Remnants

They also choose to come to our tags & even search comments of our tags to find people who disagree with them just to start shit.

Can we please lessen the reliance on the outdated 1a & 1b to describe OSDD.

1a & 1b applied to DDNOS.

It is not in the current DSM. It is just OSDD 1.

By fitting OSDD experiences into two specific boxes, it misses the complexity of the multiplicity experience. Especially for newly diagnosed/discovering systems.

I found it really confronting to feel like I had to fit into one of these two boxes when I was first diagnosed & didn’t know a lot about my system. I had amnesia for my amnesia. So, I didn’t think I fit 1a, but I’m also co-con/blended a lot of the time & have many fragments in my system, so I wasn’t sure our alters were ‘defined enough’ for 1b. It was so much more validating to realise that OSDD doesn’t require one or the other of those experiences. It’s just ‘doesn’t meet the full criteria for DID’.

Turns out, when we were given that space to accept the OSDD diagnosis without the very rigid walls & felt comfortable engaging in the community, we came to realise we actually did meet the criteria for DID. We noticed how seperate some of system members were and that our brain tries to make us forget or ignore periods of amnesia. If the only resources out there said we could only experience OSDD as 1a or 1b, we probably would have continued to deny any systemhood.

The explanation of 1a & 1b can be really helpful for some people. Some people were diagnosed when DDNOS was the standard ‘not full DID’ diagnosis. But it’s not helpful for others.

If you have been given an OSDD diagnosis & you feel like you don’t fit either 1a or 1b. That’s okay & your experience is valid. It’s not that black & white.

This video may give you some more insight into the ways OSDD can present and different ways we may classify DID & OSDD in the future. Of course this is just one approach. But it’s good to listen to many different discussions & research on structural dissociation to understand it better

https://youtu.be/ZV3ToVA5BqQ

In Australia at least if your psychologist or psychiatrist diagnoses you, that diagnosis doesn’t go anywhere unless you give them permission to share it.

Hospitals can’t share your medical records without your permission.

NDIS can’t share the documents your psychologist or psychiatrist or GP or OT or other health professionals provide to them.

Centrelink can’t share the documents provided to them either.

Unless you are a danger to yourself or others, everyone is bound by confidentiality. Even then, your support person should be limiting what they share to the bare minimum to ensure someone’s safety, & explaining to you what they are going to disclose & to who.

No one can tell your employer, a school, volunteer agency, family, friends.

They can’t tell the road authority, unless you are not safe to be on the road. I have DID & a car license. None of my support think I’m a danger on the road, so it’s not an issue.

You can’t be in the army & I think a police officer with a mental illness. But you can be any kind of health professional, including first responders. You can work any other job. It’s about knowing your own limitations or getting help to work around them.

A friend of mine is a paramedic & she has bipolar. I have a registration as health professional & the regulating board (AHPRA) knows I have DID & it’s fine. Another person I know is a registered psychologist with the same board I am with & has disclosed PTSD with them & it’s fine.

A diagnosis can offer you access to things like the right treatment for your disorder rather than wasting your time on treatments that don’t work. You can get government payments as someone who is unable to work or work enough to survive. You can get disability funding for supports & equipment that may help you in your day to day life.

I’m not saying drop everything & share your medical/psychiatric history everywhere. But don’t take it as a given that having an offical diagnosis or disclosing your illness is detrimental to your wellbeing. Look at the privacy statements of the different places you may disclose to in order to get help. Talk to people who support you about how & what they may need disclose.

Literally the only place I think my previous diagnosis ‘record’ impacts me is at the hospital, because no one wants to provide mental health assistance to someone with BPD who is in crisis. But I didn’t have a choice, the hospital & their community program put that in there based on their own diagnosis. That record stays within that area at least. I got to a hospital out of area, they won’t know.