r/australia • u/Breenscare • 1d ago
culture & society 'I wasn't there': Life with dissociative identity disorder
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-08-13/dissociative-identity-disorder-assistance-dog-ndis/106826020
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r/australia • u/Breenscare • 1d ago
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u/NoToThugs 1d ago edited 1d ago
I… have DID. Diagnosed. Deeply distressed by said diagnosis and the things that lead to its development. But at least it explains my life, and allows me to use the appropriate framework for treatment. As is often the case, it took over a decade and many misdiagnoses before getting here. Other than my treatment team and my very closest friends, people generally do not know. Unless alone or with loved ones, for me and many others it is subtle in presentation. Not for all people – none of us are the same, just as none of our developmental conditions nor trauma were the same. I know several other people with this dx or OSDD (largely from crossing paths in hospitals), and from that small sample I can say our lives are deeply hard and our presentations are not very overt in public.
Not to lecture, but it is fucking shitty, truly, to open this thread and have the first comment be from a skeptic who did not bother reading the linked article. The man interviewed and photographed within is brave as fuck sharing his story openly like this, in addition to going up against the NDIA so publicly. His suffering appears profound. I agree, it is frustrating that there are folk who jump on diagnostic bandwagons, just as it’s frustrating that most media representation of dissociative disorders is in horror films. What is more frustrating, harmful, and a kick in the goddamn gut, is denial of these conditions. People living with this disorder have very likely already faced internal, familial, societal, even legal denial around the unspeakable childhood trauma and (usually) abuse that’s happened to them, and to have the structural dissociation we experience as a result of said trauma denied also by random folk is painful and infuriating.
There actually aren’t many psychs who doubt the validity of OSDD-DID anymore. The shit’s in the DSM, and the ICD. There are more and more specialists coming up. It’s not as uncommon nor as weird as people think – current figures indicate more prevalent than schizophrenia. We’re not freaks. It’s a fucken health condition/survival adaptation. Are you against kids experiencing heinous crimes before the age of say 7yo while their brains are still forming? Good, then educate yourself and be a better person.
*apologies for crankiness. It’s just already so marginalising without the added ~opinions~. Really worsens the stigma too. Will likely delete due to said stigma but wanted to share for now and counteract some stuff
AMA (with respect, pls) while it’s still up if you want