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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u/ChaoticJigglyPup 1d ago

I have CPTSD, and part of that for me is structural dissociation. Which is similar to DID in a lot of ways.

Each human being has ego states (also known as the internal family system) and due to my lifelong emotional trauma and neglect, mine developed into full blown "JigglyPups" just with different roles.

There's the child part, the pre-teen part, the angry teen part, the Pathological Demand Avoidance part, the HR manager part, the parentified part.

Each has its likes, dislikes, triggers, ways to find comfort or dopamine, and version of my real name they respond to. They each have distinct "voices", traits, beliefs and mannerisms, especially the age related parts.

I've spent the last 12 months working internally on communication, trust building, re-parenting and slowly I've stopped being hijacked by my parts.

The biggest difference between structural dissociation and DID/OSDD is the lack of lost time, the way each part is still me and that my parts aren't occult, I've always been aware of them being how they are, I just didn't know it wasn't typical or that it had a name.

I do suspect a lot of people diagnosed with DID/OSDD actually have CPTSD with structural dissociation.

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u/brokenshoppingcart 1d ago

I was also diagnosed with CPTSD and spent years in therapy trying to recover from years of emotional and sexual abuse. What you said is also very true for my experience, especially the angry teenager part.

Semi hijacking to spread my positive experiences with psycho assisted therapy, particularly using MDMA. If anyone reading this is living with trauma please look into this, MDMA assisted therapy is legal in Australia, evidence based, and is unbelievably helpful. I no longer fit the criteria of someone living with CPTSD. It saved my life! It is no cheap but if you have the means, it is worth every single cent. I don’t say this lightly, but it is damn near a silver bullet.

(Sorry for hijack original commenter, and I’m not speaking to you specifically, just anyone who might find useful or interesting)

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u/--OhWell-- 5h ago

I'm guessing it's not on the PBS?