Is there anything we missed or anything you want to know more about?

fun fact: being gay also used to be in the DSM 🤘

As someone who is part of a DID system - thank you so much for covering this topic. It’s a very stigmatised illness and has pretty much no (positive) representation in the media. This was educational & a good conversation. DID systems do exist, and these symptoms are very real. Thank you so, so much for covering such important topics. All our love, the bluebell system xx

DID only develops with repeated childhood trauma, its not a genetic disorder its a developmental disorder. Thats well known, not just a guess

DID is ptsd, but worse. It’s to the level that different parts of you hide the trauma from the other parts in order to protect the host alter (host = main alter; alter: one part/person).

If you live with DID, you definitely know there is something going on. Before I was diagnosed, I had never even heard of DID. I had no idea what was happening, but when you find yourself 3hrs away from your house on a work night, in a town you have no connection to, alone, having no clue how or why you're there when you're normally in bed by 9pm - you know something is going on.

Check out Multiplicity & Me, Acrylic and Aether, and The Entropy System. Multiplicity & Me might even be willing to have an interview since they’ve done some other interviews and been on different channels. They are a mom and live a functional life as a system of five.

when 2 alters merge they become a new alter, they are no longer either of the 2 people they were before, they are they're own person. they have the 2 peoples memories but they also have they're own memories.

I have a friend who has DID and grew up as a mormon. She told me she thought the alters were god, the devil and angels speaking to her and the whole religious environment highly helped those beliefs along with people telling her good people heard god and all of that. When she left her abusive home and denounced the religion, she was diagnosed with DID (or rather OSDD, which is the version with less amnesia).

Ty for clarifying the we aren't dangerous 😉that means alot!

28:09 Two different alters absolutely can be in a romantic relationship. It's obviously not as common as just knowing each other, being able to communicate and work together, being friends, et cetera, but it is absolutely possible.

this turned into a schizophrenia podcast even though schizophrenia and dissociative identity disorder really have no relation. schizophrenia is hearing voices audibly and having hallucinations where the "people" most likely hate you and tell you your gonna die etc. DID develops when a child has repeated trauma and the only way the brain can protect the child is to make barriers in the brain so other people experience the trauma instead. DID isn't a hallucination for example there were brain scans taken of a DID patient when an alter switched out and you could see the barrier or wall in the brain, the part of the brain which had the alter which was previously fronting went dark and the person who switched out that side of the brain lit up so. its no where near anything similar to schizophrenia since these people are very much real and not just hallucinations.

Lots of systems who achieve functional multiplicity (and thus DID no longer negatively impacts their life) no longer (technically) meet all of the DSM criteria due to the lack of clinical distress in their experience

I think Luke has stumbled upon the fact that all mental illnesses are in part social constructs. This is one of the things discussed in the field of medical anthropology.

Luke’s comment on schemas: they are very useful for learning and can be used in CBT because they’re kind of brain-flowcharts (when this happens I’ve learnt to do this). If you built a schema off a wrong first block, I suppose it could end up with a disorder

hi just wanted to let you know, when your in a traumatic experience and you kind of see yourself from another perspective or "an out of body experience" its not called dissociation its derealisation.

Thank you for talking about this. I dissociate pretty frequently and my bf has DID. He doesn't tell people because of how people will react and I have seen how people react because I'm open about it. I can't even imagine telling somebody that I have more than one person in my brain. Thank you for talking about the differences between how people see it/the stigma and what is true

I think people often misunderstand DID as like a single person with extra personalities. DissociaDID (she's amazing if you want to learn about DID) explains it well. Imagine is you have a glass bowl and it breaks. Which is the original peace?

I didn't realise that I experienced something out if the ordinary once until I mentioned to my brother that I have memories in the third person perspective and they're only from the left side and maybe that's because I'm left handed. I explained to him more about that experience and that it was difficult to talk because I wasn't me I was floating in the air over to the left. I don't have a very clear memory of it but I know it happened. Anyway, my brother said it was dissociation or something.

MS is physical lesions in the spine and brain. This can create sensations, because nerves are involved, that feel physically real, but which don't have an actual outside the body cause. A very trivial example: sitting down in a chair and feeling like one side of it is warm (like your cat had just been lying there), but the other side is not. But the cat hadn't been in the chair, it's all physically the same temperature, but the lesions affecting your nerves create this "hallucination" of warmth in one bum cheek.

You should reach out to DissociaDID for a interview, she has a really informative channel on DID.

This is a terrific explanation. Thank you guys for making such a thorough educational video.

Interesting talk but I think there’s a few misconceptions about schizophrenia and dissociation here. Schizophrenia while largely associated with delusions and hallucinations, they only occur in about 50 percent of cases. Memory issues, disorganized thinking are more prevalent and different subsets of schizophrenia appear differently (Catatonic, disorganized, etc). It’s hard to diagnose at times because there’s a lot of crossover with bipolar and other mental disorders and it’s more an art than science imo. Hallucinations furthermore are not the hallmark only of schizophrenia but are common in severe depression, dissociative disorders as well as other disorders such as ms. Peeling apart whether it’s due to stress or depression, a core function of the disturbance(schizophrenia) or a symptom of another disease(severe cases of the flu for example) can be tricky. The religion angle is tricky but I think is there to show that a. Person is thinking completely out of their own beliefs and delusions, not under a shared delusion or belief.

Would love LOVE love to see/hear more about psychology on the podcast!

DID isn't just a mental thing, it can affect your whole body for example there's a youtube channel called DissociaDID and they're host Nin has chronic fatigue however their other alters do not have it. Also I know other people with DID where 1 alter can be a drug addict or suffer with alcoholism and all the other alters could be okay

i have DID and im genuinely so worried about watching this

It’s the brains way to defend itself from too painful an event/group of events.

Im only at the beginning but it seems like your saying that one person acts different and thats a separate personality but really each alter is a separate person with their own memories, background and behaviors

What's even harder is being the host of a system with terrible control issues already *cries in trauma*

You missed a pretty vital part of DID, which is that it's caused by repeated trauma that has to have happened before the age of 7. Otherwise you can't develop DID. The alters are created to protect the body from trauma by identities that can handle different traumatic memories or be able to deal with situations and mask to appear like the "host", or the identity that is out the most often

Not a DID system but I do think you described dissociation as a coping mechanism quite well … for me it’s exactly how Luke described it there’s no actual way out or you can’t handle whatever is happening whatever you’re experiencing so the brains like I can’t do this I need to protect us we’re gonna bounce

I wish you would of started off by saying it develops from trauma from the ages of 8-9 because that's a very big part of it.

Interesting video and well referenced, but the loose definition of schema that was provided was off base. A schema isn't an inherently negative thing like a "false belief", it's just a way of describing how we organise our ideas/knowledge to make daily life easier. 👍🏻 The downside of schemas is they can make our thinking "lazy" because people tend to ignore or reject things that don't fit into them (assimilation & accommodation is a whole other topic 😅).

the comments seem to have already taken care of this, but some of your points are a bit misinformed. I recommend watching dissociadid, because they are pretty well researched and also very fun to watch.

oh noooo i just remembered all the episodes i’ve yet to catch up on because i haven’t been using spotify podcasts for a while brb gonna binge them all

I’ve experienced depersonalization and dissociation for the past few years. And maybe most of my child hood, I have a hard time remembering certain things from childhood after experiencing these things. I’ve been witness to many abusive and not good situations for a 6 year old and up to be witness to. More than 6 months of 2018 I was completely dissociated and have memory of it but mostly i don’t. I’ve also seen my self standing away from me and many types of scenes of feelings that I’m physically on earth but Im not I’m out in space. Or I’m floating in the air but I don’t necessarily see myself I just /know/ and feel myself over there away from me. Now it comes and goes and depends on how stressed I am in a situation obviously. Never been diagnosed with a dissociative disorder but I was diagnosed with generalized anxiety disorder. but meds have definitely helped

Thank you for covering this!

“if there’s no way put you might aswell get out” i see you logic

Wow, that part of Luke saying that perhaps when the parts of self merge together, one gains access to abilities they didn't have full access to earlier (or similar, I didn't check the exact words)... I've always been into making art, both drawing and writing. When I was a child, I was good at it and I was creative. But that creativity came crumbling down at some point, and I was left with only technical skill. What if the loss of creativity and remaining (and growing) technical skill is to some extent tied to my dissociation? Because nowadays I have only a very vague access to my feelings but my cognitive processing is... extensive. I remember very little about my personal history or emotions, but recollecting facts and integrating them into my knowledge? Works much better. I can't be sure since I honestly can't remember well enough, but I'd guess I've had a better access to my emotions at some point earlier in my life. Perhaps, if I learnt to recognise my feelings and maybe even actually feel them, at least in some level, there could be some chance for bits of creativity coming back alongside of them...? Worth trying, I guess. Perhaps this could work as another motivator when trying to learn this (weird and suspicious) feeling stuff.

have you done or can you do an episode on dissociative amnesia? I love the way you guys explore topics and ask questions!

There's actually a lot of interesting psychological theories and whatnot regarding the development of human consciousness, religion, and mental illness. I just finished reading a book about a theory of the development of consciousness written by Julian Jaynes called the Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind. And it was very fascinating in terms of his theories about the connection between consciousness and mental illness. It was super cool to read (although very dense).

30:02 "Trauma's a good one."

Multiplicity & me and disociaDID are really good informational KZfaq channels on DID and would probably be willing to do interviews as they have done some in the past. Also Anthony Padilla has a good video on DID where he did interviews with people who have DID

In my abnormal psychology course i just finished, we actually went over demons/religious beliefs in historical understandings of these disorders

These these videos of a wave less views than I thought. Damn, underrated

The thing with religion is that it describes a collective perceived reality experienced by a group of people. The same can be said in many ways of the concept of right and wrong, or countries and patriotism, or luck, ideas ascribed to my many non-religious people. Like it was said, human beings are very good at ascribing meaning to things, and this develops into societal and cultural beliefs and ideologies in many ways. This is different to schizophrenia because schizophrenia has a very different cause than upbringing or cultural experiences. This makes schizophrenia a different experience because it will also have a different effect than religion or other beliefs. This is not to say that religious people cannot develop schizophrenia, or that religious beliefs cannot influence the direction schizophrenia influences a person in. But they are not the same thing.

​they should definitely interview dissosiaDID for a part 2

45:13 The movie Jonathan (w/Ansel Elgort) is basically like that. It’s not technically DID, but there are two personalities that have completely different jobs, friends, interests, etc.

what did/does Corry study at uni? I'm curious lol, I'm doing Biochemistry/Genetics btw!

Family alters are best when what this time its symbolic for gathering or change? Performances in general no time to sleep

You should have the youtuber Multiplicity and me on for another episode!

I have DID and would to give you more inside to how I live

Some schizophrenics have religious delusions, but not all religious delusuions are caused schizophrenia.

I think the discussion about religious believes and DID, schizophrenia and other disorders is absolutely fascinating. But just as an insight here for how it could relate to DID specifically, there is a Buddhist practice where people intentionally *for themselves* create their own split off personalities way after the point where DID would be able to be developed. (If another person did this to you as a child even within the context of a spiritual belief where they intentionally tried creating split off people, that is abuse and conditioning and can absolutely lead to DID but it's not what I'm referring to here where it is completely voluntary adults choosing this for themselves) that for example is very clearly a healthy spiritual practice that has nothing to do with a Trauma disorder. Another example where the lines would become a bit muddy is the book freshwater (which I recommend everyone read!! It's really good but can be triggering. So maybe you could check out some Podcast episodes where the author speaks about it?) Which is kind of autobiographical fiction about an Ogbanje person. It essentially explains what could be understood as DID through a lense of Igbo spirituality. It's beautiful and relatable and I absolutely adore it. But i don't think the two concepts necessarily are exclusive of one another. You could believe in this being caused by being an Ogbanje, but still get therapy to work on trauma and work together better with the other spirits, right? So that's my tid bit on that. ANOTHER thing is. I think I would have liked if you had talked about how the cascade of defense plays into this, how often times alters or identity states are different reactions to Trauma and different defense modes. This makes a ton of sense and really helped me understand myself and explains super easily the difference between DID and schizophrenia. Also generally just a pointer to the ISSTD and their resources etc would be great but idk maybe you did do that I just haven't finished because i wanted to go on this tangent.

@28:07 "Two different alters can have a relationship with each other?" "Not necessarily like that-" Actually yes, like that! There are in fact many people with DID whose alters are in a romantic relationship with one another It can be a form of great self-love and it can be incredibly helpful and healthy and it isn't "weird" or bad or anything. I've known plenty of people with DID who experience this. Of course it is much different than two people with two separate bodies being in a relationship together, but it's very much a thing! And I think it's a beautiful thing. "We don't know much about (DID)." This isn't really true? There is tons of research and literature. There are brain scan studies and all sorts of things. I never understand why people say this? Of course we definitely need much more research on DID, but it is quite well researched, even moreso than some other disorders! I do understand that you are explaining this to a broad audience who will not understand the deeper complexities of DID, but it's important that people understand that DID is not "multiple people in one body who switch with each other." While some people with DID may present AS IF they are "separate people", most people with DID do not. It is more like switching between separate states of being, which are separated by dissociative barriers, such as dissociative amnesia, etc. I also like to call them mood states, brain states, modes, and more. DID is mostly covert and most people with DID don't even know they have alters at all, EVEN THOUGH THOSE ALTERS ARE STILL SWITCHING BETWEEN EACH OTHER! This is extremely important. I have gone my whole life not having a single clue, nothing that really indicated that I had DID in this view of "multiple people sharing one brain." I wasn't switching between totally separate fully fleshed out "people", randomly introducing myself as a different person or something. DID is most commonly covert, hidden, and undetectable by most laypersons. You will not know that I have DID unless I tell you and unless you know what DID is, know what it looks like, and know what to recognized and look out for. The description of having different "sections" of yourself was actually a pretty a good description, and I actually resonated with it and felt like it was a great way to apply to my own experiences. I've actually described this to my therapist before, explaining it as feeling like I'll be in different "sections." With fusion, the alters don't die or "cease to exist" and this is actually very dangerous misinformation to spread. The process of fusing alters into one is not the only way to recover and the alters do not just "stop" existing, they merely stop being separate. After fusion between alters, the person will then have access to everything that both of those alters had. For example, if you take one alter who speaks French, and one alter who speaks English, and those two alters fuse, that person will now be able to speak both French and English. There will be no barriers or dissociation or anything like that. I'm not some content creator or anything, but I'm diagnosed with DID and I've been in therapy for it for over a year now, and I've done a ton of research on DID, and DID as a topic in general is a big special interest of mine. I would adore to have an interview! I'm 23-years-old and I absolutely would love to do an interview, particularly because I myself have pretty unique experiences with my DID that are not really spoken about in discussions surrounding DID. For example, like I said earlier, I've gone my whole life not knowing I had DID. I am also unaware of my alters, who they are, and they themselves don't even know, and this is never spoken about when it comes to DID, and I feel that it needs to be discussed more. I hope you do end up making a new video, and I really would love to do an interview! If you guys see and read this comment and decide you want to do another video, feel free to comment and let me know how I could reach out and talk and set up for an interview? I'm sorry if this comment sounds so critical, I'm just really passionate!

!!!!!!!!! A little late as I am currently binging all your old videos after discovering the channel recently and have been following recent uploads but as someone whose sister is the host of a diagnosed d.i.d system, I was a little worried about this episode impacting people's views of what d.i.d is due to already so much misinformation spread through bad representation, I was quite disappointed by the episode of the language/terms and misconceptions discussed which I understand does happen as it came from the research you have looked at-but from the video it seems as most of the research put into it is purely the scientific and not seemingly clear or new information which is understandable as it's coming from a science perspective and that's why the episodes are so much more educational and respectful when there is a guest with the topic of discussion. (again I realise the difficulties due to covid) but I really urge you to take research also into the direct experiences and descriptions from someone who has d.i.d as you will learn the correct(/ respectful and not misleading) language to use as well as there are plenty of creators to look at who are openly educational about being a d.i.d system who also explain their experiences with the science. I really hope you resist this topic with a guest or doing more research into d.i.d systems who share the science as well as experience in order for it to be easier for you to understand and convey with and to viewers.

I have also had a psychotic break and would love to talk to you guys about it!

My partner has DID and along the lines of two alters knowing different languages, my partner, who is Irish, has an alter (possibly 2) with a British accent. Luckily all english speaking otherwise!

I am very annoyed, youtube didn't notify me about this video until just now

I might have DID. Because of the secretive nature of it, I can’t tell if I’m making it up or if it’s real.

Steven Universe reference

You should totally check out dissosiaDID’s videos, they are very very informative

brain... wow

Yeah i experience derealization a lot. It happens more if im stressed or, like a day ago, experience something traumatic. But its usually like...the morning after or after ive gone to bed, and i a lot of times wake up and just know im here but i dont feel here? Like i know logically my body is here but it feels weird, like i have no emotional tie to anything or anyone. Like as if all my emotions just flatlined. But if its like my normal kind, it then happens after i wake up from dreams if they are intense enough for me. And i have 3-4 dreams a night. So ive dreamt and didnt really rest half the time and then wake up sometimes not entirely here, and thats for two hours on average it takes for me to come back, and yeah. Im fine :)

Along with DID we suffer from ptsd as well and if we get too stressed out well hallucinate. In dsm 5 there is a section where it states psychotic symptoms with ptsd. Our psychiatrist knows this and we made it clear about when this happens and he stated we seem to be fairly stable as a system. If you guys would be interested in further info we'd suggest reaching out to the rings system or multiplicity and me.

Why not feature someone who actually experiences DID? There is a community of creators with DID.

43:00 ignore this

There are a number of great DID KZfaq channels. It would be great to have one of them on your channel. DissociaDID, Multiplicity and Me are two

Actually Netflix does have a movie about DID but its actually kind of a sci fi thing, it's called Jonathan and it's about two personalities, one named Jonathan who is active during the day, and Jon who is active at night

Anyone who wants to learn more about DID, 100% recommend checking out DissociaDID on KZfaq. They're currently taking a mental health break but all their videos are still up.

One of my friends were born with it

Apparently in some cases eye colour changes when people with DID switch alters

guys this is a bad one, please study more on the subject

“I believe in God.”

This is just pseudoscience: see spanos (1994)