-SINISTER | vkook (ON HIATUS)

"What is DID?" + Explaining Taehyung's alters

Okay, so I have been getting a lot of questions about this story (much to be expected) and I was just going to add them as little a/n at the end of my chapters because I don't like a lot of non-chapter parts, but it's going to take too long to explain, as the chapters are long enough as it is, but I figured these were important questions that I needed to explain in greater depth, so i figured a dedicated part would be appropriate, I suppose. So, yeah, read on if you have any questions; they might just be answered...or at least I am going to try my best to explain them. (If you know about DID, feel free to skip to the BOLD letter, its important.)

Q: What is DID?

I realized I didn't really do the best job at explaining, and just figured everyone would just go research if they're really that curious. But, I'll save them the time and just explain it on here so I don't keep getting asked this.

DID is a really complex disorder though, and I do not fully understand it myself either, despite the amount of research I have done prior to writing this...so, please, do your own research as well so you can get the full picture. I am not going to teach you about the entirety of the disorder (I can't. It's impossible for someone who does not experience it for themself) but for now, I am simply going to explain to you how Taehyung is in my story, and the things he is going through based off of the knowledge that I currently have of the disorder I have chosen to write about. Everything I have learned is from what I have read through medical articles and DID sufferers themselves, and is based entirely off of their testimony (in other words, I'm saying this is in, by no means, 100% accurate. It is simply my perception of what I have read about it, as well as some random stuff I pulled off of medical sites.) With that being said, once again, I am not here to necessarily teach you everything there is to it. I'm more so giving you my interpretation of it (with some general information about it), so you can go on and look into it for yourself so hopefully more people will get educated about it.

I'm going to start off with some facts I have found online about DID, and then I will go on to talk more directly about Taehyung and what he suffers with in this story. But do keep in mind, I am not going to give everything away just quite yet; you will just have to read and find out yourself. But here is some general information.

1. Dissociative identity disorder (DID) was formerly called multiple personality disorder. People with DID develop one or more alternate personalities that function with or without the awareness of the person's usual personality.

2. A history of trauma is a key feature of dissociative identity disorder. About 90% of the cases of DID involve some history of abuse. The trauma often involves severe emotional, physical, and/or sexual abuse. It might also be linked to accidents, natural disasters, and war. An important early loss, such as the loss of a parent or prolonged periods of isolation due to illness, may be a factor in developing DID.

3. Dissociation is often thought of as a coping mechanism that a person uses to disconnect from a stressful or traumatic situation, or to separate traumatic memories from normal awareness. It is a way for a person to break the connection with the outside world, and create distance from an awareness of what is occurring. Dissociation can serve as a defense mechanism against the physical and emotional pain of a traumatic or stressful experience. By dissociating painful memories from everyday thought processes, a person can use dissociation to maintain a relatively healthy level of functioning, as though the trauma had not occurred.

4. A person with DID has two or more different and distinct personalities, the person's usual ("core") personality and what are known as alternate personalities, or "alters." The person may experience amnesia when an alter takes control over the person's behavior.

5. Each alter has distinct individual traits, a personal history, and a way of thinking about and relating to his or her surroundings. An alter may be of a different gender, have a different name, or a distinct set of manners and preferences. (An alter may even have different allergies than the core person.)