Share your DID Experiences or connect with other people on the DID path
Here is a thread to share your DID experiences or just connect with other people on the DID path. A community starts when 2 or more people start sharing. By continuing to post even if only to say hello, we are not alone. If you subscribe to this thread, you will get updates.
Howdy hey,
We're a diagnosed(in 2015) DID system. We discovered some time ago that we're a polyfragmented system too (over 100 parts/alters, including sub-systems).
We've had to do a lot of self-help work and self-teaching.
Things we've found useful was
Gestalt Therapy
Narrative Therapy
Schema Therapy
Jungian Psychology
Some skills from DBT and CBT
Internal Family Systems Therapy
Psychodynamic Therapy
Books we've used/read so far are
Pete Walker's CPTSD: From Surviving to Thriving
Bessel Van der Kolk's The Body Keeps The Score
Coping with Trauma-Related Dissociation by Boone
Multiplicity by Rita Carter
A Fractured Mind by Robert B. Oxnam
Vol 3 of Engaging Multiples by David Yeung
Websites we've found helpful
Engaging Multiples blog by David Yeung - https://www.engagingmultiples.com/blog/
https://did-research.org/ created and maintained by a DID psychology student
https://traumadissociation.com/#gsc.tab=0 - A comprehensive overview, a bit dated
https://www.carolynspring.com/blog/ - A blog by Carolyn Spring who can be found on other social media
We're in a place where we're not afraid of the alters who could be labeled 'persecutory' or 'abuser introjects' and we can talk with them. Of course there's a lot more progress to be made but we're not battling each other and cussing each other out nearly as often.
If we ask for a break or a moment to breathe before hearing each other out we respect each other's needs to be in a prepared place to discuss and share upsetting emotions, memories, and perspectives.
How's going for you all, what resources have been helping you?
@DichotomousDetia thanks for all those resources!
@DichotomousDetia
Please Add Me
Yo, I am not officially diagnosed but my therapist and I agree I have some kind of dissociative disorder either OSDD or DID. Anyway, just saying hi :)
@Lilibuth12 @DichotomousDetia
Hi there. I hope you see my post in time. At this time as of Tuesday 4PM, Hela will not be hosting the chat on Wednesday noon. I cannot make it there on time.
If you could PM people you know that attend the DID Open Chat and see if there is any interest in having the Open Chat from 12:30PM -1:30 PM EST on Wednesday. If so I am willing to open the room and host the open chat. I will wait to hear from people.
With Kind Regards, soulsings
The Open Chat is now on the Community Calendar.
Announcing a new time of 12:30 PM EST for the Open Chat for people experiencing the challenges of DID and/or OSDD in the Trauma Room with soulsings moderating.
@soulsings Thanks soul, really appreciated <3
@Lilibuth12 yoiu are welcome
@soulsings
Thank you for making this post soul! I hope its helpful for the community :D
@HelaHeals you are welcome.
Hope you get the support you are looking for.
This video by Kati Morton on Dissociation has some interesting points https://youtu.be/FFxFjSCoD1Y
If you want to get right to her recommendations for coping then go to 11M 20seconds
This may be info you have seen before but some of their coping techniques were new to me.
@soulsings
Soul, thank you for this topic/thread you've nicely created. I hope many others find and want to come and use this within here.
I would like to not share personal info now but would like to share some resources. Many live in the US and abroad. Dissociation is different with what is used to dx the types, depending on where you are located.
I do live in the US but know about many limitations and things that have been decided by the APA, who decides what goes into the DSMs each time. and some of the reasons behind some of this, as it relates to trauma. Often, a lot of the reasons don't benefit the people with trauma that could be helped better, if the APA would allow other things into the DSM under trauma and dissociation. In the US, there are many who have been working many decades, who have found much credible info, including backing info with brain scans and more--undeniable, medical proof by MD's/specialists and done research on many tens of thousands. The info is there, it just has to be allowed in, then it can be included.
Other countries do dx differently, with different criteria and thus end up with different statistics, of course of dx's. For ex.,Europe, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Australia, and more do things differently and use different criteria, as I was saying.
There are variations, as with anything.
I have found on here that many people like to watch short videos. This is just my personal opinion from observations and feedback. I will include some categories of credible info on dissociation that can be accessed through videos. Most of the places also have their own websites as well, which I like also.
The CTAD Clinic --The videos are done by the director and he is very knowledgeable. The CTAD Clinic is somewhere around the UK, if I am remembering correctly. Withing some videos, you can find info about why some things are different between countries and some of the problems this creates. Of course, the videos are very informative and give good information on this subject.
https://youtu.be/1UFZYpzW-qE
@soulsings
CTAD Clinic more ongoing videos. I started at the beg and am going more progressive, with some, not all, to provide understanding and context from CTAD on dissociation. I am not only focused on CTAD, nor have I ever been. It is just one of many credible places with videos on dissociation.
Why we need to think about Avoidance in Trauma, PTSD and Dissociation https://youtu.be/uG0X7Pk79R0
Overcoming Avoidance within Trauma and Dissociation https://youtu.be/uG0X7Pk79R0
Signposting: self-help for Dissociative Disorders such as OSDD and Dissociative Identity Disorder
https://youtu.be/vCYVHdwcmyE
How do we understand OSDD...and have we got this right? https://youtu.be/Azcu4RuYt4Y
What is the Treatment for Complex Dissociation? https://youtu.be/PIC2-EoP29Q
A visual understanding of how alters / parts are formed by trauma in DID and OSDD https://youtu.be/qQTPDRB65jQ
Why working with Inner Experience can be difficult: dissociative identity disorder and OSDD
https://youtu.be/L9HZ4BwFgkA
Autism and Dissociation; Part one https://youtu.be/o0dfyWyjSbE
In Conversation...about Autism, Trauma and Dissociation https://youtu.be/6T2i52bmrrk
Developing communication in DID or OSDD through understanding alters / parts
https://youtu.be/LspGANv-PH4
The process of ‘checking in’ as part of internal communication within DID and OSDD
https://youtu.be/rJN8_h3-qns
Dissociative Amnesia Part One: An Overview of Diagnostic Criteria
https://youtu.be/cfPY8Ap5NmY
Dissociative Amnesia Part Two: Understanding and Developing Management Techniques
@soulsings
A very knowledgeable person, with decades of worldwide experience in the trauma field is Dr. Janina Fisher, PhD. Her website is https://janinafisher.com/
Please, if you have the time, check her website out. She is so knowledgeable, very kind, so personable, so good at communicating with anyone on any level she needs. She also has a whole host of YouTube videos out there. You can search under her name, and you will just find so many. Her videos are not only accurate, informative, but they go much beyond this. She just has abilities to go and reach out to others in ways that other knowledgeable people are not able to do. She has done so much in the trauma field for over 4 decades.
On her website, she also has other info you can access and some that can take you to places you can find more things that you may find helpful.
I have been around many decades also and know what she and some others have really contributed into the trauma field. If anyone wants, ask me and I will gladly list many of her videos also--and I will put the names with them.
If you are seeking help with therapy, she has been training therapists for many years, among much else. You can find links on her site to PESI, where there are a some courses for therapists/psychologists/social workers, etc, if you are interested in looking into this and then approaching your therapist or a therapist you choose with this info. There are also articles on her website that are very good.
Do watch some of her live, in some videos. You will understand much from her and ENJOY and FEEL GOOD when watching her in her videos--and this is not something you would expect or find with videos of this nature or subject. This is a big difference.
She also has some books out. The 2 latest ones I know are to be used with a therapist and client, or, can be utilized alone, as many cannot afford therapy and she knows this. She has learned a lot and genuinely wants to help others and is so capable. Please know that she gives a lot of credit to many others she has learned from and worked with throughout the years. She, as many who have worked in the trauma field for the last 4 or so decades have done some collaborative work, and this is not often the case with many things.
Thankfully, I was able to finally learn many important things that I really needed to know, thanks to Dr. Janina Fisher, PhD. The things I have been able to learn from her, how it has helped me, and more, are beyond words for me to even know how to possibly try to describe here.
I will leave you with what it says on her website about her
About Janina Fisher
Janina Fisher, PhD
“It’s never too late to be who you were meant to be.”
—George Eliot
I have had the good fortune to have been taught by or worked alongside the giants in the field of psychological trauma: first, Judith Herman, then Bessel van der Kolk, and, most recently, Pat Ogden. And as much as these pioneers taught me, the most powerful and gifted teachers I have are my patients. These survivors have given me a window into the inner experience of the legacy of trauma, taught me what always to say and what never to say, helped to validate or disprove what the experts and theorists were claiming. It has been a privilege to learn with them and from them.
We now understand that trauma’s imprint is both psychological and somatic: long after the events are over, the body continues to respond as if danger were everpresent. My professional mission has been to bring this understanding of trauma to both clients and their therapists as a psychotherapist, consultant, and trainer of clinicians looking for answers to helping their traumatized clients. I believe the key to healing is not just knowing what happened but transforming how the mind, body, and soul still remember it.
Janina Fisher, PhD is a licensed Clinical Psychologist and Instructor at the Trauma Center, an outpatient clinic and research center founded by Bessel van der Kolk. Known for her expertise as both a therapist and consultant, she is also past president of the New England Society for the Treatment of Trauma and Dissociation, an EMDR International Association Credit Provider, a faculty member of the Sensorimotor Psychotherapy Institute, and a former Instructor, Harvard Medical School. Dr. Fisher has been an invited speaker at the Cape Cod Institute, Harvard Medical School Conference Series, the EMDR International Association Annual Conference, University of Wisconsin, University of Westminster in London, the Psychotraumatology Institute of Europe, and the Esalen Institute. Dr. Fisher lectures and teaches nationally and internationally on topics related to the integration of research and treatment and how to introduce these newer trauma treatment paradigms in traditional therapeutic approaches.
@soulsings
I've found some other things helpful. Dr. Bessel van der Kolk has done so much also in the trauma field in over the past 4 decades.
He had put so much into the trauma field and has tried very hard to focus on the problems relating from and with developmental trauma, which often can be where types of dissociation originate, among other dx and problems. He continues to contribute to this area and filed, and has never been content with utilizing one method of help or mode for any form of dissociation or trauma, and continues to search, try, research into more "ways" to be helpful for people with trauma and dissociation.
A couple of his websites are:
Bessel van der Kolk (main website) Understanding and Healing from Trauma) Best-selling Trauma Research Author | Bessel van der Kolk, MD.
The Trauma Research Foundation Home - Trauma Research Foundation
I have found a whole lot of what Bessel has done very helpful in many ways. He is an MD, a very experienced researcher, and a clinician who sees patients. So, he comes from all aspects in all ways of working to help those of us with trauma, developmental trauma, dissociation, and more. Through so much of what he has done, he has been able to prove, scientifically, medically, that there are very obvious effects of the trauma, dissociation, etc within our brains and bodies. He has been able to provide proof of this visually with brain images and scans (I can't remember the exact technical terms for these brain images/scans). He has been able to prove so much more also. With the proof, trauma and dissociation should NOT be DENIABLE and INVISABE Dx.
But yet, even with presenting over tens of thousands of participants in so many studies, in large study samples (which provides even greater levels of validity), also done worldwide--thus also limiting more bias, the APA in the US, who gets together and determines what goes into the DSM each time, continues to come back saying there is not proof of this.
There is more involved but take this as you want. The bottom line, most everything about developmental trauma is not able to be dx and the dx that are now in the DSM V, can and do affect treatment of us with dissociation, the dx we actually are able to get, the way the various insurance companies handle things based on all this, and so forth. It is all very much a whole big mess.
Those of us with dissociation, I feel, and this is my own personal opinion, need to learn as much as we each can and want to for ourselves, decide what we each think is best for ourselves and our alters/parts/others, and do the best we can to continue to stay current with accurate info in our field, as we are the ones who need "things," and need "things" that will actually help us.
I have memory problems and have learned this is most likely due to all the trauma and thus my DID. A lot of my memory problems, and many who have had developmental trauma and dissociation, involve the frontal lobe area. There is much more to this--much more than simply this! Dr. Bessel van der Kolk can help you understand much about this in his book, The Body Keeps the Score, as mentioned above. But he has done much more since then also and there are scientific journals on his website, visual and audio info in his videos, and other ongoing research he is doing, including trainings. It is interesting the work hs is now involved with into some alternative treatments, such as MDMA for helping people. But he is very clear how this needs to be done in a very controlled environment under the right conditions and this is still underway.
I wish I could remember exactly which of his videos showed the proof with some of his brain imaging with him discussing this. But some of his videos do show this and they are on YouTube. I will try to post some here and may get some that will be useful for some of you.
Bessel van der Kolk, MD on the Frontiers of Trauma Treatment https://youtu.be/mGB2e3hYx4E
What's New in Trauma Therapy (from 2019) – Dr. Bessel van der Kolk – HPP 75 https://youtu.be/1Bfw4hDfmhE!
This video with Bessel van der Kolk is a good one, in that it shows you the brain images/scans, provides you with proof, he gives you examples, he gives you many reasons for many questions you may have about your dx, symptoms, and reasons why there are some of the problems we face in trying to be able to "have" the help for our dissociation and PTSD that we need. I recommend watching this one. I finally found one that has some of the visual and auditory proof within it!!! My awful brain lucked up is all I can say.
The 2014 Merle Jordan Conference - Dr. Bessel van der Kolk – Session 3
This video also has brain images with traumatized people, what goes on in our brains, etc. Vessel also explains many things in here as well. When he speaks, he generally uses the term PTSD or traumatized people, but this of course by the nature of what he does, is focusing on, includes dissociation. This is usually not just specifically stated in many places. It may also be due to some legal things, as he is an MD and has to go by the current standards of his profession, which includes the DSM V, currently, which doesn't even list CPTSD, for example.
But this video is a very good video that also explains a lot. I hope you like it and find it helpful. I did. I am having trouble, as others are with me, but am going to keep trying to get this to you and maybe more. video called Neurofeedback enhances functioning in trauma-Bessel van der Kolk
link for video https://youtu.be/48FpvzLbOq4
