Debunking some DID misconceptions :)

Hello, it has been brought to my attention that people have a lot of misconceptions on DID/dissociative disorders, so i wanted to try and clear a few things out for you guys.

Sources are cited down below. Don't hesitate to ask question, but please be polite and don't forget we are people even behing a screen.

What is did?

DID (dissociative identity disorder) is defined as "an identity disruption indicated by the presence of two or more distinct personality states (experienced as possession in some cultures), with discontinuity in sense of self and agency, and with variations in affect, behavior, consciousness, memory, perception, cognition, or sensory-motor functioning." (DSM-5)

Basically, this means that 1- you have at least two different "personality states", or alters, that can each switch in and out.

2- you experience dissociation

3- you CAN experience memory loss (amnesia) but it's not mandatory to be diagnosed. 

DID is formed when your mind "shatters" at a young age.

There are several theories, and that's one of them, although it is more complicated than that and it has been put aside. The most famous of them is the theory of structural dissociation.

Basically, it assumes that children do not have an already "integrated personality", but rather a fragmented one. 

Each "ego state" would be in charge of a different task, and the self would integrate completely at age 6-9 in normal conditions.

But, in the case of repeated trauma during the early childhood, the ego states are left unable to merge together, forming DID, OSDD, etc...

Did is rare

No. DID is not rare at all actually.

So the prevalence of DID alone (so not including all the other dissociative disorders like OSDD, P-DID, etc) is 1.1% to 1.5% of representative community samples.

To give someting to compare to, less than 2% of the population is ginger. That's approximately 140 million people. The same applies for green eyes.

Schizophrenia is often compared to DID, saying it is more often schizophrenia than DID. Well, Schizophrenia affects approximately 24 million people or 1 in 300 people (0.32%) worldwide. Some sources indicate about 1% of the population. That is less than DID prevalence, and yet people are misdiagnosed with it everyday.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4959824/

I invite you to read this article, it debunks a lot of misconceptions, especially the one saying people "invent" their disorder. (Myth 4)

Source on schizophrenia 

https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/schizophrenia#:~:text=Schizophrenia%20affects%20approximately%2024%20million,%25)%20among%20adults%20(2).

Sources on how did forms

https://did-research.org/origin/

https://did-research.org/origin/structural_dissociation/