Hidden Disorder Quotes

“DID may be underdiagnosed. The image derived from classic textbooks of a florid, dramatic disorder with overt switching characterizes about 5% of the DID clinical population. The more typical presentation is of a covert disorder with dissociative symptoms embedded among affective, anxiety, pseudo-psychotic, dyscontrol, and self-destructive symptoms, and others (Loewenstein, 1991). The typical DID patient averages 6 to 12 years in the mental health system, receiving an average of 3 to 4 prior diagnoses. DID is often found in cases that were labeled as "treatment failures" because the patient did not respond to typical treatments for mood, anxiety, psychotic, somatoform, substance abuse, and eating disorders, among others. Rapid mood shifts (within minutes or hours), impulsivity, self-destructiveness, and/or apparent hallucinations lead to misdiagnosis of cyclic mood disorders (e.g., bipolar disorder) or psychotic disorders (e.g., schizophrenia).”
― Gilbert Reyes, The Encyclopedia of Psychological Trauma

“Many MPD patients have spent years in unproductive therapies based on the assumption that they were borderlines.”
― Donald R. Ross, Multiple Personality Disorder

“Basic misunderstandings about DID encountered in the therapeutic community include the following:

° The expectation that all clients with DID will present in a Sybil-like manner, with obvious switching and extreme changes in personality.
° That therapists create DID in their clients.
° That DID clients have very little control over their internal systems and can be expected to stay in the mental health system indefinitely.
° That alter personalities, especially child alters, are simply regressive states associated with anxiety or that switching represents a psychotic episode.

Anyone who experiences dissociation on a regular basis knows better, however. DID is not only disruptive to everyday life but is also confusing and, at times, frightening.”
― Deborah Bray Haddock