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I moderated the DID subreddit for about two years and there was incredible controversy over this constantly in the community and in the mod team. The mod team w

I moderated the DID subreddit for about two years and there was incredible controversy over this constantly in the community and in the mod team. The mod team wanted to have absolutely no discussion of it, while most of the community wanted to either complain or fight with DID youtuber followers. I don't miss moderating that community. The general consensus in the wider text and image based DID community is that most of them are faking, but we don't have a way of knowing for sure or how many because of just how inconsistent the presentation of the disorder can be in real life. You'd never know I had DID if you met me in person, but I have a good friend who is disabled because she can't function on her own. The important thing to remember about DID is that it's caused by childhood trauma, abuse, and long term patterns of neglect as simple as "crying it out" or as significant as parentifying. It's not interesting times we live it it has been this way this is often generational, psychology is just finally catching up in this regard. I was raised (and abused) by my aunt who was only continuing the cycle of her and my mom's abuse that she faced, continued by her father who was abused because of traumas his parents faced on the Trail of Tears. They both described feeling like they had more than one person in them, that their age was not aligned with their body, and the stories of abuse they both told me align. My dad was abused by the Boston Archdiocese, his psychiatric records claimed he referred to himself in turns by John, Jack, and other names, claiming they would act on his behalf. They called it schizophrenia then because of a backlash against diagnosing DID after Sybil and other films reached mainstream.

phkahler 5y ago
My understanding of DID and its origins matches your. While dont have it, I did find IFS therapy useful in fixing myself and recognizing similar in other people. It makes sense (to me) that DID is an extreme on a continuum of splitting of the self. IMHO most people flaunting their DID online, bragging about their others, claiming to be systems, are just attention seekers that are an insult to those with a real problem. The second "D" stands for disorder after all. It's like the teenagers running around claiming all sorts of odd variations on their sexuality - while being virgins. It's cool to be different, but not to falsely claim someone else's difference.
- Valakas_ 5y ago
  Indeed. One thing I notice is that a requirement for most, if not all, personality disorders is abuse. And when we talk about a disease, we normally know it can manifest itself in different symptoms in different people, but we still say that the person has the disease, and not that specific combination of symtpoms. So then that got me wondering why is medicine focused on the psychological symptoms and naming their clusters, when the cause is always the same. If a person has a bacterial infection and gets a sore throat, he will get treated for the bacteria. If that same bacteria gives another person diahrrea, he will still get treated for the bacteria. And yet.... with personality disorders medicine is so focused on clusterizing the symptoms and treating those instead of going after the cause. But then again, not more than 60 years ago we still called all personality disorders hysteria and demonic possession, so I'm pretty sure we are in a similar dark age right now, we just happen to think we're more enlightened than we are (like all generations).

phkahler 5y ago

My understanding of DID and its origins matches your. While dont have it, I did find IFS therapy useful in fixing myself and recognizing similar in other people. It makes sense (to me) that DID is an extreme on a continuum of splitting of the self. IMHO most people flaunting their DID online, bragging about their others, claiming to be systems, are just attention seekers that are an insult to those with a real problem. The second "D" stands for disorder after all. It's like the teenagers running around claiming all sorts of odd variations on their sexuality - while being virgins. It's cool to be different, but not to falsely claim someone else's difference.

Valakas_ 5y ago
Indeed. One thing I notice is that a requirement for most, if not all, personality disorders is abuse. And when we talk about a disease, we normally know it can manifest itself in different symptoms in different people, but we still say that the person has the disease, and not that specific combination of symtpoms. So then that got me wondering why is medicine focused on the psychological symptoms and naming their clusters, when the cause is always the same. If a person has a bacterial infection and gets a sore throat, he will get treated for the bacteria. If that same bacteria gives another person diahrrea, he will still get treated for the bacteria. And yet.... with personality disorders medicine is so focused on clusterizing the symptoms and treating those instead of going after the cause. But then again, not more than 60 years ago we still called all personality disorders hysteria and demonic possession, so I'm pretty sure we are in a similar dark age right now, we just happen to think we're more enlightened than we are (like all generations).