Hey everyone! Today's video
is something that you keep asking for. So I'm going to do it.
Okay! Ugh. Dissociative identity disorder.
what is it?
(Intro Music)
So like I said, today I'm going to talk about DID, Dissociative Identity Disorder.
That is a mouthful. Otherwise known as, multiple personality disorder.
So, if any of you ask me, because some of you did, to do multiple personality disorder
it's the same thing. Ta-da.
So, what is it? Now, I did a video recently with
Melissa (IDrankTheSeaWater) and
if you haven't checked that video out, I would encourage you to check it out. We talk
about maladaptive daydreaming.
And in that video, I talk about DID as well so it'll give you
kind of the spectrum. Because I'm going to talk to you today about the spectrum
of DID. Now, DID dissociation
is something that our mind does as a coping skill
when things get really difficult for it to manage.
We get overstressed. We get traumatized. We get... whatever it may be in
our brain
it's almost like a protective mechanism where it's like,
"I can't handle this. This is way too much. AH!" and we go into dreamland and
we float above ourselves to some extent. Some of you talk about dissociation
like
you're watching yourself do things but you don't have any control over your
body.
some people even describe that when they have panic attacks like
they almost can't help themselves. They feel like they're
like drowning. Like they're watching themselves, you know, float away.
And it's something that our brain does when it just feels
honestly like completely overwhelmed. So that's the reason behind it.
now, most of my clients who struggle with dissociation and have DID
are people who have a traumatic past. It may have been sexual abuse. It may have been
physical abuse. It may have been
anything repeated of those sorts or something that just seemed
so overwhelming and horrible like a
complete devastation of their city, if they were hit by tornado, or something like
that. I've had clients who
have very traumatic pasts and that's where the dissociation starts.
now the way they describe it is on a spectrum.
Now, those of us who don't struggle with dissociation regularly
may have the experience that I have when I get really exhausted and stressed out
and I'm driving home from work and I'm like,
"La, la, la. Singing my favorite song. Who knows what it is." and I'm like, "Wow. I got
home. How did I get here?"
Right? then you're like, "Holy shit! How did I get here?"
That's "dissociation" and it's really daydreaming
almost, like we just kind of space out. We just go into autopilot, right? We have all
these terms we use
but that's kind of like on this end of the spectrum like, well,
it's very mild. It's kind of just because we're tired. We have a lot going on.
But now, we're back and our life wasn't disturbed by it.
now that is like the low end to the spectrum.
The high end of the spectrum being someone who fully participates
in a whole other life. Hints why this used to be called multi- bleh.
Multiple Personality Disorder. Because people would create a
complete alter ego I guess, or
alternative life. And I talk about this in Melissa's video a little bit about
maladaptive daydreaming.
Now they call it maladaptive daydreaming,
it's really just on the farther end of the spectrum of dissociation and DID.
And people can spend hours
each day in this day dream and you will have a whole other life.
Like, my name could be Lucy
and I live in New York City in Soho.
And I have this amazing husband (which I already have.
Hey Sean!) and I this amazing house.
I have this cute dog. He's a French Bulldog. He's a rescue. He's so cute.
Right. We create this ideal alternate universe. Now no wonder we want to live
there, right?
I'd like to have that life. hello! And so
Our real life, when you have to let go of that, when a doctor or a therapist is like,
"You're spending five hours a day daydreaming as this other person.
You're going to have to stop." We look at them more like, "Are you kidding me?
My life right now is a little hectic if you haven't noticed. I'm a little stressed out. things aren't
really going my way.
I don't really want to leave this life to come back to my regular life."
and so that, there in lies the struggle.
The main reason that it will go away
or that the urges to spend all this time in this other alternate universe or
with this alternate persona
is when we actually treat that initial trauma.
Because people with DID, it usually starts when we're very young.
like let's say 8 to 12. That's usually the range when people
begin showing symptoms of this. And it obviously can differ if you've had a trauma
when you're much younger than that, you might have remembered it
younger. Or if the trauma happened a little older, you might be a little bit older.
but that's kind of what we've noticed.
Now, when we work through that trauma and we do all of that horrible hard trauma work, we
processed through it, we work with our therapist.
Talk therapy they say is the best and then after that is CBT therapy.
I bet you're seeing a pattern that those are usually the most useful but
research shows that those are the most useful. And so if we work through that trauma
all of a sudden, we aren't daydreaming anymore. We don't know why. We're not
dissociating.
Things get stressful and we are here and we're fine and we manage
and that's the end of it, to be honest.
so, what DID really is
is a way for our brains to cope when we're really overwhelmed.
And we have to kind of go away from what's happening because what's happening right
now is just way too much.
And so we'll go away, but once we process through
all that traumatic, all those traumatic happenings,
then we're okay to be present, to stay present. So if you are struggling with
this and you find yourself
either daydreaming all day or the majority of your day
or you find yourself dissociating, because I have a video on dissociation itself
so if you haven't checked that out make sure you check that out. If you're
struggling with either of those things, I would encourage you
to talk to your therapist, to find a therapist.
CBT or talk therapy is best. There are also lots of groups and things if that is
something that helps you to hear from someone else's experience.
But most of all we have to work through all of the stuff thats happened to us before
because that's the real reason why this is happening.
And I promise you that those urges to live in that alternate world
will go away. So keep checking back, keep asking your questions. As always
leave your comments below. If you have something that's really helped you
deal with your DID, let us know. We can help one another.
And you can find me all over the internet! everywhere!
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so make sure you check that out. Subscribe, follow, whatever.
and you can ask me your questions because I do FAQ's during the week
and you don't wanna miss your chance your question answered. And I will see you all
next week with another topic video.