Dissociative Identity Disorder: Our Experience

How We Change

Throughout our life we've had trouble identifying with labels. We now identify (not individually) as non-binary but generally more on the male side but when it comes to sexuality it gets complicated. I'd say potentially demisexual and aromantic as one that we'd tell people who don't know about our disorder. Not all of us identify with the label but most do.

Throughout time we can change as a whole or individually. For example, a alter could identify as female but then not feel comfortable identifying as female. That happened with one of the alters in our system named Jessie. They now identify as a FtM (Female to Male) trans male. As for the collective, when a host (the alter in charge of daily living/the alter who fronts the most) change happens it could change the system.

Clearing Up Stigma

Now we also wanted to talk about the movie Split and the movies like it. It's not a good representation of the disorder and in fact actually causes stigma for the disorder. It makes people think that people with DID have superpowers or are dangerous. To put the facts out there a person with DID, or any trauma disorder, are more likely to be a victim of a crime than to commit a crime.

So we don't murder people and we don't have superpowers. A good movie to watch if you want to learn about DID through movies is Frankie and Alice. Just keep in mind DID hasn't been called MPD (Multiple Personality Disorder) since the early to mid 90s. Any movie that refers to DID as MPD and was made after the 90s and is not being based before the 90s is most likely going to have a lot of inaccurate information.

Face Claims and Voice Claims

Face claims and voice claims are exactly what the name suggests. They're meant to be a representation of the alter. They can be helpful because the whole system may not have contact with the alter and by finding a face or voice claim they can introduce themselves to the system.

Face claims are easier to find than voice claims. We still have yet to find voice claims for numerous alters. We don't really feel comfortable introducing ourselves in this book yet but may in the future.

Note: sorry this part is so short. We're not feeling good right now but wanted to get a chapter out. If you have any suggestions for a chapter let us know.