Lethroe

Diagnostic Requirements

Essential Features:

. Disruption of identity characterized by the presence of two or more distinct personality states (dissociative identities), involving marked discontinuities in the sense of self and agency. Each personality state includes its own pattern of experiencing, perceiving, conceiving, and relating to self, the body, and the environment.

• At least two distinct personality states recurrently take executive control of the individual's consciousness and functioning in interacting with others or with the environment, such as in the performance of specific aspects of daily life (e.g,parenting, work), or in response to specific situations (e.g., those that are perceived as threatening).

• Changes in personality state are accompanied by related alterations in sensation, perception, affect, cognition, memory, motor control and behaviour. There are typically episodes of amnesia inconsistent with ordinary forgetting, which may be severe.

• The symptoms are notbetter accounted for by another mental disorder (e.g., Schizophrenia or Other Primary Psychotic Disorder).

• The symptoms are not due to the effects of a substance or medication on the central nervous system, including withdrawal effects (e.g., blackouts or chaotic behaviour during substance intoxication) and are not due to a Disease of the Nervous System (e.g,complex partial seizures) or to a Sleep-Wake disorder (e.g., symptoms occur during hypnagogic or hypnopompic states)

• The symptoms result in significant impairment inpersonal, family, social, educational, occupational or other important areas of functioning. lf functioning is maintained, it is only through significant additional effort.

Additional Clinical Features:

• Alternation between distinct personality states is not always associated with amnesia. That is, one personality state may have awareness and recollection of the activities of another personality state during a particular episode.

However, substantial episodes of amnesia are typically present at some point during the course of the disorder.

• In individuals with Dissociative Identity Disorder, it is common for one personality state to be 'intruded upon' by aspects of other non-dominant, alternate personality states without their taking executive control, as in Partial Dissociative Identity Disorder. These intrusions may involve a range of features, including cognitive (intruding thoughts), affective (intruding affects such as fear, anger, or shame), perceptual (e.g., intruding voices or fleeting visual perceptions), sensory (e.g., intruding sensations such as being touched, pain, or altered perceived size of the body or of part of the body), motor (e.g., involuntary movements of an arm and hand), and behavioural (e.g., an action that lacks a sense of agency or ownership).

The personality state that is intruded upon in this way commonly experiences the intrusions as aversive, and may or may not realize that the intrusions relate to features of other personality states.

• Dissociative Identity Disorder is commonly associated with serious or chronic traumatic life events, including physical, sexual, or emotional abuse.

As you can see, only the last additional criteria speaks about trauma and it states that its "commonly associated with trauma". It doesnt say that it causes it. Because we dont know what causes it.

But what does the DSM-V-TR say?

It mentions trauma but its saying that one symptom of amnesia is forgetting trauma. No where here does it state that trauma is part of the criteria. So you dont have to have trauma to have DID.

Its also stated the other kinds of disorders that would not qualify as DID including Possessive Trance disorder or Schizoaffective. This already in itself suggests plurality exists outside of DID and trauma. Plurality/Multiplicity is not synonymous with DID. Its an umbrella term that means the experience of being more than one. DID fits under that but isnt the same as it. DID is a disorder. This already suggests the existence of a non disordered forms of Dissociative Identity.

I hear a lot of antis say that its to include people who dont remember their trauma. So why would two different sources on it that doctors and psych reference not mention that trauma has to be present while having an associated disclaimer instead? Its a logic leap to get there and I dont really get why people are so insistent on excluding a group that has historically been left alone?

Istg this weird white western gentrified version of medicine is so fucking harmful to the people with disabilities and other minorities. Medicine barely includes women in studies. Why would you think that what is most recently written in the book is the one and only truth? Before America was "discovered" it still existed. Before penguins were seen and labeled, they still existed. Before we knew fossils existed, FOSSILS STILL EXISTED! Now we are treated like zoo animals by professionals. The information they gather is from an alienating position and you can tell most of psychology is used to disassociate from the disabled population. Genuinely how long has it been since we were put it torture facilities that experimented on us like rats?

So why would you ever assume that the opinions of a bunch of white able-bodied/able-minded people has more merit than someone experiencing it?

Newly discussed information (Updated 5/16 6:58 CDT // GMT -5)

Structural dissociation ≠ dissociation

Structural dissociation isnt required to be valid as someone plural.

Trauma is an extremely specific term in the medical sphere and insurance would use that to their advantage if it was part of the criteria.