Does Saeran have DID?
TLDR: No, but he has a similar condition called OSDD2
Saeran's personality has been widely discussed, his duality, characteristics and behavior have quite possibly made him the most loved boy by the fandom. However, little has been detailed about his condition, leaving many questions and confusions that I would like to try to clear up in this very long post.
I hope you can sit, drink a warm coffee (or Dr Pepper if it's summer!) and enjoy this analysis, based on the most accepted psychiatric diagnosis manuals, my own knowledge and also experience.
As always, any constructive criticism or talk is welcomed :)
So.. ☆ let's get started ☆
as someone in a system/who has DID, you've got this mostly correct.
your explanation of how the disorder forms is all correct (as per the theory of structural dissociation), so i commend you for your research there. most non-systems don't dive that deep, and I greatly appreciate the amount of research you've done.
here are the things I'd like to correct you on, if i may.
DID (supposedly) can't happen after the ages 6-9, when the personality would fully integrate in a healthy child. it can absolutely start earlier in life, especially from childhood neglect and abuse, but often doesn't show until way later. saeren having one "identity" at 15 is normal- DID commonly goes undiagnosed until people are in their 30's. we are undiagnosed and weren't even aware we had it until about 21.
everyone dissociates to a degree. zoning out while reading a book is dissociation. daydreaming is dissociation. the normal dissociation that everyone experiences on a daily basis is called non-pathological dissociation, while structured dissociation from trauma is called pathological dissociation. there are three levels of dissociation- primary (PTSD and simple dissociative disorders like DPDR), secondary (CPTSD, OSDD and BPD), and tertiary dissociation (Dissociative Identity Disorder). thus, all of these disorders that would cause someone to pathologically dissociate are on the same spectrum, which leads me to my next point.
DID is extremely underresearched and misrepresented. the theory of structural dissociation, while some take it as law, is just a theory. as such, OSDD wasn't even added to the DSM until 2013, where it was added as a "catch-all" dissociative disorder. a lot of people including myself believe this happened because a lot of doctors refuse to diagnose DID: they either don't know enough about it, or they simply believe it isn't real and the person is faking it for attention. this is unfortunately very true: I've read psychology textbooks that don't say anything more than "we don't know if it's real or not". so, I'm very hesitant to label saeran as OSDD and not DID.
because all of these dissociative/trauma disorders are on the same spectrum, there is a possibility for symptoms to overlap, or just be absent. Borderline Personality Disorder (which, interesting note, saeran's voice actor is diagnosed with and has said he believes saeran has it as well) can also come with identity disturbance, as strong as the "states" having different names, feelings, ages, etc. this would be closer to the outdated term "multiple personality disorder"- they aren't separate alters in the brain so much as they are a change in the way someone is acting. but BPD comes with dissociation, too, and dissociation comes with memory loss, so how do you decide where a person falls? BPD and DID are very commonly misdiagnosed as each other. sometimes it's impossible to tell the difference, despite supposedly being two different levels of dissociation. which leads me to my next point:
it's all bullshit.
sorry for the language, but that's the truth. like I said, the theory of structural dissociation is just a theory. OSDD wasn't even recognized as a separate disorder from DID until 2013. we simply just don't know enough about trauma and dissociation to properly place people on a spectrum. there are people (myself included) with DID who have extremely minimal memory loss- this can happen after therapy, or some alters can naturally be integrated with each other. however, there are still separate alters in the brain, each with their own unique purpose, regardless of how much amnesia is there. amnesia barriers break down with treatment and healing- so it doesn't make any sense to completely rule out DID because of the lack of amnesia barriers. and, it's hard to even consider OSDD a valid diagnosis based on it's history (in my personal opinion). OSDD is a blanket statement that psychologists can use if the DID label doesn't fit perfectly, but DID is different for everyone who has it.
circling back, saeran's first time dissociating could not have been when he was drugged. it might have been the first time we saw it, yes, but if DID has to form at such an early age, there's no way rika was the cause. it was undoubtedly his mother.
(I will put a disclaimer here that I am not extremely familiar with brainwashing/drugging and its effects. i myself can see saeran having DID, but you could be entirely correct in that the identity alteration was a result of rika's torture. ((or that a new alter was split from her torture, who knows.)) the combination of not seeing saeran's entire backstory, minimal research on the subject, and the very real possibility that this is one of the very misrepresented portrayals of DID we constantly see in media/cheritz doesn't know what they're talking about, it's hard to come up with a definitive answer. but, i hope you'll see my reasoning against OSDD.)
(putting another disclaimer that I likely am biased as someone with DID myself who has been caused a great deal of stress by the OSDD label in the past, such as being refused treatment and diagnosis because my DID isn't "textbook perfect". I know for a fact i am not the only one who feels this way- a lot of systems don't mind the OSDD label, but just as many of us despise it.)
i greatly appreciate your comment about diagnoses adapting to people, and honestly this entire post. i hope I didn't come off as harsh- I just wanted to offer some clarifications as well as my POV as someone with DID. this is the most well informed and organized post I've ever seen someone without DID make on the subject (and the sad thing is, you seem to know more about it than most of my doctors do).
conclusion: OSDD is out, DID is probable, but you could also be right in that it's all an effect of brainwashing. sources are personal experience and information taken from did-research.org, which is a resource I strongly recommend everyone uses when researching the subject. it has the most complete and accurate information I've seen so far.
thanks for your post, and for reading my reply. I'm open to a discussion if anyone wants one.
-Luka/Saeran (yes i am a saeran fictive making a post about myself. fight me /j)
