Ep 77 - 5 Myths about DID
Hello, and welcome to the EMDR Doctor Podcast. This is episode 77, which kind of feels lucky to me today, and I am Dr. Caroline Lloyd, which is also lucky for me. If you haven't seen my podcast before, welcome. If you listen along occasionally, please do like and subscribe, because it really does help other people find the podcast. Now, if you've been listening to the podcast recently, you will probably know that I am going to give a talk on the 17th of September with my friend Kate Bearsley Smith on DID, which is dissociative identity disorder. So I thought today I might give you a little bit of a, introduction to DID So I will be dispelling five myths about DID. I will probably dispel more myths because there are plenty of them to go around. So dissociative identity disorder is basically a situation where a person experiences prolonged and severe trauma, usually before the age of seven, And as a result of the trauma, they experience a lot of dissociation, and that dissociation is so severe that they develop different parts of their personality to cope with the trauma. So it's actually a really amazing adaptation that the brain does, and in adulthood, what it means is that most of the time the person is themselves, and then sometimes a different personality will come forward. So the first myth that I want to dispel is that DID is rare. DID is not rare. DID is actually relatively common in terms of mental health issues, so the prevalence of DID is around about, estimates range between one and 1.5% of the population, and this is worldwide, so it's not just restricted to the wealthy countries. It's not just restricted to First World countries. It is actually a worldwide prevalence, and it's seen in all the different countries, in China, Mongolia, Afghanistan, probably lots in A-Afghanistan, , in the coming years. But, , you know, a-anywhere that there is trauma. So what does 1.5% actually mean in terms of the frequency of DID? Well, if you think about it, most people have heard of schizophrenia, and they know a little bit about it. Well, schizophrenia occurs in roughly 0.7% of the population, so that's less than one in 100, and DID is more than one in 100. So that just gives you a little bit of perspective, I suppose. And if you're thinking about populations worldwide, now I found this little gem of a fact online that Australians make up 0.33% of the population of the world. So DID is more common than being Australian, which is something Actually, I find that kind of a little bit distressing because it means that over this, over our whole world, there are more people in the world who have experienced that really prolonged and severe trauma during childhood than there are people in Australia, which feels like a very big number to me. I don't think it's going down So that's the first myth about DID, that it's rare. It's not. The second myth that I would like to talk about is that it's dangerous. DID is dangerous. You know, if you've seen most of the things on television or the series on Netflix that, um, star somebody with DID, they always come across as, you know, vastly unpredictable and violent and really, um, very florid presentations, very exaggerated presentations. Well, obviously, you know, TV shows are usually a little bit overstated, shall we say, but DID is not dangerous. It's no more dangerous than any other mental health issue, and there is no evidence to show that people with DID are more violent or less trustworthy or anything else like that. So that's the second myth that I would like to dispel. In my experience, most people with DID are wonderful people and really are just doing the best they can to get on in the world, which is, I hope, what we all say about ourselves as human beings. So myth number three is that kind of the opposite of DID is dangerous, which is that DID isn't real. So you see comments l- in various forums, and I've seen them on, you know, therapy forums on Facebook and so on saying, "This person says that they've got DID, but I think they're just pretending." And this is really one of the most destructive and misinformed beliefs that I think people have about DID. DID is real. There are actually brain changes that happen in someone who has DID compared to somebody who doesn't have DID. So they've done some beautiful functional MRI studies that show that different aspects of the brain light up in these functional F- MRI studies, , for people with DID than people without DID. So, , and m- most of the structures that are involved belong to the DMN, Which is the default mode network. So, , that's just an interesting little factoid for you. But they do show that it is not made up, it's not a fictitious disorder, it's not somebody wanting to gain attention. In fact, most people with DID will really hide it from the world, and usually from themselves as well, because they don't really want the diagnosis. So in my experience, people with DID, uh, really don't sort of rush forward and tell you, "Hey, guess what? I've got DID." So DID is real, it does exist. People don't pretend to have it. Although I will say something here, and that is that there is this, , quite small subculture of people who actually have developed, like, a fantasy around having different parts of themselves, but they're not diagnosed with DID, and they actually exist in kind of subcultures on the internet and also in person. And they call themselves Tulpas, which is short for , , Tulpamancy. And this is, as I said, a subculture a little bit perhaps if you wanna think of it as being a little bit akin to the furries. People who belong to a subculture of, of people who sort of dress up as, , furry beings, as animal beings. So this is a subculture, it's not a diagnosis, , and should not be confused with DID. Now, the next myth that I wanna talk about is one that I actually heard a very well-known psychologist stating on her podcast recently. So I got a little bit, um, steamed up about this one, I have to say. So this psychologist was saying that kind of everybody has DID. They do not. This is wrong. So this comes out of a, a misunderstanding about DID and a misunderstanding about the difference between the concept of having parts of ourselves, which is a really common kind of idea that is the whole basis of IFS, which is internal family systems. And, and IFS is a well-respected, really helpful therapy that talks about parts of ourselves. So we all have parts. I have parts. I have an angry part. I have a therapy part. I have a lounging around at home, lazy part. I have a, uh, a helpless part who comes out very occasionally. So, you know, we all have parts, and I, I won't get into it more than to say that. But I think that there is definitely a huge divide between that idea that we all have parts, and confusing that with we all have alters or alternative personalities. So we do not have alternative personalities. So there's a really big difference between having parts of ourselves that express themselves in different times of the day and different situations, and having different parts of our personality that are very divided and cut off, and usually not in much communication with the other parts So I think it's a really, um, dangerous idea to say that, yes, we all have DID because it absolutely is not true. So I can see what perhaps she was trying to do, which was maybe to demystify it, if I'm being kind. But, um, but it, it's absolutely not true. So with DID, the main difference is the dissociation. So, , the lack of communication or lack of knowledge of the other part of our personality that comes forward with the switching that happens in DID. Whereas w- when I am, uh, say, for example, in my helpless part, I really know that I am just myself, but I'm feeling a bit helpless because I've been overwhelmed by a whole lot of other things So I hope that that's kind of made a bit of a distinction there. But I do wanna emphasize not everyone has DID. It is an actual diagnosis that has criteria in the DSM-5 that we should be very careful to follow and make that diagnosis quite carefully and over a period of time, not in one instant. So yeah, I hope that's helpful. Um, now the fifth myth that I want to talk about here is around one of the goals of therapy. So when we talk about therapy for people with DID, otherwise known as multiples, , or, , systems perhaps, you know, people sometimes like to refer to themselves as a system So one of the goals of therapy is certainly not to remove them of their alters or their parts or their alternate personalities. We do not want to be aiming for fusion, and that perhaps is a little bit of, uh, an old-fashioned idea that if we're treating DID, we wanna get rid of it. We wanna m- make them normal. I hope if you're listening to this podcast rather than watching it on YouTube, you can hear my air quotes around "make them normal," because that's definitely not one of the goals of therapy. So in my mind, when I treat my clients with DID, when I'm helping them resolve their difficulties, I'm helping them resolve their difficulties in life. I'm helping them resolve the difficulties that arise from the prolonged and severe trauma that they experienced during childhood. I'm not aiming to change their personality structure. So this is really important, and, and I think, , you know, it's possibly something that gets in the way of people with DID from perhaps being able to trust in the process of therapy if they're going in with a little bit of a concern around their therapist wanting to just kind of erase their other alters. Like, that is definitely not what we're, what we're trying to do I want my clients with DID to enjoy their lives as best they can. To be as functional and as successful and as free or as relaxed as they possibly can. If that's their goal, of course, because we wanna be aligned with people's goals for themselves. So, you know, there is one, , kind of word that comes up for this, and that, that is the idea of functional multiplicity. So basically, what we're doing is accepting the multiplicity. We're accepting all the alters, all the parts, and allowing them to be what they are, and helping each individual part with their burdens or with their, their distress, , just as much as is possible or acceptable to them at the time , And underlying this is this belief for myself as an EMDR therapist, so I work with trauma, and I help people resolve their trauma all the time with EMDR. And it is my absolute belief that we can remove much of the distress associated with trauma, and I see this happen many times in my therapy practice. So that is what I aim for with, with my DID clients as well, if that is their goal for themselves All right, so today we've talked a little bit about DID, about the goals in therapy, about, about the myths about DID And I hope that you have a little bit more of an understanding about DID now. I have barely touched the surface. There is a lot more to be said about DID, and, , Kate Beazley-Smith and I will be going into it in a lot more detail, on the 17th, which is coming up for next Thursday. So I hope you can join us. Feel free to jump onto my website, emdrdoctor.com.au/ ... training, the training is there for you to register for. So I hope to see some of you then, and I look forward to sharing a little bit more knowledge and insight and helpful tips for therapists for, , treating DID. All right. I hope this has been helpful to you. I will talk to you again soon. In the meantime, take good care. Bye for now.
