Do female clients prefer female therapists and male clients prefer male clients? Or are there more pressing questions to ask other than gender? Who would you work with?
Who would you work with?
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Category: Getting help & a diagnosis
DID or OSDD: Does it matter?
OSDD is a strange-sounding diagnosis and seen by many as a ‘not yet’ or ‘not quite’ version of dissociative identity disorder. This article explores the differences between the two diagnoses and whether that difference matters or is arbitrary.
The quest for diagnosis
How do you go about getting a diagnosis for dissociative identity disorder? One client describes her long struggle for treatment on the NHS and the path to the Clinic for Dissociative Survivors.
Help, I’ve got DID! Now what …?
It’s scary to think you’ve ‘gone mad’. It’s scary to think you have some serious, incurable ‘mental illness’. It’s scary to not understand what on earth is going on in your brain. And perhaps what’s even scarier is finding out that what is ‘wrong’ with you has a name: dissociative identity disorder.
Applying for CICA: a personal account
I applied, with Emmott Snell’s assistance, for CICA. This is the compensation that the government pays out to victims of crime, administrated by the Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority.
In the end I was unsuccessful, but the experience was full of learning that may be helpful to others, and so I share it here for that purpose.
Making the most of your GP Appointment
‘I’m not seeing a doctor!’ I insisted with a look on my face that was intended to end the debate once and for all. As far as I was concerned, it was simple: I wasn’t going to the hospital, walk-in centre or GP surgery, because I couldn’t go. I couldn’t cope with going. Such was my abject terror that, unless it was a matter of life or death, I avoided all things medical.
The problem? This was rapidly becoming a matter of life and death.
Managing Medical Procedures
It might have been ‘just a routine blood test’ but that didn’t stop me passing out. Again.
From a teenager through into adulthood, even the word ‘medical’ could render me light-headed. I couldn’t bear the sight of blood, I couldn’t even hear descriptions of blood; hospitals and doctors and dentists and needles were meticulously avoided. Someone once described to me an accident they’d had involving a mangled leg, and within 5 seconds I was starting to feel faint. Within ten I was sweating and shaking. Within fifteen I was unconscious in a heap on the floor.
For a long time I didn’t understand why I was such a ‘wuss’, as I saw it.
Making the most of therapy
You’ve come a long way. Misdiagnoses, mistreatment, maltreatment even—but eventually you’re here. You’ve found a therapist willing to work with you—either privately or on the NHS—and so now you’re expecting it just to happen. Right? Wrong!
Lasting Power of Attorney
If you don’t have an LPA, many decisions will be taken on your behalf either by medical professionals or your next of kin or relatives. In situations where you have a domestically violent partner or spouse, or abusive parents, this could put you in a very worrying situation.
Working with a dissociative disorder diagnosis
Once we understand dissociation as a logical response to overwhelming trauma, it stops being so dramatic and different, and the person suffering dissociation stops being ‘complex’ and ‘bizarre’ too. There is nothing bizarre about dissociative disorders—what is bizarre is how some people can be so badly mistreated that they end up with a dissociative disorder.
What are the signs and symptoms of dissociative identity disorder?
Someone who has dissociative identity disorder may have distinct, coherent identities that are able to assume control of their behaviour and thought.
What role does medication play in treating dissociative identity disorder?
What medications should be used in the treatment of dissociative identity disorder? This fact sheet takes guidance from the ISSTD’s Treatment Guidelines for DID.
What is the recommended treatment approach for therapy for dissociative identity disorder?
How should dissociative identity disorder be treated? What do the guidelines say, and who produces them?
What is dissociation?
There are many ways to describe dissociation, and we look here at dissociation as it pertains to dissociative identity disorder and trauma.
What is dissociative identity disorder (DID)?
Dissociative identity disorder is a creative survival mechanism for coping with overwhelming and chronic childhood trauma.
How is dissociative identity disorder diagnosed?
Diagnosis of dissociative disorders is by no means straightforward, mainly due to a lack of training and knowledge. The main diagnostic criteria can be found in the DSM-5 and this article explains how diagnosis is made.
What diagnostic tools are available?
There are a number of diagnostic tools available for assessing dissociative disorders. This article lists the principle ones.
What are the diagnostic criteria for the dissociative disorders?
Dissociative disorders appear as diagnostic categorisations in both the American-based DSM-5 produced by the American Psychological Association (APA, 2013), and the other ‘diagnostic’ bible used more widely in Europe, the World Health Organisation’s ICD-10.
What is Dissociative Disorder Not Otherwise Specified (DDNOS)?
DDNOS is seen by many people as a ‘not yet’ or ‘a not quite’ version of dissociative identity disorder and although it is supposed to be a ‘residual category’ and only given to a few people, in fact the vast majority of people diagnosed with a dissociative disorder fall into this category.
The sixty-four billion dollar question – unique answers to the question of who funds therapy
Who should pay for treatment for survivors of abuse who have gone on to develop a dissociative disorder? For many conditions the expectation would be that help would be available on the NHS, but this is rarely the case for conditions arising from trauma.
