Everything You Need To Know About Dissociative Identity Disorder

Diagnostic Criteria

The DSM-5 outlines very specific diagnostic criteria for DID. If an individual experiences dissociative symptoms or alters without meeting all the dissociative identity disorder criteria, they may have another dissociative disorder. Other specified dissociative disorder, or OSDD, is used for presentations of dissociation and identity fragmentation that don't fully meet the DID criteria. To be diagnosed with dissociative identity disorder, the individual must experience two or more distinct identities with consistent patterns of thinking, perceiving, and relating to the world. The disruption to their identity must change their sense of self, agency, consciousness, behavior, cognition, motor function, perception, and memory. DID patients must have frequent memory gaps that aren't explained by ordinary forgetfulness. Symptoms must also cause serious impairment in day-to-day functioning or distress.

Myths And Stigma Surrounding DID

There are many myths and a lot of stigma surrounding DID. Many horror movies have been made about violent individuals with dissociative identity disorder. The same is true of many criminal procedural shows. Because DID isn't well understood, there's even prevalence of myths about it in the medical community. One of the biggest myths is that dissociative identity disorder isn't real. Mental health practitioners tend to find DID diagnoses controversial, but there's no denying that there are well-documented cases of individuals meeting the diagnostic criteria. It's common for individuals to defend negative portrayals of DID in the media because they're 'just fictional.' However, the lack of positive portrayals of dissociative identity disorder has led many to believe the disorder causes individuals to be dangerous and violent. DID patients do not have a higher likelihood of committing violence than anybody else. In addition, they're actually more likely to be the victims of violent acts than the average population. Dissociative identity disorder is also not a personality disorder; instead, it's considered a dissociative disorder. Some individuals believe all DID alters are extreme and obvious, but they aren't always. In fact, some alters may purposefully act like the host as a survival mechanism.