We were misdiagnosed as BPD for such a long time. The dx never ever felt right. I'm so greatful for my current psychologist, her knowledge of trauma and DID, or we would still be lost and so dysfunctional. At least knowing myselves a bit better has lessened our fear of what is happening, and we can work on our co-compassion for each others experiences.
We've had a very similar experience! Misdiagnosed directly into adulthood with BPD [and received the worst behavior and treatment from medical professionals during that time, might i add... like they would walk into the room as if id made the appointment soley to manipulate and abuse the staff, and had spit on the check in staff on the way in... it was wild the mistreatment we were given during that time!] Similar to what you wrote, it never felt right. It is actually what got us started on proper research and study into psychology - the host at the time *had* to understand why they were given that diagnosis and needed the language available to express and explain the internal experience.
We were misdiagnosed with bipolar disorder 2 for over a decade. We can completely relate to how you describe the symptoms that get misdiagnosed as bipolar and we feel seen! The different alters' demeanors and moods, as well as flashbacks on the outside and from inside do also get mistaken for the mood changes in bipolar. It took an astute psychiatrist who questioned the frequency and erratic nature of the moods before our system revealed itself to our main fronter and that misdiagnosis was corrected. I think that the combination of alters plus C-PTSD really makes correct diagnosis difficult. When looking back, many clinicians didn't take proper time and care to truly dig into our past, challenge our beliefs, and call the sh!t out for what it was - abuse and trauma.
I was diagnosed with major depressive disorder. I was diagnosed with it generalised anxiety disorder.I was diagnosed with borderline personality disorder- they NEVER fitted me. Ever. When I was diagnosed with DID and CPTSD, it was a lot harder, but it all made sense
I read an interview by dr. O’Neal where he mentioned that DID doesn’t appear as a differential diagnosis for any disorder in the DSM (outside of the dissociative disorders section). This means that most diagnosticians will only have seen dissociation for a very brief period of time during their education and then never again. And it’s been very interesting to interact with medical professionals and notice how indeed they don’t seem to be familiar with DID to the same extent as eg schizophrenia which has a similar prevalence
Again you make so much sense in what is usually a confusing field of behaviours and labels. I am so happy that there are people like you who can help others to observe and think in a clean unprejudiced way, without all the drama or filling in that can be in the way.
My DID symptoms were taken for psychosis, schizophrenia, and BPD. This video has helped me understand the self harm bit as well for the first time in my life
I've been misdiagnosed with unspecified bipolar (twice) and EUPD in the past, so this is extremely relatable. Turns out it was complex dissociation. I also had a psychiatrist mistake me talking about "feeling like another person is taking over my body" as psychosis and I was put on antipsychotics for a while until my new doctor and therapist realised I wasn't psychotic at all and it was dissociation. I understand why they thought it could have been psychosis since my mom is psychotic and her dad was psychotic, but the fact that they never even bothered to look into whether the client that they are treating for childhood trauma and who's dissociating all the time could maybe have a dissociative disorder is so wild to me. I had such obvious symptoms the entire time when you pair it together with a trauma history. I really hope more health professionals are gonna know about dissociation, because at least here in my country Denmark it is not well understood by the vast majority of mental health workers, sadly
Thanks for doing this video series! I've found it very helpful in understanding my pre-DID diagnostic treatment. I went through so much disturbance being misdiagnosed. I was diagnosed with DID at a trauma clinic 22 years ago but for a few years prior I was diagnosed with several things and mis-medicated. Misdiagnosis was devastating physically and mentally as it caused a lot of unnecessary antipsychotic meds to be given to me, resulting in weight gain and more dissociation. The correct diagnosis, while I was really embarrassed about it for a long time, did end up saving my life and helping me be able to function much better. Thanks again for explaining all of this information so well!💕
We tried emdr in 2017 and dropped out after a few sessions. The therapist was pretty judgmental and said in one meeting only she felt we were bipolar type 2 and recommended meds because we talked fast. She also said she felt we’d dissociate and not be able to handle emdr which angered us and made us do it just to prove her wrong. Now we know that those experiences happen with OSDD / DID, and no one had been aware that we needed phase 1 of trauma therapy and they pushed us to phase 2 too soon. The piece we relate to is the flight response with going for a walk. We will switch and go home as quickly as we can, even if we’re on a walk with a parent. We hide away from the world and have agoraphobia. So curious if you’ll do an agoraphobia co-occurrence video, but thanks for this one!
I was lucky enough to have my ex-mother-in-law recount two stories from my wife's childhood and label one of her alters as being her "best friend." There was a very dysfunctional element to the conversation as the woman winked at her (as if it were their secret and my wife looked on as a blank slate). During the dissolution, I met an individual online who was using the alter's name. I became friends with them and they recounted the exact stories from a different perspective (complete with abusive details in one case). The alter even recounted how her mother often winked at her. I attempted to write and post a story using elements from my life on the server. I was removed for vague accusations and within days, got an email from my attorney telling me not to contact my wife again or he'd stop representing me.
Hahaha, have had "psycotic", but then they took it back and got meds off too (thankfully, that stuff made everything just messy, blurry times million!). Have been questioned if bipolar - nope. Had a therapist be 100% sure that am borderline - nope. And if something has been correct, it's depression, anxiety and panic. And hey, I got ADHD diagnosis like a year ago. But they're still confused about all the trauma and the others who have made very sure not to really come out and talk. They did nail dissociation tho! So. Yeah. Getting there. And good news maybe, gonna go to an interview with a psychotherapist. Tho... He didn't answer in text if he has experience with weirdballs like us. (I did explain in short our stuff.) So... We'll see how it goes. (Please be good, please be good, please be good!)
This video is quite welcome. I think it would be extremely helpful for new clinicians to observe video or meet clients with DID during training. I was sent to different facilities during training in order to expand, even slightly, my understanding of more rare conditions. Hospitals used to run psychiatric grand rounds, and I learned a great deal from them.
Our psychiatrist is really the only only one that's been able to help us. She prescribed us Lithium, and I do believe we really do need it, because it's not just a case of individual alters causing bipolar-like symptoms, but those alters do all get alternately submanic or depressed depending on what's happening in our lives. (And we definitely notice a difference when we run out of the medication, that's for sure!) Loving this video series!
Thank you for explaining. You make it make more sense 😊 I remember times when i dont know what happened because i must have dissociated. It happened a few times in school. My memory just stops quite abruptly. I'm not sure where i went or how i got home. I tried to explain as much as i could to doctors, but its a case of them asking the right questions. First was clinical depression, anxiety and then bipolar disorder. I don't know what to think because it's all very confusing to feel. Unfortunately, whenever im in front of a doctor or therapist. Something is stopping me from talking or even accessing memories. It's like something else takes over. It's really hard to break through. So i am going to write as many notes as possible.
Thank you! I needed this video! Entering services nearly 20 years ago, I was diagnosed as Borderline. It didn't really seem to fit, but I figured it was an unconscious prejudice on my part and I needed to just accept it. Years later, and understanding just how much the amnesia was hiding, it makes sense that a Psychiatrist who only sees a patient for an hour would arrive at that conclusion, given the apparent similarity of diagnostic criteria and the really subtle indicators that differentiate between them. Compared to a 5-8 hour assessment for dissociation, it's understandable why the first diagnosis may be skewed. Particularly since part of DID is to *hide* DID and it takes trust in the person or faith in the system to be able to fully describe experiences that are indicative of dissociation. However, actually doing therapy with a clinical psychologist at the time, I was trying to explain my day to day experiences and she was fairly dismissive and glossed over a lot of weird situations that I had found myself in. She explained that the 'child' alters were just different parts of my mind, which were more emotional or calm or thoughtful or wise. All their drawing and colouring and creativity was viewed as juvenile hobbies. At the time, I was young, had never been in services before, didn't know how to advocate for myself, didn't know what to expect. And life was so turbulent with all these random symptoms appearing, she was my only lifeline. So I tried really hard to just work along with whatever direction she was pushing. Years later (and many therapists later!), I've found myself reflecting more and more on those earliest sessions and feeling let down by the system. In turns, I've felt disappointed, devastated, angry at being so dismissed, not listened to, not heard or teased for childish behaviours. It's been difficult to process some of that emotion because I wasn't really understanding how it happened or why, but at the same time, that therapist was *such* an important part of keeping me alive while I was dealing with police and my parents and moving out of home and being homeless for months and then getting my first flat. I've noticed that I still have a lot of anxiety around people knowing about the younger alters in our system, I do a lot of concealment around their crafts and activities, just in case someone notices. I have 'excuses' for anything I can't hide, in case someone asks about it - "why do you have that?" "It's a useful starting point to learn about this particular technique, which is the foundation for .... complicated activity." Rather than just being able to say "cos it's fun." This video really helped me understand how this can happen, how subtle the differences can be. For me, understanding it means I can be disappointed by the effect those experiences had, whilst also accepting the imperfections of services at the time and the human beings providing it. With that framework, I think I'll be able to manage my emotions better, when those memories of therapy pop up. Thanks, doc, you have no idea how much this has helped!
Especially the point about self-harm being punishing or destructive, rather than grounding or for emotional regulation. I didn't realise that self-harm presented differently in DID. I knew I didn't have 'normal' reasons for self-harm so, assuming the therapist was right, I just figured that I *was* using it to try to emotionally regulate and the emotion I wanted to regulate was self-hate! Which satisfied both her criteria and my experience without actually feeling valid at all. I didn't know that it's potentially a dissociation thing.
@@Rat_Queen86 So sorry. Try to befriend and have self compassion. Think cannot handle pain whatsoever in self-infliction in that way. I’m just a good stuffer. We are loved and wanted no matter what 💞💙🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻👊👊
Thank you so much for this video and the next one! This is so helpful for us in figuring out where we are on the OSDD/DID spectrum. Really looking forward to discussing this with our therapist. Thank you!
Again, after over 40 years of being diagnosed with many different mental conditions, ie, clinical depression, bi-polar, schizophrenia, etc...I have finally been correctly diagnosed. While I am relieved that my behavior has been validated by the DID diagnosis, this diagnosis has been a hard pill to swallow...and I have no choice but to accept this and learn to live and be content within my mind and my reality. Sadly, in the US, mental health professionals by and large do not accept DID as a real and separate condition, they tend to fold it into a PTSD episode and think that medications will help or cure the condition of disassociation...
May I ask, do you have any videos concerning alters who can 'touch' an individual? I've always wondered about this. it's often seen as a hallucination but if the one doing the 'touching' is a consistent character with a complex personality, it makes me wonder if there's more to it. thanks if you read this question.
![[ENGSUB] UNPRODUCTIVE DAY ใช้ชีวิต (เปื่อยๆ) ด้วยกัน 1 วัน! | OUROAD CLOSEFRiEND SS2 EP.9](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/pyYKZ3kra9w/mqdefault.jpg)
![MV วิถีชีวิตใต้ - ผา อัยย๊ะ [Official MV HD]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/nODlkOUu9B0/mqdefault.jpg)
We were misdiagnosed as BPD for such a long time. The dx never ever felt right.
I'm so greatful for my current psychologist, her knowledge of trauma and DID, or we would still be lost and so dysfunctional. At least knowing myselves a bit better has lessened our fear of what is happening, and we can work on our co-compassion for each others experiences.
We've had a very similar experience! Misdiagnosed directly into adulthood with BPD [and received the worst behavior and treatment from medical professionals during that time, might i add... like they would walk into the room as if id made the appointment soley to manipulate and abuse the staff, and had spit on the check in staff on the way in... it was wild the mistreatment we were given during that time!]
Similar to what you wrote, it never felt right. It is actually what got us started on proper research and study into psychology - the host at the time *had* to understand why they were given that diagnosis and needed the language available to express and explain the internal experience.
We were misdiagnosed with bipolar disorder 2 for over a decade. We can completely relate to how you describe the symptoms that get misdiagnosed as bipolar and we feel seen!
The different alters' demeanors and moods, as well as flashbacks on the outside and from inside do also get mistaken for the mood changes in bipolar. It took an astute psychiatrist who questioned the frequency and erratic nature of the moods before our system revealed itself to our main fronter and that misdiagnosis was corrected.
I think that the combination of alters plus C-PTSD really makes correct diagnosis difficult. When looking back, many clinicians didn't take proper time and care to truly dig into our past, challenge our beliefs, and call the sh!t out for what it was - abuse and trauma.
I was diagnosed with major depressive disorder. I was diagnosed with it generalised anxiety disorder.I was diagnosed with borderline personality disorder- they NEVER fitted me. Ever.
When I was diagnosed with DID and CPTSD, it was a lot harder, but it all made sense
I read an interview by dr. O’Neal where he mentioned that DID doesn’t appear as a differential diagnosis for any disorder in the DSM (outside of the dissociative disorders section). This means that most diagnosticians will only have seen dissociation for a very brief period of time during their education and then never again. And it’s been very interesting to interact with medical professionals and notice how indeed they don’t seem to be familiar with DID to the same extent as eg schizophrenia which has a similar prevalence
Again you make so much sense in what is usually a confusing field of behaviours and labels. I am so happy that there are people like you who can help others to observe and think in a clean unprejudiced way, without all the drama or filling in that can be in the way.
Thank you so much, that is the plan!
My DID symptoms were taken for psychosis, schizophrenia, and BPD. This video has helped me understand the self harm bit as well for the first time in my life
I've been misdiagnosed with unspecified bipolar (twice) and EUPD in the past, so this is extremely relatable. Turns out it was complex dissociation. I also had a psychiatrist mistake me talking about "feeling like another person is taking over my body" as psychosis and I was put on antipsychotics for a while until my new doctor and therapist realised I wasn't psychotic at all and it was dissociation. I understand why they thought it could have been psychosis since my mom is psychotic and her dad was psychotic, but the fact that they never even bothered to look into whether the client that they are treating for childhood trauma and who's dissociating all the time could maybe have a dissociative disorder is so wild to me. I had such obvious symptoms the entire time when you pair it together with a trauma history. I really hope more health professionals are gonna know about dissociation, because at least here in my country Denmark it is not well understood by the vast majority of mental health workers, sadly
It is similar here, though we try to raise awareness and stop what you went through from happening to others. Thank you for the comment!
The vast majority of clinicians in Australia have no idea about dissociation either
Thanks for doing this video series! I've found it very helpful in understanding my pre-DID diagnostic treatment. I went through so much disturbance being misdiagnosed. I was diagnosed with DID at a trauma clinic 22 years ago but for a few years prior I was diagnosed with several things and mis-medicated. Misdiagnosis was devastating physically and mentally as it caused a lot of unnecessary antipsychotic meds to be given to me, resulting in weight gain and more dissociation. The correct diagnosis, while I was really embarrassed about it for a long time, did end up saving my life and helping me be able to function much better. Thanks again for explaining all of this information so well!💕
We tried emdr in 2017 and dropped out after a few sessions. The therapist was pretty judgmental and said in one meeting only she felt we were bipolar type 2 and recommended meds because we talked fast. She also said she felt we’d dissociate and not be able to handle emdr which angered us and made us do it just to prove her wrong. Now we know that those experiences happen with OSDD / DID, and no one had been aware that we needed phase 1 of trauma therapy and they pushed us to phase 2 too soon.
The piece we relate to is the flight response with going for a walk. We will switch and go home as quickly as we can, even if we’re on a walk with a parent. We hide away from the world and have agoraphobia. So curious if you’ll do an agoraphobia co-occurrence video, but thanks for this one!
I was lucky enough to have my ex-mother-in-law recount two stories from my wife's childhood and label one of her alters as being her "best friend." There was a very dysfunctional element to the conversation as the woman winked at her (as if it were their secret and my wife looked on as a blank slate).
During the dissolution, I met an individual online who was using the alter's name. I became friends with them and they recounted the exact stories from a different perspective (complete with abusive details in one case). The alter even recounted how her mother often winked at her.
I attempted to write and post a story using elements from my life on the server. I was removed for vague accusations and within days, got an email from my attorney telling me not to contact my wife again or he'd stop representing me.
Hahaha, have had "psycotic", but then they took it back and got meds off too (thankfully, that stuff made everything just messy, blurry times million!). Have been questioned if bipolar - nope. Had a therapist be 100% sure that am borderline - nope. And if something has been correct, it's depression, anxiety and panic. And hey, I got ADHD diagnosis like a year ago. But they're still confused about all the trauma and the others who have made very sure not to really come out and talk. They did nail dissociation tho! So. Yeah. Getting there.
And good news maybe, gonna go to an interview with a psychotherapist. Tho... He didn't answer in text if he has experience with weirdballs like us. (I did explain in short our stuff.) So... We'll see how it goes. (Please be good, please be good, please be good!)
These videos need the option of more than one like!
This video is quite welcome. I think it would be extremely helpful for new clinicians to observe video or meet clients with DID during training. I was sent to different facilities during training in order to expand, even slightly, my understanding of more rare conditions. Hospitals used to run psychiatric grand rounds, and I learned a great deal from them.
Honestly though, even when some see it first hand, it can still be dismissed. We keep trying.
Thank you, as always, for what you do.
So nice of you!
Our psychiatrist is really the only only one that's been able to help us. She prescribed us Lithium, and I do believe we really do need it, because it's not just a case of individual alters causing bipolar-like symptoms, but those alters do all get alternately submanic or depressed depending on what's happening in our lives. (And we definitely notice a difference when we run out of the medication, that's for sure!)
Loving this video series!
Thank you for explaining. You make it make more sense 😊 I remember times when i dont know what happened because i must have dissociated. It happened a few times in school. My memory just stops quite abruptly. I'm not sure where i went or how i got home. I tried to explain as much as i could to doctors, but its a case of them asking the right questions. First was clinical depression, anxiety and then bipolar disorder. I don't know what to think because it's all very confusing to feel.
Unfortunately, whenever im in front of a doctor or therapist. Something is stopping me from talking or even accessing memories. It's like something else takes over. It's really hard to break through. So i am going to write as many notes as possible.
Thank you! I needed this video!
Entering services nearly 20 years ago, I was diagnosed as Borderline. It didn't really seem to fit, but I figured it was an unconscious prejudice on my part and I needed to just accept it.
Years later, and understanding just how much the amnesia was hiding, it makes sense that a Psychiatrist who only sees a patient for an hour would arrive at that conclusion, given the apparent similarity of diagnostic criteria and the really subtle indicators that differentiate between them. Compared to a 5-8 hour assessment for dissociation, it's understandable why the first diagnosis may be skewed. Particularly since part of DID is to *hide* DID and it takes trust in the person or faith in the system to be able to fully describe experiences that are indicative of dissociation.
However, actually doing therapy with a clinical psychologist at the time, I was trying to explain my day to day experiences and she was fairly dismissive and glossed over a lot of weird situations that I had found myself in. She explained that the 'child' alters were just different parts of my mind, which were more emotional or calm or thoughtful or wise. All their drawing and colouring and creativity was viewed as juvenile hobbies.
At the time, I was young, had never been in services before, didn't know how to advocate for myself, didn't know what to expect. And life was so turbulent with all these random symptoms appearing, she was my only lifeline. So I tried really hard to just work along with whatever direction she was pushing.
Years later (and many therapists later!), I've found myself reflecting more and more on those earliest sessions and feeling let down by the system. In turns, I've felt disappointed, devastated, angry at being so dismissed, not listened to, not heard or teased for childish behaviours. It's been difficult to process some of that emotion because I wasn't really understanding how it happened or why, but at the same time, that therapist was *such* an important part of keeping me alive while I was dealing with police and my parents and moving out of home and being homeless for months and then getting my first flat.
I've noticed that I still have a lot of anxiety around people knowing about the younger alters in our system, I do a lot of concealment around their crafts and activities, just in case someone notices. I have 'excuses' for anything I can't hide, in case someone asks about it - "why do you have that?" "It's a useful starting point to learn about this particular technique, which is the foundation for .... complicated activity." Rather than just being able to say "cos it's fun."
This video really helped me understand how this can happen, how subtle the differences can be. For me, understanding it means I can be disappointed by the effect those experiences had, whilst also accepting the imperfections of services at the time and the human beings providing it. With that framework, I think I'll be able to manage my emotions better, when those memories of therapy pop up.
Thanks, doc, you have no idea how much this has helped!
Especially the point about self-harm being punishing or destructive, rather than grounding or for emotional regulation. I didn't realise that self-harm presented differently in DID. I knew I didn't have 'normal' reasons for self-harm so, assuming the therapist was right, I just figured that I *was* using it to try to emotionally regulate and the emotion I wanted to regulate was self-hate! Which satisfied both her criteria and my experience without actually feeling valid at all. I didn't know that it's potentially a dissociation thing.
Great video. I could not find fault in anything you covered. This has been my observation.
Glad to hear it!
thanks for your videos. i really thank you for helping so many people with this. it's so common to be misdiagnosed so this stuff is essential
You're so welcome!
Unfortunately feel like so so many mis diagnosed 😫💔😪🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻💞💙👊👊
Yup, bingo - impulsivity, self harm ( don’t do it myself as don’t appreciate pain at all).
My child alter engages in self harming behaviour. It’s very distressing and sad.
I have never self harmed. So, it’s very confusing
@@Rat_Queen86 So sorry. Try to befriend and have self compassion. Think cannot handle pain whatsoever in self-infliction in that way. I’m just a good stuffer. We are loved and wanted no matter what 💞💙🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻👊👊
Thank you so much for this video and the next one! This is so helpful for us in figuring out where we are on the OSDD/DID spectrum. Really looking forward to discussing this with our therapist. Thank you!
So glad!
Again, after over 40 years of being diagnosed with many different mental conditions, ie, clinical depression, bi-polar, schizophrenia, etc...I have finally been correctly diagnosed. While I am relieved that my behavior has been validated by the DID diagnosis, this diagnosis has been a hard pill to swallow...and I have no choice but to accept this and learn to live and be content within my mind and my reality. Sadly, in the US, mental health professionals by and large do not accept DID as a real and separate condition, they tend to fold it into a PTSD episode and think that medications will help or cure the condition of disassociation...
I've beem diagnosed with schizophrenia and BPD before OSDD, it sucks
Lol i just got misdiagnosed as bipolar yesterday even though i tried to explain the difference. Funny timing.
Same in medicine …..
May I ask, do you have any videos concerning alters who can 'touch' an individual? I've always wondered about this. it's often seen as a hallucination but if the one doing the 'touching' is a consistent character with a complex personality, it makes me wonder if there's more to it.
thanks if you read this question.
@@ichi_san not done one on this, but I have seen it, and would happily share some info!
@@thectadclinic Thank you, that would be awesome. I appreciate this a great deal.
🙏
I have a question, and maybe you have answered this already in another video but: is it possible to have DID and OSDD at the same time?
@@mksparrow5398 DID contains OSDD features (when parts influence but do not emerge). OSDD with DID features would be DID (or partial).
What about DID associated with those who go off to have sex with strangers or prostitutes?