Anyone with Experience on something??

neednewtechnique

New Member
I had a conversation with our difficult child's Therapist last week about something that was bothering me, and she described it to me as Dissociative Identity Disorder (did not officially diagnose, just mentioned that I should ASK psychiatrist about it)...she only has a mild case if at all, but I was wondering if anyone else's difficult child's have ever experienced this??? I know that mostly ALL of our difficult child's dissociate when they are raging, but to do it when they are relatively calm, it is worrying me a little. I have not discussed it with difficult child yet, and I don't want to bring it up until I can talk intelligently about it with her.

If anyone has any experience or knows of a good place to find information, please let me know!!!
 
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flutterbee

Guest
Do a search for dissociative disorders. There are a whole range of them. I have a friend diagnosed with a dissociative disorder (not DID) and you can watch him in action. He also has complex PTSD from childhood abuse.
 

neednewtechnique

New Member
OOPS, sorry, I was mistaken, not DID, but Depersonalization Disorder is what she was talking about, it is a different FORM of dissociative disorder that does NOT involve multiple personalities....sorry, I started looking things up online and got abit mixed up!!!!!
 

BusynMember

Well-Known Member
Depersonalization and Derealization are the feeling of not being real--of being in a dream. It's a really yukky and common anxiety symptom of depression. When I was in the University of Chicago Hospital, I had this hideous symptom and was shocked to talk to other depressive patients and to find they ALL had this feeling of unreality. It is often sometimes brought on by marijuana use, but not with me or most of the patients I spoke when when I was an inpatinet (or so they said). There is actually website for people who have this disorder. It's NOT DID, but you do feel disassociated. For me, antidepressants and benzos took care of it. Once I felt less depressed, the weird "unreal" feeling didn't bother me anymore. It is amazing how many symptoms are a part of anxiety and depression.
 

timer lady

Queen of Hearts
My difficult child kt suffers from dissociative states (now called complex PTSD in children) due to trauma associated with past abuses. It can be downright scary watching this occur.

I would offer that you educate yourself & then find a therapist who really knows the disorder. Knows how to work on self calming & staying connected be it DID or depersonalization disorder.
 
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flutterbee

Guest
I have never been diagnosis'd with a dissociative disorder, but I have dissociated in the past when severely depressed and I was even recently triggered. I've been told that the state I go into is depersonalization (but no professional has witnessed it, so it's a guess based on my description). It's a weird form of detachment. I can watch my arm and hand pick something up and it's like I'm watching someone else...it's not my hand; I'm not controlling it. I have sometimes watched in amazement. I don't recognize people I know. My body feels very heavy - like lead. I can always tell when I'm back because my body feels so much lighter.

All I can say is that if she is going into that state even when you think things are calm, generally SOMETHING is triggering her. If you have abuse that happened during the pre-verbal years of development (I'm just guessing based on my memory of what you have told us about bio-mom), it becomes extremely tricky to identify because the patient usually isn't even aware of the trigger. It can be a color, a sound, a smell, etc. A patient with this diagnosis has to learn to identify when it's happening and learn to ground themselves.
 

smallworld

Moderator
This is just my personal opinion, but I wouldn't advise talking to your difficult child about it until you get a diagnosis from the psychiatrist and professional advice about how to handle it. If you don't deal with it properly -- and I'm not saying you won't -- you could make things worse for your difficult child.
 

neednewtechnique

New Member
She HAS been Diagnosed with PTSD, so this "depersonalization" can be a symptom of that??? And also of depression? She is on ANTI-Depressants already, but she has still been very depressed lately, so maybe we should make another appointment to see therapist right away and see what she thinks......
 
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flutterbee

Guest
FYI - There is a difference between PTSD and Complex PTSD - different diagnostic criteria.
 
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