Dive into the enigmatic world of Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID), once known as Multiple Personality Disorder. Uncover its reality, symptoms, controversial causes, and treatment options. Explore the mind’s mysteries today!
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Loved this episode
Basically. You cannot have memories that don't exist to begin with. You should seek help. I had a stint for a bit where I heard a girl almost 24/7. She was constantly talking in my head. I was in a bad car crash. I don't hear her anymore but it took years
So far the worst part of DID has been switching in the middle of… cough. Intimate acts.
In High School in the 80's. I convinced myself I had DID due to my roleplaying propensities. After 40+ years of diagnoses, I know I have ASD, ADD, Bipolar Disorder, Cyclic Dysthymia, Social Anxiety Disorder, & a few OCD related disorders, but no DID.
Exactly how many channels do you have??
Honest question:
Could this explain the rise of the "fluid gender movement" (for lack of better terms)?
I was diagnosed in 2020 with DID and have covert DID meaning that I do not appear to change to people who don’t know. I have about seven or eight I think. Most of them I have no memory of the time the alter took over. I am not a danger to anyone. It definitely does exist…I was diagnosed when I had a brain scan. I also have severe PTSD. I believe it’s caused me by people who don’t see images or words in the head. I have nothing and it makes it impossible to work through trauma…
Get some longer socks, Simon.
Why does this channel keep trying to make mental health content work?? At least in this D.I.D. video there was no victim blaming or broad strokes statements of disinformation… but it still wasn't a good video, it just wasn't bad this go 'round. You and your crew are great at what you do but this is not it. Simon you really need to stay in your lane. I’ll grant you your team is improving quickly, but surely you've not exhausted EVERY ~shadowy~ topic without a steep learning curve??
Hey, look, it's the explanation for transgenders and "non-binaries"
The DID community on YouTube is so big and gives so much information. I follow a few DID accounts.
Would it be possible for you to cover Borderline Personality Disorder, also known as Emotionally Unstable Personality Disorder in the UK. In nearly all cases the person does recover from BPD/EUPD, but in my case it is incurable. I go through periods where it gets really severe, but for me it has to be triggered by an event, but for most of the time I am quite stable. Also could you cover both cPTSD and PTSD as I also suffer with both of them.
I used to live with someone who attempted suicide, and only failed 'cause one of her alters sent her mum a goodbye text (or something similar), leading her mum to call emergency services. We don't really talk anymore, but I'm glad for that alter – she was a nice person, and it would've been upsetting to see her die.
As someone who's experienced disassociative episodes – possession is the closest way to describe it, and experiencing physical pain so bad that your brain snaps – it is also like masking gone wild.
Given I was actively and literally taught by my mother as a young child to dissociate ("float on the ceiling") when bad things were happening I suspect it's a bizzaire manifestation of Conversion Disorder.
Researchers in Australia are looking at a theory that some manifestations of Schizophrenia may be the result of early childhood insult to the cerebellum, either via injury or illness – thus making some schizophrenia an early childhood developmental disorder that manifests later in life.
Again, research still needs more time to do its thing.
I'm privileged enough to have a friend with the disorder. Well, two, if we count one of the ults I'm also friends with. It was very confusing when I saw John, insisting he was Joe and that we'd never met. Guessing something was up, I made friends with Joe, who later told me he had DID. I've only met John and Joe, they are both very different but very lovely people. I've yet to meet… Jay
The most famous DID was Christine Costner Sizemore, the individual that Joanne Woodward gave an Oscar-winning performance in the movie "The Three Faces of Eve." This documentary starts with Chris in later years. To see how she was during treatment, it starts at 04:25:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zhOnrNjCnIY&t=295s
Since, I believe in souls and love models, I think the best explanation for DID is the following convoluted chain ⛓ of events:
• Someone is such, that their body is in a constant state of emergency, which means maintenance work is put on hold. This almost certainly means trauma.
• Eventually, it reaches a point where the body will die from lack of animating power if drastic measures are not taken
• The body takes the emergency measure of summoning new souls to mostly run the organs to avoid multiple organ failure
• The alters appear at this stage, but they are very dormant and only see the outside world 🌍 in flashes 📸 from their coma-like state.
• Then, for some reason or another, the major suffering from outside stops, probably due to growing up and gaining independence 💹.
• There is a rush of maintenance that causes a lot of pain itself, though it is often mistaken for being the direct result of the trauma, and not the healing process itself.
• Finally the original personality goes into a deep sleep when everything is fine enough to regenerate and reenergise. This causes general pandemonium, as all the alters wake from their coma-like state all at once.
• The original personality has no reason to front, so the system just has to deal with DID.
———————————–
This explains many points the usual theories don't:
• Why DID people can remember their trauma
• Why DID gets worse just as things start looking up. The rush of maintenance from healing is the main cause of it, not the direct result of the trauma inflicted from outside.
• It also explains Dissociative Amnesia, which is a very similar illness, but in adults. Children are just much more likely to have it, because their trauma is not related to their nature, so growing up can suddenly cause it to stop.
Movies with DID in portray it badly.
And then there's movies people think have DID and it's different personality disorders instead.
Either way, people who, like myself who are professionally diagnosed with DID get seen in a poor light because movies like Split sensationalise DID and this needs to stop.
I’ve lived with DID for a good portion of my life and have been diagnosed professionally multiple times. It’s to the point where I don’t even remember what it was like before, if there even was a ‘before’, and I have to ask myself if I have always been this way. In my day to day those around me are very accommodating, and I have learned to live in synchronicity with my system. When I first clicked on this video I was nervous. I have been watching this channel for a bit, but the damage media and bad actors has given me and my fellow alters isn’t easy to shrug off. People fear me when I tell them about my system and I have lost people who I thought were genuine friends when I shared such a deep and integral part of my life. Those who have accepted me and my system are happy knowing that I seek no desire to find a cure. I’m happy living this way, and have learned skills to work with DID instead of against it. I struggle with other things like autism, so change is very challenging, and with the lack of diagnosis until I was an adult I didn’t really have any other choice but to learn to live with my system instead of as a victim of it. It isn’t easy, and life can get very hard, but it’s part of my collective identity and I don’t really think I could adapt to such a big change. I have a support network who supports me and a system that communicates with me mostly through notes and apps designed for this specific purpose. With all that being said I wish to say thank you for making a video on this topic and for treating DID both respectfully and with kindness. Hearing you speak on it makes me feel as though I’m not some Jekyll-hydian monster like some wish to view me as, but a real person with real feelings, who experiences the world just like anyone else. Albeit a bit differently. In my youth I struggled a lot more, but now as an adult I live a happy life. I work with psychologists to better optimize my strategies and to help heal from other traumas that I’ve had in the past. I hope other people who have the condition, just like myself, can grow and live happy lives despite everything. ❤
Doctor: Do you know who you are
Patient: I DID
I'm not diagnosed DID but am diagnosed BPD with dissociative and depersonalization. So from that experience of it I can believe DID exist.
Those symptom are probably more disruptive in my life than other BPD symptom. I literally do not have a life to ruin anymore because Ive never actually been able to create one because my mental health, a lot of which I attribute to my lack of sense of identity. Its hard to build a career, relationships and all that when you do not feel, think, desire consistantly. There are periods (even multiple years) out of my life that i just straught up have no memory of at all. And also frequently have the experience like "watching yourself from the outside". Sometimes it has even manifest like as like a voice reading every one of my actions like im in a book (idk how else to explain). It is very distressing, upsetting for me and people in my life. Anyway, Im recently in therapy for learning to manage better these symptoms and my two therapists I work with are lovely and making me feel hopeful 🙂
This shit literally doesn't exist.
Whenever I hear "disassociative" I think of a lyric from a Marilyn Manson song of the same name… "I can never get out of here. I don't wanna explode in fear. Dead astronaut in space."
Enjoyed this. Thanks, Simon. Could you do one on borderline personally disorder 😊😊😊😊
It's real. Very real. I'm sure there are some folks out there who take advantage and lie, but it is absolutely real. My partner of almost 6 years has around a dozen alters that I've met…all very different individuals with different mannerisms, speech, and mental health challenges. It's like someone changed the channel on her internal TV. She hates it and is really afraid of people noticing. It's definitely not a party trick she whips out on command. Been diagnosed multiple times throughout her life by multiple professionals, and unfortunately learned first hand that "doctors" don't take it seriously, and simply wanna medicate her into a zombie and lock her in a facility to study her. It's heartbreaking to witness how much fear and helplessness she feels.
It's VERY real.
What I don't think exists is alters. If you think about it, it doesn't really make sense. The very fact that they can be trained to recombine their personalities suggests there aren't separate people in the same mind. That the division is just a delusion the patient has. People can show brain scans, but they can't show how that represents different people.
The closest other thing we know of showing evidence that different minds can coexist in the same body is split brain, and that doesn't work remotely like this. The second mind is far more primitive, lacks many of the abilities of the primary, and is caused by cutting the brain in half. But if it's comparatively easy to get split minds, why wouldn't we see it in other cases, like from seizures or dramatic life changes?
For all the talk of pop culture being inaccurate, DID mysteriously shares a lot of similarities with popular portrayals. Amnesia caused by switching, caused by childhood trauma, and distinctly different identities. It really looks like the presentation is influenced by popular depictions, with evil serial killer personalities not being adopted because that's much more extreme than convincing yourself that you're a secret florist in your spare time.
Of course, all of that assumes an honest patient. And I do think those exist. Many are probably influenced by therapist expectations, unfortunately. But it must be known that there have been a lot of hoaxes. I think you should be especially suspicious of anyone who claims a very large number of alters. Their supposed alters have a funny way of not remembering their own histories. Almost as if it's just one person making up fictional backstories for all of the others and failing to keep so many straight.
please stop calling them personalities. they're alters or alternate identities
This is classic demonic possession, not mental illness
also a note on self diagnosis… on average it takes 7 years to be diagnosed with DID. should someone rly lie to themselves for 7 years until they can get confirmation? and that's just IF they have the money, insurance, and/or access to proper treatment and diagnostic methods.
not that everyone who thinks they have it does?? but it is helpful for some and this is very important to know. the medically appropriate advice is "seek a diagnosis", but people should also be aware of how hard/impossible that can be before completely disregarding anyone who says they have it. (this is to the general population, not medical professionals. i'd hope said professionals would have a better understanding of this, at least)
At 19 i was diagnosed with DID at the New Orleans trauma institute. 12 years of therapy and treatment later and i feel like im finally learning to manage life along with the rest of my system
I was violated by trusted persons in Pendleton Oregon in the 1990's and 2000's, and there is no compensation for the damages inflicted against me. I was a traumatized young boy in the nineties and my path led me through the Oregon State Foster System where I graduated high school in Grove Oklahoma (2009). Where my foster parents/guardians housed me illegally. Warrants were issued for my guardians arrest by Umatilla County in the state of Oregon to the county of Ottowa County in Oklahoma and were later disregarded especially by Judge Bauer of Pendleton Oregon. The damning thing is that I was arrested by the Ottowa County Shariff's office 3 times in the presense of my guardians. My guardians called the cops when I struck back and I was committed to a mental health institution for my actions. Dennis and Geneva Fletcher were the names of my guardians. Geneva has died and enjoyed escaping justice.
I suggest CIVIL WAR…
My BFF intentionally tried to end himself in my front yard as I watched. This was a long time ago and I was in my early teens. I didn’t have any therapy or support and started off with what was probably undiagnosed PTSD. About three months later, I woke up one morning and felt like my brain was trapped inside a bottle and being carried inside my body, which was on autopilot. The whole time, all of my effort went to appearing normal. My parents came from the generation of get over it and pull yourself together. finally, one day in class, my teacher walked up without me noticing and dropped a stack of books on my desk. The noise was so loud and sudden and he was leering at me. I started shaking like crazy and hyperventilating, and they called the nurse to come get me.
My parents put me in a mental hospital where the care was extraordinarily good, and I stayed for about four months. I was in aftercare for about three years. The whole thing was absolutely terrible, but I still consider myself fortunate to an extent. I was unbelievably lucky to end up in The best care available. I feel desperately sorry for those who don’t have that opportunity.
could we PLEASE stop calling it "Dis-associative Identity Disorder"? You wrote it the right way …
I heard it pronounced the wrong way that many times in the last couple of days and it really makes me sad that our disorder is mispronounced that often. And yes, we are diagnosed with Dissociative Identity Disorder (but call it Dissoziative Identitätsstruktur, because we are from Germany and we don't like to call it Disorder/Störung, because it is a survival mechanism).
But also I / we want to thank you for telling about DID to a big audience <3
(and yes, there was a switch while writing ^^ )
Many years ago I prosecuted a particularly horrific case of child sex abuse (the offender was sent to prison for life). My co-counsel and I worked with a forensic pathologist who told us that in virtually every instance, clinically-verified DID patients are victims of child abuse, and usually sexual abuse. This occurs, he believed, because as children the patients are essentially forced to adopt two distinct identities (one public-facing identity with an age-appropriate level of squeamishness about sexuality, and a private side capable of having, and even enjoying sexual conduct with an adult). I was able to see this dichotomy in working with one of the victims (then 11), who could explicitly describe sex acts with her father, while also hiding her eyes in embarrassment about liking a boy at school.
I know the very existence of DID is disputed among clinical professionals, but I can recommend a book by a family friend, Robert Oxman, called "My Fractured Mind: My Life with Multiple Personality Disorder," about his own experience as a DID sufferer. He's a wonderful man and his work in this area gives me greater confidence that DID is in fact a real phenomenon.
It's so weird going from 6 business blaze videos to this and seeing Simon be serious, it's kind of uncanny
It's been 30 seconds and the lack of tangents is concerning
I am surprised you didn't discuss the Australian case where the woman was severely abused in every way possible by her Father. She and many of her alters testified. Each alter had to be sworn in separately. 60 minutes Australia did a story on her.
My coworker had DID. The only reason I knew was because he was acting a little off and i went up to talk to him. His alters all andwered to his name in public to make it easier for the primary. He was taking lithium for it. Severe trama in child hood
Dissociative and dissociate not disassociative and disassociate!!! It's correct in the title, but our clever fact boy is speaking the same old nonsense. Also dissociative fugue is a different thing as DID.
I am happy that you have made corrections to your last video about DID. As someone who was diagnosed at 18, it can be difficult from day to day. DID is also really hard to fake, at least in person, and those who do fake it on social media/tiktok are usually called out y the DID community. DID is usually from repeat childhood trauma, usually extreme trauma. Integration, at least full integration is not always the goal for an individual but is a case by case basis. Some with DID go for co-existence with the Alters they live with. There are therapists who work with all Alters of the person's body.
Again I am quite pleased that you made a more accurate video for this very misunderstood disorder.
Simon can you please do one on BPD (borderline personality disorder)