Is it possible to have DID and not really know it?

Question

I have a really bad memory and my sister in law mentioned it to her counselor and she said it sounds like I may have a dissociation problem. I think I'm just really busy and tired with running my own business taking care of two small children and a home and husband.

I do have some trama from childhood but who doesn't? How do I know if I have dissociation? I zone out at times but I don't forget time or anything. I just forget details of conversations and people's names and forget appointments once in awhile.

Thanks
Christine

Actually to add to this our business hasn't been doing well this year and my husband has not been able to work. He is seeing a doctor and a counselor for depression. So I am doing it all myself.

My sister-in-law and I had a huge fight because she wanted to start selling a product similar to mine and wanted to call "dibs" on it. Two years later sales reps are bugging me to try and sell it, and I can't because I promised her I wouldn't. She left our company to go sell it herself but hasn't done it.

Now she's back working part time for the summer. I didn't realize how much she stresses me out until I had her back in the office.

I can't take time off because nobody else can run our business for us.

We either need to hang in there or sell the business.

I'm just praying a lot to get through this!

I think my sister in law was just gosipping more than anything. Our argument started over her picking on my memory, I told her find another job if she didn't like it! :-)

Answer 1

It doesn't sound like you have DID, though you may have trouble with concentration and dissociative symptoms (most dissociative symptoms, including black outs, aren't evidence of DID).

The best thing to do is see a psychiatrist if you are worried. While DID (formerly multiple personality disorder) is not nearly as rare as once suspected, the pendulum does swing both ways and it's important to remember that not everyone with trauma, sometimes even extreme trauma, is a candidate for DID.

DID usually forms during the child's earliest years, when identity formation is occuring and involves abuse or trauma severe enough to make them dissociate their identity into fragments. Examples of abuse severe enough include consistent death threats at a young age (usually under the age of 5), sexual abuse that is particularly violent and sadistic and time spent in concentration camps/gulags. Children also exposed to violent death regularly, such as in war torn countries, without an older and stable support network to help ground them, are also at greater risk.

Child abuse severe enough to cause DID does occur all too freuency in North America... however, statistically it is still considered "rare". What this means is that out of a population of perhaps 1,000 1 or 2 may experience DID. More may have suffered "equally" severe abuse but perhaps have been older and had a more solid sense of identity. Those that are severly traumatized at older ages tend to develop Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and Complex Post Traumatic Stress Disorder as well as a variety of mood and anxiety disorders later on. Also, it is not impossible for someone to have DID as well as PTSD.

Forgetting names and details does not sound like DID... but it does sound like stress. Stress can greatly effect your ability to concentrate and remember, even important details. Sleep deprivation can also cause this and it sounds like you have your hands full.

I am only 24 and not a psychologist but I have studied psychology for quite a while. What I am trying to say is that while I am educated, there is nothing like a professional to put your mind at ease.

Answer 2

If your sister in-law talked to her counselor about you, and your sister in-law told you what her counselor said, what was her motivation? If it was a real problem, don't you think she should have asked you to see her counselor and talk to the counselor, and not just telling you that you have a "dissociation problem?" Did she say it as gossip, or as a real intent to help you? If it was gossip, she is probably making it up or misquoting her counselor. A counselor who says a person has a problem without meeting them is not very good at their job. A counselor who says a person MIGHT have a problem is possibley only trying to work with what the patient has referred to him/her, but of course does not know. All the counselor has to go off of is your sister in-law's biased descriptions.

Answer 3

you have too much on your plate.take time off.