Dissociative Identity Disorder

[suchxaxdollxx]

My boyfriend tells me that he dissociative identity disorder, or multiple personalities. Honestly, I dont believe him. If he did, he wouldnt recollect what happened while he was another personality, right? Both of his personalities knows whats going on with the other. One personality is normal and one is suicidal and weird. I think he does this for attention. What should I do? I confront him about it but he brushes it off like its not a big deal. It's a big deal for me because I am inlove with his normal self, but this other dark personality, that only comes out every once in a while scares me. He wont seek treatment. I don't want anything to happen to him because sometimes I feel like he is the only thing that keeps me going.

[Amberpamber]

Dealing with someone that has or might have DID is tough. He should really seek help for it, if he won't and you're getting the feeling he's only doing this for the attention then there's probably a good chance you are right but don't accuse him of that till you have enough evidence. I would strongly suggest that he seek help, offer to go with him for support, something cause if he does have DID he needs to seek help for it.

[OMFG!You'reActuallySmart!]

Certain individuals with DID are said to have "co-consciousness", meaning they are aware what happens while one of the personalities is in control but cannot control the behaviour. Also, in certain individuals, the personalities are said to communicate with each other, although in my view, I've always held that to be a form of psychosis. The general theory behind DID is some sort of extremely severe childhood trauma causing the mind to, "fracture" to protect itself by shielding the child. You could try to probe around with discussing his childhood and if he is faking DID to gain attention, he may already have looked up the basic symptoms and diagnostic criteria to come off as genuine. For example, how many personalities does he have (not including his "normal" or main one)? If it's less than 2, then it's not DID. Also, the personalities have names that they somehow expressed to the person, NOT names the person intentionally assigned to them. Each personality tends to come out on a fairly consistent basis for certain conditions (i.e. if there's lots of stress-induced anger, Fred may come out but if there's lots of sadness, wimpy Will may come out and so forth). If he can "summon" a personality to come out, it looks even more skeptical and in my view, indicates he's bullshitting. I don't know if clinicians who support DID would come to the same conclusion for that as well. Overall, I cant imagine someone feeling fine while having their personalities switching in and out because even if they remembered what happened, eventually it reaches a point where it's going to socially kill, after all who wants to have a person with DID come to their wedding if they think wimpy Will personality will come out. It's like someone with schizophrenia experiencing hallucinations, delusions, incoherent thought, affected emotions and some catatonic behaviour, just shrug it off by saying, "nah it's fine, no biggie".

However, the problem is DID is the most controversial mental illness that's currently in the DSM, which makes seeking treatment very difficult because many clinicians and therapists do not support it. Although I'm not a doctor, I fall within the same category and don't believe it is a genuine mental disorder, rather there are other mental disorders that can account (i.e. PTSD given the theorized trauma). Chances are he'll get bounced around from doctor to doctor until he finds a specialist in DID or dissociative disorders.

[Dream]

He could also have erroneously diagnosed himself, or misdiagnosed himself. DID is an animal I've never seen personally, but what you described could be several things, including bipolar. It does sound like he should, at the very least, see a psychologist about it. I can understand being reluctant to seek treatment, but it isn't like a psychologist will pump him full of drugs. If he is feeling suicidal, then this should be done right away.

[RubyLinhan]

I'm a therapist who works with people with DID. Much of what others in this thread have written about how to tell if someone has DID is not accurate. I can't diagnosis what's going on with the original poster's boyfriend, but I encourage them both to find supportive adults to talk to about these concerns.

[little.seeker]

I myself have DID. I occasionally black out when one takes over but after a lot of working through it, I rarely black out anymore. I know what's going on with each personality. But then again I was never actually diagnosed with DID so I don't know what goes on in your boyfriends brain. I was too scared to tell my psychologist what was going on because it was only short term counseling that my parents got me. But that's my experiance at least.