and they’re really helping me to getting diagnosed appropriately.
@@angelasofia6843 Hi! We are a system with DID, and we absolutely agree with what you said. Thank you! And btw, this is from one of our littles, and she's co-conscious right now. She's saying thank you because she's aware that we are never really understood by people. ❤
@@angelasofia6843 You're English is amazing!👌 And we're so happy to hear that you're working really hard for this community! We are extremely grateful to have you. Our little (her name is Mia 😀) is sooo energetic right now! It's almost as if your energy is being transferred through this screen. She said: "Wooooow Mia don't know who they are but I weeeally weeeeealllly wuuuuv them (really really love them)!! Mia wanna pway wiv pink gwitter (play with pink glitter) nowww because Mia happyyy!" Thanks again, you've made our little one Mia's (and ours) day! 😊
all sorts of ways! sometimes it's hearing them in headspace; sometimes it's feeling an emotion unrelated to your current circumstances that you can tell isn't coming from You; journal entries or post-it notes; drawings, trinkets left in your physical space, etc.. communication takes a long time to figure out - we werent able to verbally communicate for most of our lives. it's only in the past 5-ish years that we've been able to talk to each other outright
@@roswellecker392 Holly cow that's really interesting. The reason why I asked is because I want to write a story with the maine character having more realistic Dissociative Identity Disorder. And by more realistic they will have personal skills, goals, relationships, and none of them are psychotic mad men.
I just became a teenager, yet I love to study this, and I cant talk to kids I know that are my age because they don't know about DID but I really want to become a counselor when I'm older!! DID is my TOP FAVORITE to learn!! and I love learning about it!!
I had a few, there names were: Cherry, Red, Timid/Grey, Ingrid and Robin. I don't know why I haven't been triggered to have them come out anymore. I'm not even sure if what I had was real. I was abused for years - I can't even begin to describe to you what I I've been through. This is VERY interesting and I'm thankful to find this video.
As a psychology student (this may seem very wrong) I find it so cool. I can't understand why a therapist would not want to treat it. It's so amazing how the brain manages things! DID is very interesting and I would find myself so lucky to treat a patient with DID although I wouldn't wish it on anybody.
I'm glad that there are therapists out there who understand that a patient with DID/OSDD has lived through childhood trauma, and that these therapists understand their limitations in helping people with PTSD, childhood trauma, and C-PTSD, in addition to dissociative disorders - potentially all at once. Agreed that it's fascinating how the brain manages things, but please don't attempt to treat anyone with DID or OSDD unless you're actually qualified to do so because being a bad therapist can cause major harm to a system.
This is an excellent way of explaining it I see so many people go on TH-cam try and explain it but put it all in child young kid abuse.... but you saying it as a teen and other abuses answers some questions I had on it
It's caused by trauma before the age of 10, yes. But once that first split has occured, it becomes that brains primary coping mechanism to form new alters. So, as long as the first split happened before the age of 10-ish, you can have new alters form through later traumas.
@@theblanketfortcohort7332 yeah it’s interesting how the brain works and not everyone who experiences extreme trauma splits. I try to put my self in everyone’s shoes when I hear their story so I can try and understand
So many questions, and this talk answered many of them. Still, I wonder how do alters arrive at their names? Does the host get to choose or do alters name themselves? With practice, how much control is there over which alter gets to present? (Please forgive me if I'm using to incorrect terminology, btw.) Also, does each alter have a different group of friends, or is it more like several different relationships all with the same person--like one alter views "Tim" as a best friend, another views "Tom" as simply a mere coworker, another is romantically interested in "Tim", and one even perhaps dislikes "Tim"?
Dear tedx talks. I very very very much need to see if this speaker would be willing to just have one conversation with me. But me, not anyone else in the body. Bc I need the help and have no access.
i dont think they keep the younger alters in. they emphasized good communication so im sure fox and the rest of the system lets them front. or they may front with the younger one.
Personaly in our system we have a agreement that if a older alter is not co con with them then they cant be out but they sometimes are out without an older alter but mostly it goes ok
Here’s the thing if you wanna say daddy or whatever don’t say it around people who have had csa or maybe people say it to deal with their csa who knows
The problem with that is that if someone has experianced csa, they're not exactly inclined to shout it from the rooftops. So that doesn't work, since you simply have no way of being certain there's noone around who'd be harmed by it. The internet is even worse for this scenario, and that's where I see it the most. So just don't use it, find a joke that's actually funny and not harmfull
DIS starts around the age of 4 do to prolonged and extreme trauma. It is a survival technic of a young childs unconscious mind. What happens is that the emotions and stress of a traumatic event puts the child in a mental pressure cooker. Once the pressure becomes to much, the conscious mind of the child wil dissociate. As if it is not there anymore. But there is still some one in there going through the traumatic moment. That part of the mind now becomes a person of some sort. An alter. An alternative state of mind. Every time a traumatic experience like that will happen again, that alter will take over because that part can deal with it. For every new traumatic event the brain can create a new alter. Depends on how on safe the child feels. That's why some people have a few and some have almost a hundred. But let me tell you one thing! If you truly have DIS YOU DO NOT switch alters on command! DIS is created to protect you from the outside world and doesn't want anyone, including yourself to know you have it or that you could be seen as different. I've seen people switch in front of camera so many times on purpose but never once was I able to switch so clearly to an alter. You may get in contact with your alter but concisely be that alter is far too exposed and in contradiction with what DIS is supposed to do for you. It doesn't make any sense. DIS was supposed to protect you and keep your inner thoughts and feelings secret because that was safe and not show it to anyone, especially not in front of a camera. From what I've learned treatment is supposed to help you work with your alters and be in control of them instead of the other whey around and to let the alters work together so that they won't keep you away from your trauma anymore and you can finally heal it. And the alters will gradually become one again. One u. But I haven't been in treatment that long so if I m wrong and if I have offended anyone than I'm sorry. I still have a lot to learn. It's just that I think people don't realise how young DIS starts and the switching on purpose gives me and my alters the creeps! 😅❤
Jess MacCormack In most children the personality integrates between the ages of 7-9. The trauma must occur before the personality fully integrates for D.I.D. to develop.
Taylor Barnett We still do fall apart when we’re triggered, often for days at a time - often we’ll switch rapidly or a protective alter will run things while we shut down internally. It’s more a matter of helping each other get through the less damaging day to day stuff
@@hijislay3618 For us, someone very famous in our system chose the name, and since she is well loved and respected it kind of stuck. Maybe you guys can try something similar. We're also named after a famous landmark in our system, the first one she saw. It all depends on what matters to all you and how you want to be known collectively.
I wanna experience what it feels like to talk to a person with DID. In our Abnormal Psychology class we were given a task to interact with patients on a mental hospital, it was a 1 week experience and I was supposedly assigned to a patient with DID but he committed suicide a day before the visit so I was assigned to a schizophrenic patient instead.
That's awful! Speaking to someone with DID is like talking with anyone else - other than perhaps if they start dissociating. You've probably talked with someone with DID/OSDD and never knew it; it's possible that they didn't know, either.
@@talacocheta9001 wow amazing how our mind works sometimes. I mean of course DID is not a good thing but I didn't completely know that they're also not aware if the disassociation happens.
@@KyngofJewel We can typically tell if we're dissociating because we lose our train of thought; I meant that we might not know if we've switched to another alter, or that we have alters at all. Like one of the stories that The Entropy System here on youtube tells in a video is that she thought that her house was haunted because she'd be doing homework and the radio station would keep changing. It wasn't haunted; an alter kept fronting and changing the station and the main host didn't know it because she didn't know that she had DID at the time. I've had people come up to me and know me, and I had no clue who they were. They called me by another name which I promptly forgot each time, and they were offended when I'd tell them that I didn't know who they were and I would ask how they knew me. It has happened so often that I learned to play along so that they wouldn't get mad at me for not knowing who they were. These days, though, if someone were to say that they knew me, I'd tell them that I have a dissociative disorder which makes me not remember things, and ask for their help in remembering, if possible. I wouldn't get into my specific diagnosis unless they asked questions about it. I didn't get a diagnosis until age 33, so went that long without knowing that I wasn't always me.
@@talacocheta9001 I have questions. 1. Have you ever talked to your alter? 2. Are there biological changes when you're disassociating? Just like when you're in your original identity you have no allergies to peanuts but your alter has.
@@KyngofJewel 1. Yes, but it's more answering when I hear them say something, and then I talk out loud to them sometimes in addition to thinking things. 2. I think that you mean if I switch out to a different alter, since "dissociating" typically means just zoning out and losing one's train of thought, imo? I have no idea. Studies have been done which do show such biological changes between alters. I've never been to the doctor while switched that I know of, and there hasn't been anyone to notice such things if I've switched at home. I didn't know that I was retreating and that an alter or alters was/were fronting the body until a number of strangers kept coming up to me at various times, knowing me when I didn't know who they were. I'm not consciously co-conscious with any alters that I know of. This is all still pretty new to me even though I got a diagnosis a long time ago, because I actually had forgotten that I had the diagnosis and no one was going to tell me since I wasn't supposed to know at all. lol (Many people with DID and OSDD never know that they're part of a system because the system was designed to be hidden and protective.) So far, I know of 2 alters, but there could be a lot more since the abuse from my parents started when I was an infant and didn't stop until I moved out of the house permanently. (There was more trauma from other than my parents when I was in kindergarten and first grade, but I'm not going to get into that.) I haven't gone to a therapist yet who specializes in systems with DID/OSDD, so haven't started the "stabilization" phase 1 that many do when a system starts therapy. Only one of the psychiatrists that I've seen even diagnosed me properly; the rest were just worried about my PTSD and didn't even notice the DID/OSDD. My diagnosis was so long ago that she couldn't give me an exact diagnosis like they do now. She just said I was "highly dissociative, almost to the point of multiple personality." That was before all of the strangers kept coming up to me, or perhaps I would've had an MPD diagnosis, which now is called DID. Based on symptoms, I have either OSDD 1-a or DID. (The criteria for OSDD 1-a seems different for the UK versus the U.S., so I'm not sure exactly which one I'll be diagnosed with the next time I'm evaluated.) I suggest you might want to check out the channels for MultiplicityAndMe, The Rings System, The Entropy System, and DissociaDID. They are all good sources and can offer significantly more information than I ever could. Some of them have even covered your #2 question, in addition to all of them mentioning the answer to #1. Cheers
It's not just from 6 to 9 years old. Those of us who were abused as infants also can have DID/OSDD. The thing is that the trauma has to happen prior to the integration of the personality, which typically happens between the ages of 6 and 9, and before the age of 10 years old. Alters can also be fantasy figures, animals, or even inanimate objects - not just other human people. Thank you for giving this talk.
this is true. we developed this before six, so when things went really bad, we already had a way to deal with it. we were labelled a genius. now we are completely dependent on other people what a waste..
Thank you! People often get this confused.
I heard that too. I think he meant that it’s cemented during that time. I could be wrong. Mine started at infancy as well. So it would be interesting to see his answer to this.
its way earlier in age that . My brain started developing differently at the time when the abuse started
yeah he seemed a little outdated
I am so glad Tedx Talks did a video about Dissociative Identity Disorder. The looks and comments I get when I tell people that I have DID. Is very hard to take sometimes. I just have to remind myself people just do not know.
I don't like to talk to people about my d.i.d because people started to pick on me and make fun of me
i hate talking about our DID cuz we have Fictives and ppl seem to not like them for some reason
Although I do not have DID, I find it interresting and I have a freind who does. It enlightens me so much whenever somebody steps fowards and opens up,
Screw the people who don't understand, all of you have an fascinating and unique thing.
Don't ever let that go, any of you
We too have DID. I as the main fronting alter am always open about our mental health struggles. However only 8 people who are super close to us know we have DID.
Finding out so much about my life, my DID, organized abuse along with organized abuse with technology and human/child trafficking also different forms of abuse Ive went through since childhood. Alot of which my core personality knew absolutely nothing about. Im still coming to come to grasp with it all.....what a mid life experience im going through. The scariest thing about DID is that there are parts of me that know things and that knows certain people. Different people that are all totally different. So different that I was out at the store one day and this guy was waiving at me then he was trying to flag me down. I could tell this man knew me but I had no clue who he was. That wasnt the first time that happened but that time that person stood out because he really wanted to talk to me. Strange yet eye opening.
This is honestly such a relief to see someone out there who openly talks about DID and is willing to teach others who don’t understand. I myself have DID and it’s rare that I find people who understand or are willing to accept that I have it. Please keep doing talks like this and continue to educate others you’re doing such a great job.
something really interesting and subtle i noticed is that fox only spoke with one hand / no hands and then the times that ros speaks they use both hands
pretentiousteatime yeah the difference is subtle, but fox also seems to be a little less nervous on stage and a little more self assured
Different tone of voice too. Good on them for being able to switch like that too - incredible communication
Switching in front of people is scary, never mind in front of an audience! Y'all are so brave :)
I have did and i do love my alters :') my family was abusive and neglectful and my alters formed from my trauma and became the family i needed and helped take care of me.
My mom thinks I'm faking even though I've been diagnosed with it
Same. But I lost them as I grew older and learned to handle pain a little better. I’m still very mich stuck in my mind and can’t escape my escapist tendencies.
@@yoongimin2907 I haven't told the host's mom about this until we get diagnosed with DID, there are 30 of us and I'm making sure we talk to only a couple of people and get advice etc from an expert who's helped many people who have D.I.D too. I'm sorry your mother thinks you're faking it (I'm an alter the host hasn't been in control for months)
Thanks for sharing
Huge respect for this Ted talk. It takes a lot of courage and strength. Extraordinary system 🙏
I was diagnosed with DID when I was 15 almost, medications by themselves never worked, except for the depression symptoms. Since I started therapy, in a therapy center that uses multiple and integrated approaches to mental care, Im rising and recognizing myself more and more as the year pass. The process is long. I won’t tell how many times I was about to leave because it was to hard to face emotions wich ‘i don’t want to touch’ (it’s hard to explain), or faking I wasn’t having troubles with my sense of self. Before therapy I attempted suicide, tried to mess my brain with drugs and physical mutilation, I was vomiting and restricting food every day in my life. I wasn’t able to realize what was good and bad to myself.
Now I started studying again, Im in my 2nd year in Psychological studies at the University, I don’t starve myself anymore, learned that taking care of myself was not by isolation of emotive parts, but living. Im in an healthy and not abusive relationship for the first time, after years with people psychologically and physically abusing me. I feel like a child sometimes discovering the world, people, situations, for the first time. There still are not enough reports and voices from people having diagnosis on them. They’re not your story. Your symptoms neither. Your story is now, and has different perspectives, thank you for your words
I'm really glad that there are a lot of people working on healing work.
Yeah, we're thirty and have been diagnosed last year...Definitely feels like we're a bunch of traumatized little children sometimes, having to learn what's healthy and "normal" and how to trust our perception
Seeing them switch so easily and quickly was so interesting to me. I don’t have DID/OSDD but I’ve been learning about it for over a year, mainly through TH-cam, and I’ve never seen such a smooth switch, especially when there wasn’t a trigger to cause it. I know a lot of systems aren’t very comfortable switching in front of others so I also find this very brave of them :)
I saw one switch go that smoothly on an interveiw and they said it was only easy because they were co conscious and they said switches are different from everyone
Ours can go like that a lot of the time. Though it's exhausting regardless, the better the communication, the smoother the transition is able to go, in our experience. If someone's co-conscious it is soooo much easier for us than if someone comes up to front who has no clue what we were doing prior to that. Think of it as like an airplane cockpit-- if the pilot needed a break, the co-pilot would be vastly more capable of smoothly switching places with them than someone who was sitting elsewhere in the plane, even if that person had piloting experience.
I'm thinking there was co-consciousness through the talk. The use of one hand that slowly relaxed and put them in their pockets.
It really depends on the system. Me and our cohost can switch pretty easily because we had to be able to do that. But me and others take minutes to hours to switch properly. It all depends how much dissociation there is between you guys and the roles each of you take in the system (but remember that roles dont define someone as theyre very 2d and not always a great way to describe a person)
@@delaineyjohnson8238 there definitely was. Like they said, they practiced this.
I was diagnosed with DID two months ago. We've been stressing about the concept of "Integration" because it's difficult to comprehend not existing. We had no idea there were other options.
The last two months have been very, very difficult. Realizing that I, personally don't know what happened and how this happened is ridiculously hard to cope with. The fact that the alters that speak to me don't know all of the trauma scares me. The fact that there is little to no information about this online, and when there is it's sparse is terrifying. The fact that no support groups exist (that I could find) and that many mental illness sites don't even state it as a disorder makes me scared that I wont be taken seriously.
But the fact that this is the first I've heard of someone coming to talk about their experiences, it makes me thankful that they did.
I've been struggling mostly at the moment (and after watching this, I've realized that this is definitely because of the stigma surrounding DID) with the concept of "somehow I'm faking this" and "I'm not crazy" and "This is ridiculous" etc etc. Hearing about someone else's experiences are helping to validate the fact that what I am going through is real. Down to the "it's like having roomates in one space" and "thoughts that you hear with other's voices, because they are different people"
Thank you for this. Thank you so, so very much.
If you are looking for more DID information I recommend the youtube channels MultiplicityAndMe, DissociaDID, and The Entropy System. They are all channels made by systems who share their experiences and also do educational stuff about DID. They have a big focus about ending stigma, so hopefully they can help you realise that DID doesn't mean that "you're crazy". I wish you all the best :)
@@hummingbird4932 I'd like to add The Rings System to that! They're an OSDD-1b system, so without the amnesia, but they have a lot of amazing videos!
@@hummingbird4932 I'd like to add The Rings System to that! They're an OSDD-1b system, so without the amnesia, but they have a lot of amazing videos!
Integration is not fusion. Integration, is about getting everyone in the system to help each other, for the benefit of the whole.
@@hummingbird4932 warning to others; dissociadid is a little problematic (im not gonna go into it. You can look it up yourself) and can be a bit controversial in the community
I'm 51 years old ,trained therapist in process and have d i d and now I accept this. I have decided to focus on what helped and helps me and work with this , to help others. On ya, and empathy training and self care.
I think that DiD is amazing response to trauma. I think the dissociation saved my life. So look at us with gratitude and love.
same here.
I don't have DID but I heard an interesting metaphor once; the trauma forces a child's mind to fragment into different identities/alters so that the crushing weight of the trauma can be carried by multiple people and one person does not have to carry that burden by themselves. I think it makes a lot of sense; usually you will go to other people to share the weight of something traumatic, but if you cannot go to other people for support and there is NOBODY, then your brain makes more people to be there for you.
@@UNOwen-pe1bj exactly. I realized recently, that Sorrow, one I had not be very aware of, has handled the bulk of the grief. I actually believe I am an alter and Pixie is the core/child. She seems untouched by much of it. So I guess it has been working.
Very grateful this talk was done. Thank you.
I have DID. It’s been a long and hurtful trip in the psychiatric system, both beforehand after getting diagnosed. Unfortunately for me, where I was diagnosed, (a hospital) I was made to feel shameful and was met with anger when I couldn’t get my alters to come out and talk to anyone, or wasn’t sure what/who was going on inside. This ended with me having fabrications tied to my very real alters that I had made in order to please the doctors, that took me years to sort out.
Now though, we know who we are. And I’m very grateful for that.
You're so brave to talk about this. We've been diagnosed for two years and still we're scared to talk about our condition and it's origins because we're scared people will laugh at us and abuse us even more.
You might consider joining "The Plural Association AlterNation Dissociative Identity Disorder Support" group on Facebook. Anyone who is plural, or identifies as such, is welcome, and everyone is so nice there!
Thank you thank you for talking about this!!!
We also have did (osdd actually ). We believe you.
There's a small miscommunication in this video.
Not all alters are three dimensional and entirely they're own person.
There are what are known to be fragments, identities in a system that do not have their own thoughts, personalities, ect, and only exist for specific reasons such as to hold trauma memories, to handle specific tasks, respond to specific triggers.
Just some extra information to go along with whats provided in the video.
bumping this lol
I, myself, don't have DID but I've been doing a lot of research on it to try to better understand it. It really really fascinates me and it's actually making me think of studying psychological disorders like this in college.
You should look into why a bunch of middle class chronically online American kids decided they have a disorder that likely doesn't exist at all
Thank you for sharing. Every person with DID sharing helps others suffering to deal with it and to people observing understand better. It is not often that you see a system so well communicating. I am working with my husband on daily basis and we managed to get pretty much as close as you are communicating in between the fragments but never ever really saw someone being so far with it so it is very nice to see we are not alone working on this. Your talk definitely gives people hope. Much love to all of you in there :-)
It takes a brave person to talk about deeply personal info on a public platform. All forms of mental illness need to be destigmatized. Too many suffer in silence
I suffered from extreme schizophrenia when i was little and couldn't handle it on my own. I suffered many traumas after that and my alters have been with me forever. we have a beautiful system with 9 alters :) Im so glad it is finally being talked about.
I love him. I don't know him but I love him. Not in the way you do a partner, but the way you feel for a stranger that you just feel connected to.
That was the BEST most informative talk I’ve heard about this . Thank you. My best friend just committed suicide. We lived 2000 miles apart. She was terribly abused as a child (every day was violent). She never talked about it until we were good friends for a few years (we were friends 51 years). She opened up slowly. She had CPTSD ...but that diagnosis wasn’t around then. She had bouts of depression, would “shutdown” and resurface some months later. She had symptoms if bipolar (extreme high ...and energy...only to fall flat again). Here’s the thing...she sometimes became in a moment (it seemed) another person...with a different personality. I tried once to tell her my observation but she seemed to dismiss it. I see that the little bit you’ve said might’ve been similar to her way of dealing with life. She denied herself of having much ...she was strikingly beautiful & attracted many but she told me she had no real friends except me. She said recent years the depression was getting worse. Last year she gave away everything & was going to swim out into the ocean until she was too weak to swim back. She made a phone call to a sympathetic employer who asked her to stop over . That saved her. She promised me she’d never do that again. This year she went off the pier at night & her body was found 4 days later. I’m heartbroken 💔 that I didn’t KNOW...i missed things....fully expecting her to resurface ...now all our long talks...our massive love ❤️ for each other...just gone. I’ve tried to “sense” her around in spirit....asked God to heal her completely, give her a place very high up there & give her all the love all the time possible. Thank you once again.
It's refreshing to see a system so similar to ours be so open about it. The little girl who used to be around for most of our childhood is also no longer around, leaving us in control. We've also worked our butts off to achieve good communication. I've had dreams about giving a presentation like this (probably without the switching- having that happen in front of people still feels like being caught changing or smth) thank you for giving this talk. It's reaching people even now, years later, who need to see it. I hope you're still doing well.
Respect to you, Roswell Ecker. It took me years to tell my mother about my DID. Our host (I'm the original but not the host) had to up and tell my parents herself.
Wow, I am just blown away by the courage they all must have. They make a great team together.
All "disorders" should be more accurately described as adaptations. Like "Dissociative Identity Adaptation" and "Complex Post Traumatic Stress Adaptation". "Disorders" implies there is a lack of order, while "adaptation" suggests the brain is plastic.
Actually, I changed my mind. We should let the people who theses terms describe to name themselves. Just like how we let other marginalized community name themselves.
I get that, but there is genuinely a lack of order - Hence the name DISorder.
That’s it everyone; Daddy jokes are cancelled. Seriously, knock it off. You have no excuse now that you’ve heard the pain it causes.
i honestly never understood them to begin with... ever.... so creepy
It's ok to ask folks not to use certain jokes. Don't be upset if they ignore you.
@@Chief-Solarize tru dat.
Legion93 yeah but by your same line of reasoning, that individual has every right to be upset if they’re ignored. I do agree that it’s in their own best interest to not expect that they’ll be listened to. But it’s understandable to feel upset regardless.
Or the relationships that are obviously resemble that. And the sexualization of everything in some bits of the LGBTQ+ community.
Thank you so much for this talk! I was diagnosed with PTSD and OSDD in my mid-twenties, following a mental breakdown, and it's taken me literal DECADES to accept the idea that I really DO, in fact, have alters and I wasn't just imagining it or 'falsely' claiming the people in my 'team' were not me just for the 'kudos.' It's not hard to fall into this kind of denial, particularly with the advent of TH-cam and those creators whose content revolves around them having DID. So many of them turn the condition almost into a kind of cosplay show - I appreciate they want to draw in viewers, and part of doing that IS to give them something 'interesting' to watch, but it seems like so many of them, when they 'switch,' do it almost like a Jekyll-and-Hyde thing; their voice completely changes, their mannerisms, their whole persona - some of them even dress differently and do wildly different make-up and hairstyles, depending on who's 'fronting.'
While my people are definitely very different from each other, they don't have this urge to completely transform into themselves if/when they 'front' - if my middle-aged male alter comes forward, for example, he's not suddenly horrified he's wearing womens' clothes and desperate to run off and change into a man-shirt and cordrouys ASAP. This is what made me believe for a long time that I couldn't possibly have an identity disorder - precisely because there was no urge to 'transform' to 'match' whichever alter who was driving (at least, not as far as I know.) It was reassuring to see that, when you switched to another alter, your voice and mannerisms didn't dramatically change - that's much more like my experience than many of the DID TH-camrs.
I have since learned that there are two types of ID systems; 'covert' and 'overt.' I'd definitely put us in the former category; we don't want the whole world knowing our secret, so it's in our own interests to always appear to be only one person, even if that means acting a role (and some of us are better at pulling that off than others!) The 'overt' ones are, I guess, those aforementioned TH-cam creators.
And yes, Hollywood has a LOT to answer for in its depiction of identity disorders. The only one I think got close to it was, surprisingly, Peter Jackson's 'The Two Towers' movie from the Lord of The Rings trilogy, in that scene with Gollum and Smeagol arguing with each other. I still remember watching that scene and thinking "YES! That's it! THAT'S how it feels when you're in a fight with one of your alters!"
He’s the only person I’ve heard discuss integration. And I like how he closed with reminding people to listen to their children, not listening to kids or being too busy to see what’s under your nose is perpetuating a lot of this trauma. Parents please check in and know most victims are in your own home and by hurt by someone you know. It is pervasive.
Thank you Lori
This is so well expressed and so interesting. Thank you, Ros, for your courage and strength and for bringing this very important topic to our attention.
thank you, rosemary!
It is so interesting that Maddie is not a main alter anymore since they were born into the body, but now don't come out often and leave it mostly up to the other alters. From what I've seen, the original alter seems to remain one of the main ones fronting most of the time, but in this situation it's like an entirely new person took over the body. Maddie replaced themself with someone else who could survive better in their body. It's astonishing what the body and mind are capable of. This was such a great TED talk!
We don't think that's actually that uncommon. The more we get to know ourselves, the more, thinking back, we realize that our "original" wasn't fronting as often as they previously believed they were. They often remain co-conscious, or semi co-conscious, but we feel that may largely be due to their still having a very difficult time accepting that this is and has been our reality.
Thank you Ross, Fox and please say a very soft and safe thank you to Maddie for being so brave and speaking up for US
That whole therapy thing is like...such a grey area because like, you don't want to be with a therapist who doesn't want to work with your illness because they could say horrible things, do horrible things, and like, make your illness worse but also...it just seems wrong for a therapist to pick and choose who they want to help and that just...that just doesn't sit well. Because I mean, it could leave people suffering their whole lives because no one wants to help them...
But also, this was amazing in terms of explaining things.
I too am a sociology major with DID! Thank you so much for this talk 💕👏🏼
What a lovely person. So well articulated.
I love you, speaker.
Not in the weird way, just..that so grateful I love you kind.
A huge thank you for giving this talk! DID and OSDD are very often stigmatised and misunderstood so I‘m very glad for videos like this who take part in breaking down the stigma! Thank you very much, you are brave!
Yea...we recently came out with our system and is been both scary and relieving because our roommate is amazing but in public its terrifying. Our alters are so different
What an interesting talk. Found this to be completely eye opening.
Thank you so much you are so brave! Thank you
Thank you, Roswell, for giving us all so much food for thought and especially about the needs for more human empathy.
Thank you for your story and insight...
The key is forgetting the movie Sybil. Accept people for where they are at and just let them be, whomever that should be. Its more common than people realize being dissociated into different states or parts. Everything is disconnected inside the person. Thoughts, feelings and memories. Nothing is one and the thoughts, feelings and memories each formed a life of their own. Thats all it is.
I agree that people should be accepted as they are. Your explanation of DID and OSDD isn't quite correct, though. Alters, fragments, and parts can be fictives and even inanimate objects, too, and not all have feelings and memories, per se.
Thank you all so much for sharing this with us; what a gift it is to learn from you and your whole systems’ experiences. ❤
This is so good. I have DID also. I wish I knew as much about myself as he did.
You are very brave .
I would like to thank all within system for helping others out there to understand. This should be seen by all therapists and in general by anybody so they understand it better. Me personally I've and the name of being eclectic and excentric due to people not understanding or believing. Thanks again
Integration simply refers to integration of memories/ emotions/ etc. *Fusion* actually refers to multiple alters combining into one.
When my psychiatrist fired me not one single therapist would not take me on with my history and diagnosis of DID. What really triggered all the memories that I didn't have access to was when a counsellor was doing inner child therapy to get to my PTSD. I'm older now, and don't really share myself with anyone. Nobody to share myself with that cares to listen. Basically just waiting to go Home to Heaven when all this will be over finally.
Excellent and very factual talk. Thank you so much!
I hope things are better now.
Incredibly good presentation on this matter
very eye opening...especially the daddy part.It's important to keep an open mind to all different kinds of people and this TH-cam channel does just that. Ive learned a lot from listening to peoples stories on here
This is beyond an amazing video, informative, raw, real.
The alters are the symptom, not the cause ❤️
Awesome said!
All of this was so well said. Loved this.
Thank you so so much for talking out about this. I have DID and integration is something doctor who does med management is trying to force on our system. Thank you thank you!
Currently doing a research paper, thank you for providing this! :D
This talk stated that DID is caused by trauma between ages 6 to 9, but actually it takes trauma *before* age 6 to 9.
The cut-off is usually age 6, up to age 9 to account for those with developmental delays. This is because the personality is fully integrated by age 6 to 9, so DID cannot form after this integration into one personality. (According to structural dissociation, backed by research.)
Otherwise great talk, thank you to the speaker.
I have d.i.d and I'm 15 duo to my parents abused me they hurt me and my other personality had a friend and i don't remember him
Are you ok now?
This is such an interesting talk
Yes! Thankyou for this. Taken a long time for me to find an accurate and appropriate video from Ted.
It feels so strange hearing about other people's experiences with DID, I so far know of about 6 IDs in my system but for me it isn't like I'm able to "talk" or communicate with my other "moods". Only 2 or 3 of them have names different from our birth name and all I notice when it comes to "switching" is that my most recent memories are from 2-3 weeks ago or going by my chat history that my approach to other people has taken a complete 180* from the day before. I think part of the reason for all of this might be that I still connect DiD with "being insane" or it being seen as such by others, so even though there are some real telltale signs I suffer some sort of dissociation disorder or DID I'm still subconciously denying it because I fear I'll be ostracized
My husband has DID and I fully accept and support him. Him and his alters are very loved . Dissociadid is a good channel to go to as its helped educate me more. I wish you the best as being fearful of what other might do/think can make a person feel caged. If you have any questions or need support feel free to shoot me an email.
@@HaldisPyralistacticalThank you ^^. I wish I wouldn't have to worry about it but unfortunately mental disorders like DID are still really looked down on as some type of psychosis or attention seeking behavior. For the most part I don't actually get to connect with people because a couple of days or hours after meeting someone I switch and weird them out or scare them away
Your welcome, all you can be is just you. Whoever is meant to stay will stay. I'd be your friend if I could and I know my husband would be your friend too.
I'm very glad you've posted this. It makes a lot of sense.
Yes.
Right.
Everything.
Yes.
The comment on Sybil is too true. I can’t tell if I’m laughing or crying.
Excellent presentation.
i know people dont blv it easily that DID is not scary personality . first i didnt blv it either not until it happened to believe that inside me i am one of them . it starts with only two person living inside me . one always talking ans asking questions and other listen and answer .. then i have been thrown some very difficult time in life ... after that there are several persons born inside me .. now i have like five person inside one body . never talked about this before here . so its kinda finding less words how to explain how am i coping with them and the impact on me ... in society 98% people dont understand me . So you must be know how my life is . i talk less more after that and never let open that im not one person i am multiple person . but when it comes to close to someone and talking day after day , switching into distinct me people dont take it easily and hurt me without knowing .
i am glad that at last i talk about me .
This is neat and this person is very brave and intelligent.. Learned alot. Thank you
I did not know the thing about "Daddy", which kinda surprised me, cause looking back it's not a difficult connection to make, I guess I just always took it for granted. Anyhow thanks for informing me about that.
If anyone can ask if this person feels comfortable giving out their twitter/instagram/etc i would appreciate it. need some good ppl to follow
Eddie ! by all means; we’re @roswelletal
If you want good people to follow i recommend DissociaDID. They are a TH-cam channel with DID that discusses mental health
You might check out The Rings System here on TH-cam. They are great!
amazing.
I am currently making a short film for school about a character with DID. I want to shed light on the disorder. with an accurate depiction. this was very helpful
wonderful work
The stimming from knowing a fellow system is in a TEDx Talk about DID :DDDD
I was diagnosed with DID last summer and ive had therapist refuse to work with me or drop me becuase im so broken......
Therapists like that shouldn't even be therapists. That's literally their job and they're just refusing to do it. If any other person refused to do their job they'd be fired. Can you imagine that?
Police officer: I refuse to arrest armed criminals they're just too dangerous.
Mechanic: I refuse to fix a car with more than 42,000 miles on it, it's just too broken.
Janitor, I refuse to clean up after more than 10 people, that's just too much mess.
Ect. Seriously try that with any other job you won't have a job. So why does a therapist get to do it?
You're not broken! It's actually good that a bad therapist isn't working with you because bad therapists can cause major harm to systems. Please try to find a competent therapist who works with people with dissociative disorders because they'll know how best to help you and the rest of your system. I wish you well.
@@RialVestro It's not that easy. A police officer can learn the laws which govern everyone, a mechanic can learn how to fix certain types of cars because they're all the same, and the janitor one kind of doesn't fit here. A therapist has to be able to help the patient that they treat, and if they don't know how to help stabilize a system with DID/OSDD, and then help them deal with the trauma that caused the disorder in the first place, then they can cause horrible harm to the system. It's good that the therapist(s) didn't even try, but they absolutely shouldn't have just dropped the o.p. or said that they were broken. Every case of DID and OSDD is different, and the therapy needs to be individualized to their system.
DID is one of the subjects that most interest me
I wanna be friends with them they were fantastic! Phenomenal video
Ddlg has to do with two adults only so do not stimatize ageplay u must be 18 and up to be into bdsm community we hate when minors try to get into the kink community
And as my therepist said age regression for mental health existed way before kink and many mental health proffessionals are pissed off about ageplayers in kink.
Great talk, a lot of “umms” other than that, well spoken. Thank you.
I'm here as someone interested in DID to be able to write some of my characters well and oh goddesses! I know it's probably not comfortable switching and trauma is still a trauma, but imagine having one person who isn't you who are all your friends. You can have huge parties even when there are only two physical bodies (of course sometimes only one alter shows up but when you are making a party there is still a possibility that only one friend will show up)
I'm sorry if it's rude or something I just like the idea.
Btw how does the fast switching feels? I know car analogy so i suppose that Ross and Fox were at driver and seat next to driver positions, but how does it feel when you are switching back and forth this fast? Is that part which isn't your alter fronting feeling differently?
Thank you for answers!
I haven’t been diagnosed as I never realised it wasn’t something that everyone has. I thought that my girls (4) was something wired into every humans brain.... I’m 19 and I’m finally realising that my trauma is the cause of possibly DID. Does anyone have a much longer process of changing from alters? I’m trying to understand myself more. I have a counsellor who I’ve talked to about it and they’re really helping me to getting diagnosed appropriately.
@@angelasofia6843 Hi! We are a system with DID, and we absolutely agree with what you said. Thank you! And btw, this is from one of our littles, and she's co-conscious right now. She's saying thank you because she's aware that we are never really understood by people. ❤
@@angelasofia6843 You're English is amazing!👌 And we're so happy to hear that you're working really hard for this community! We are extremely grateful to have you.
Our little (her name is Mia 😀) is sooo energetic right now! It's almost as if your energy is being transferred through this screen. She said: "Wooooow Mia don't know who they are but I weeeally weeeeealllly wuuuuv them (really really love them)!! Mia wanna pway wiv pink gwitter (play with pink glitter) nowww because Mia happyyy!"
Thanks again, you've made our little one Mia's (and ours) day! 😊
@@angelasofia6843 This reply thread is too pure for me-
@@angelasofia6843 Aww, same. And that is adorableeee!!
Quick question, what are the other ways alters communicate with each other
all sorts of ways! sometimes it's hearing them in headspace; sometimes it's feeling an emotion unrelated to your current circumstances that you can tell isn't coming from You; journal entries or post-it notes; drawings, trinkets left in your physical space, etc..
communication takes a long time to figure out - we werent able to verbally communicate for most of our lives. it's only in the past 5-ish years that we've been able to talk to each other outright
@@roswellecker392 Holly cow that's really interesting. The reason why I asked is because I want to write a story with the maine character having more realistic Dissociative Identity Disorder. And by more realistic they will have personal skills, goals, relationships, and none of them are psychotic mad men.
I just became a teenager, yet I love to study this, and I cant talk to kids I know that are my age because they don't know about DID but I really want to become a counselor when I'm older!! DID is my TOP FAVORITE to learn!! and I love learning about it!!
Hey, I'm a teen too! Let us know if you need any info on DID - I am suspected to have it, and also have taught myself about it!!
I only realised recently that I have this, Im 62, and now disabled. I think I have about 20 personalities, not sure.
How did you realize? I hope that you're doing okay and that all of your alters coexist peacefully.
Thank you for giving me the courage to name my selves.
I had a few, there names were: Cherry, Red, Timid/Grey, Ingrid and Robin. I don't know why I haven't been triggered to have them come out anymore. I'm not even sure if what I had was real. I was abused for years - I can't even begin to describe to you what I I've been through. This is VERY interesting and I'm thankful to find this video.
Maybe you have OSDD-1b!
As a psychology student (this may seem very wrong) I find it so cool. I can't understand why a therapist would not want to treat it. It's so amazing how the brain manages things! DID is very interesting and I would find myself so lucky to treat a patient with DID although I wouldn't wish it on anybody.
i think you mean interesting.
I'm glad that there are therapists out there who understand that a patient with DID/OSDD has lived through childhood trauma, and that these therapists understand their limitations in helping people with PTSD, childhood trauma, and C-PTSD, in addition to dissociative disorders - potentially all at once. Agreed that it's fascinating how the brain manages things, but please don't attempt to treat anyone with DID or OSDD unless you're actually qualified to do so because being a bad therapist can cause major harm to a system.
Thank you so much wo0w1o0w
This is an excellent way of explaining it I see so many people go on TH-cam try and explain it but put it all in child young kid abuse.... but you saying it as a teen and other abuses answers some questions I had on it
It's caused by trauma before the age of 10, yes. But once that first split has occured, it becomes that brains primary coping mechanism to form new alters. So, as long as the first split happened before the age of 10-ish, you can have new alters form through later traumas.
@@theblanketfortcohort7332 yeah it’s interesting how the brain works and not everyone who experiences extreme trauma splits. I try to put my self in everyone’s shoes when I hear their story so I can try and understand
So many questions, and this talk answered many of them. Still, I wonder how do alters arrive at their names? Does the host get to choose or do alters name themselves? With practice, how much control is there over which alter gets to present? (Please forgive me if I'm using to incorrect terminology, btw.) Also, does each alter have a different group of friends, or is it more like several different relationships all with the same person--like one alter views "Tim" as a best friend, another views "Tom" as simply a mere coworker, another is romantically interested in "Tim", and one even perhaps dislikes "Tim"?
Is there any way for the speaker to contact me?
Internet will never forget Mirjam Heine TedX
Dear tedx talks. I very very very much need to see if this speaker would be willing to just have one conversation with me. But me, not anyone else in the body. Bc I need the help and have no access.
WOAH! THE ALTER'S NAMES ARE BUCKY AND STEVE???? I wonder if those alters have any resemblance to the characters.
Fun fact, there are a kind of alters called fictives who are alters formed after a fictional character
Mm, how do you keep little or younger alters in?
i dont think they keep the younger alters in. they emphasized good communication so im sure fox and the rest of the system lets them front. or they may front with the younger one.
Personaly in our system we have a agreement that if a older alter is not co con with them then they cant be out but they sometimes are out without an older alter but mostly it goes ok
Here’s the thing if you wanna say daddy or whatever don’t say it around people who have had csa or maybe people say it to deal with their csa who knows
The problem with that is that if someone has experianced csa, they're not exactly inclined to shout it from the rooftops. So that doesn't work, since you simply have no way of being certain there's noone around who'd be harmed by it. The internet is even worse for this scenario, and that's where I see it the most. So just don't use it, find a joke that's actually funny and not harmfull
DIS starts around the age of 4 do to prolonged and extreme trauma. It is a survival technic of a young childs unconscious mind. What happens is that the emotions and stress of a traumatic event puts the child in a mental pressure cooker. Once the pressure becomes to much, the conscious mind of the child wil dissociate. As if it is not there anymore. But there is still some one in there going through the traumatic moment. That part of the mind now becomes a person of some sort. An alter. An alternative state of mind. Every time a traumatic experience like that will happen again, that alter will take over because that part can deal with it. For every new traumatic event the brain can create a new alter. Depends on how on safe the child feels. That's why some people have a few and some have almost a hundred. But let me tell you one thing! If you truly have DIS YOU DO NOT switch alters on command! DIS is created to protect you from the outside world and doesn't want anyone, including yourself to know you have it or that you could be seen as different. I've seen people switch in front of camera so many times on purpose but never once was I able to switch so clearly to an alter. You may get in contact with your alter but concisely be that alter is far too exposed and in contradiction with what DIS is supposed to do for you. It doesn't make any sense. DIS was supposed to protect you and keep your inner thoughts and feelings secret because that was safe and not show it to anyone, especially not in front of a camera. From what I've learned treatment is supposed to help you work with your alters and be in control of them instead of the other whey around and to let the alters work together so that they won't keep you away from your trauma anymore and you can finally heal it. And the alters will gradually become one again. One u. But I haven't been in treatment that long so if I m wrong and if I have offended anyone than I'm sorry. I still have a lot to learn. It's just that I think people don't realise how young DIS starts and the switching on purpose gives me and my alters the creeps! 😅❤
Sairam Gopal here ;-( true Mr robot is little nightmarishly
I thought DID was caused by trauma before age 6?
Jess MacCormack In most children the personality integrates between the ages of 7-9. The trauma must occur before the personality fully integrates for D.I.D. to develop.
I wish I had this coping mechanism instead of just falling completely apart every time I’m triggered. Thank you.
Taylor Barnett We still do fall apart when we’re triggered, often for days at a time - often we’ll switch rapidly or a protective alter will run things while we shut down internally. It’s more a matter of helping each other get through the less damaging day to day stuff
We have DID or OSDD
Reply if you have DID/OSDD :))))))
Polyfragmented System here eyyyy :)
Newly diagnosed DID system here! (Does anyone have any tips or information on system names?)
@@hijislay3618 For us, someone very famous in our system chose the name, and since she is well loved and respected it kind of stuck. Maybe you guys can try something similar.
We're also named after a famous landmark in our system, the first one she saw. It all depends on what matters to all you and how you want to be known collectively.
@@kj27wolf31 Okay, cool. Thanks guys, gals and nonbinary pals!! - Maria
I wanna experience what it feels like to talk to a person with DID. In our Abnormal Psychology class we were given a task to interact with patients on a mental hospital, it was a 1 week experience and I was supposedly assigned to a patient with DID but he committed suicide a day before the visit so I was assigned to a schizophrenic patient instead.
That's awful! Speaking to someone with DID is like talking with anyone else - other than perhaps if they start dissociating. You've probably talked with someone with DID/OSDD and never knew it; it's possible that they didn't know, either.
@@talacocheta9001 wow amazing how our mind works sometimes. I mean of course DID is not a good thing but I didn't completely know that they're also not aware if the disassociation happens.
@@KyngofJewel We can typically tell if we're dissociating because we lose our train of thought; I meant that we might not know if we've switched to another alter, or that we have alters at all.
Like one of the stories that The Entropy System here on youtube tells in a video is that she thought that her house was haunted because she'd be doing homework and the radio station would keep changing. It wasn't haunted; an alter kept fronting and changing the station and the main host didn't know it because she didn't know that she had DID at the time.
I've had people come up to me and know me, and I had no clue who they were. They called me by another name which I promptly forgot each time, and they were offended when I'd tell them that I didn't know who they were and I would ask how they knew me. It has happened so often that I learned to play along so that they wouldn't get mad at me for not knowing who they were.
These days, though, if someone were to say that they knew me, I'd tell them that I have a dissociative disorder which makes me not remember things, and ask for their help in remembering, if possible. I wouldn't get into my specific diagnosis unless they asked questions about it.
I didn't get a diagnosis until age 33, so went that long without knowing that I wasn't always me.
@@talacocheta9001 I have questions.
1. Have you ever talked to your alter?
2. Are there biological changes when you're disassociating? Just like when you're in your original identity you have no allergies to peanuts but your alter has.
@@KyngofJewel 1. Yes, but it's more answering when I hear them say something, and then I talk out loud to them sometimes in addition to thinking things. 2. I think that you mean if I switch out to a different alter, since "dissociating" typically means just zoning out and losing one's train of thought, imo? I have no idea. Studies have been done which do show such biological changes between alters. I've never been to the doctor while switched that I know of, and there hasn't been anyone to notice such things if I've switched at home.
I didn't know that I was retreating and that an alter or alters was/were fronting the body until a number of strangers kept coming up to me at various times, knowing me when I didn't know who they were. I'm not consciously co-conscious with any alters that I know of. This is all still pretty new to me even though I got a diagnosis a long time ago, because I actually had forgotten that I had the diagnosis and no one was going to tell me since I wasn't supposed to know at all. lol (Many people with DID and OSDD never know that they're part of a system because the system was designed to be hidden and protective.) So far, I know of 2 alters, but there could be a lot more since the abuse from my parents started when I was an infant and didn't stop until I moved out of the house permanently. (There was more trauma from other than my parents when I was in kindergarten and first grade, but I'm not going to get into that.)
I haven't gone to a therapist yet who specializes in systems with DID/OSDD, so haven't started the "stabilization" phase 1 that many do when a system starts therapy. Only one of the psychiatrists that I've seen even diagnosed me properly; the rest were just worried about my PTSD and didn't even notice the DID/OSDD. My diagnosis was so long ago that she couldn't give me an exact diagnosis like they do now. She just said I was "highly dissociative, almost to the point of multiple personality." That was before all of the strangers kept coming up to me, or perhaps I would've had an MPD diagnosis, which now is called DID. Based on symptoms, I have either OSDD 1-a or DID. (The criteria for OSDD 1-a seems different for the UK versus the U.S., so I'm not sure exactly which one I'll be diagnosed with the next time I'm evaluated.)
I suggest you might want to check out the channels for MultiplicityAndMe, The Rings System, The Entropy System, and DissociaDID. They are all good sources and can offer significantly more information than I ever could. Some of them have even covered your #2 question, in addition to all of them mentioning the answer to #1. Cheers