It's not just from 6 to 9 years old. Those of us who were abused as infants also can have DID/OSDD. The thing is that the trauma has to happen prior to the integration of the personality, which typically happens between the ages of 6 and 9, and before the age of 10 years old. Alters can also be fantasy figures, animals, or even inanimate objects - not just other human people. Thank you for giving this talk.

something really interesting and subtle i noticed is that fox only spoke with one hand / no hands and then the times that ros speaks they use both hands

I am so glad Tedx Talks did a video about Dissociative Identity Disorder. The looks and comments I get when I tell people that I have DID. Is very hard to take sometimes. I just have to remind myself people just do not know.

Switching in front of people is scary, never mind in front of an audience! Y'all are so brave :)

This is honestly such a relief to see someone out there who openly talks about DID and is willing to teach others who don’t understand. I myself have DID and it’s rare that I find people who understand or are willing to accept that I have it. Please keep doing talks like this and continue to educate others you’re doing such a great job.

I was diagnosed with DID two months ago. We've been stressing about the concept of "Integration" because it's difficult to comprehend not existing. We had no idea there were other options. The last two months have been very, very difficult. Realizing that I, personally don't know what happened and how this happened is ridiculously hard to cope with. The fact that the alters that speak to me don't know all of the trauma scares me. The fact that there is little to no information about this online, and when there is it's sparse is terrifying. The fact that no support groups exist (that I could find) and that many mental illness sites don't even state it as a disorder makes me scared that I wont be taken seriously. But the fact that this is the first I've heard of someone coming to talk about their experiences, it makes me thankful that they did. I've been struggling mostly at the moment (and after watching this, I've realized that this is definitely because of the stigma surrounding DID) with the concept of "somehow I'm faking this" and "I'm not crazy" and "This is ridiculous" etc etc. Hearing about someone else's experiences are helping to validate the fact that what I am going through is real. Down to the "it's like having roomates in one space" and "thoughts that you hear with other's voices, because they are different people" Thank you for this. Thank you so, so very much.

I was diagnosed with DID when I was 15 almost, medications by themselves never worked, except for the depression symptoms. Since I started therapy, in a therapy center that uses multiple and integrated approaches to mental care, Im rising and recognizing myself more and more as the year pass. The process is long. I won’t tell how many times I was about to leave because it was to hard to face emotions wich ‘i don’t want to touch’ (it’s hard to explain), or faking I wasn’t having troubles with my sense of self. Before therapy I attempted suicide, tried to mess my brain with drugs and physical mutilation, I was vomiting and restricting food every day in my life. I wasn’t able to realize what was good and bad to myself. Now I started studying again, Im in my 2nd year in Psychological studies at the University, I don’t starve myself anymore, learned that taking care of myself was not by isolation of emotive parts, but living. Im in an healthy and not abusive relationship for the first time, after years with people psychologically and physically abusing me. I feel like a child sometimes discovering the world, people, situations, for the first time. There still are not enough reports and voices from people having diagnosis on them. They’re not your story. Your symptoms neither. Your story is now, and has different perspectives, thank you for your words

I have did and i do love my alters :') my family was abusive and neglectful and my alters formed from my trauma and became the family i needed and helped take care of me.

I think that DiD is amazing response to trauma. I think the dissociation saved my life. So look at us with gratitude and love.

Seeing them switch so easily and quickly was so interesting to me. I don’t have DID/OSDD but I’ve been learning about it for over a year, mainly through KZfaq, and I’ve never seen such a smooth switch, especially when there wasn’t a trigger to cause it. I know a lot of systems aren’t very comfortable switching in front of others so I also find this very brave of them :)

Huge respect for this Ted talk. It takes a lot of courage and strength. Extraordinary system 🙏

There's a small miscommunication in this video. Not all alters are three dimensional and entirely they're own person. There are what are known to be fragments, identities in a system that do not have their own thoughts, personalities, ect, and only exist for specific reasons such as to hold trauma memories, to handle specific tasks, respond to specific triggers. Just some extra information to go along with whats provided in the video.

I'm 51 years old ,trained therapist in process and have d i d and now I accept this. I have decided to focus on what helped and helps me and work with this , to help others. On ya, and empathy training and self care.

You're so brave to talk about this. We've been diagnosed for two years and still we're scared to talk about our condition and it's origins because we're scared people will laugh at us and abuse us even more.

Very grateful this talk was done. Thank you. I have DID. It’s been a long and hurtful trip in the psychiatric system, both beforehand after getting diagnosed. Unfortunately for me, where I was diagnosed, (a hospital) I was made to feel shameful and was met with anger when I couldn’t get my alters to come out and talk to anyone, or wasn’t sure what/who was going on inside. This ended with me having fabrications tied to my very real alters that I had made in order to please the doctors, that took me years to sort out. Now though, we know who we are. And I’m very grateful for that.

I, myself, don't have DID but I've been doing a lot of research on it to try to better understand it. It really really fascinates me and it's actually making me think of studying psychological disorders like this in college.

Thank you thank you for talking about this!!! We also have did (osdd actually ). We believe you.

It takes a brave person to talk about deeply personal info on a public platform. All forms of mental illness need to be destigmatized. Too many suffer in silence

That was the BEST most informative talk I’ve heard about this . Thank you. My best friend just committed suicide. We lived 2000 miles apart. She was terribly abused as a child (every day was violent). She never talked about it until we were good friends for a few years (we were friends 51 years). She opened up slowly. She had CPTSD ...but that diagnosis wasn’t around then. She had bouts of depression, would “shutdown” and resurface some months later. She had symptoms if bipolar (extreme high ...and energy...only to fall flat again). Here’s the thing...she sometimes became in a moment (it seemed) another person...with a different personality. I tried once to tell her my observation but she seemed to dismiss it. I see that the little bit you’ve said might’ve been similar to her way of dealing with life. She denied herself of having much ...she was strikingly beautiful & attracted many but she told me she had no real friends except me. She said recent years the depression was getting worse. Last year she gave away everything & was going to swim out into the ocean until she was too weak to swim back. She made a phone call to a sympathetic employer who asked her to stop over . That saved her. She promised me she’d never do that again. This year she went off the pier at night & her body was found 4 days later. I’m heartbroken 💔 that I didn’t KNOW...i missed things....fully expecting her to resurface ...now all our long talks...our massive love ❤️ for each other...just gone. I’ve tried to “sense” her around in spirit....asked God to heal her completely, give her a place very high up there & give her all the love all the time possible. Thank you once again.

I love him. I don't know him but I love him. Not in the way you do a partner, but the way you feel for a stranger that you just feel connected to.

I suffered from extreme schizophrenia when i was little and couldn't handle it on my own. I suffered many traumas after that and my alters have been with me forever. we have a beautiful system with 9 alters :) Im so glad it is finally being talked about.

When my psychiatrist fired me not one single therapist would not take me on with my history and diagnosis of DID. What really triggered all the memories that I didn't have access to was when a counsellor was doing inner child therapy to get to my PTSD. I'm older now, and don't really share myself with anyone. Nobody to share myself with that cares to listen. Basically just waiting to go Home to Heaven when all this will be over finally.

Wow, I am just blown away by the courage they all must have. They make a great team together. All "disorders" should be more accurately described as adaptations. Like "Dissociative Identity Adaptation" and "Complex Post Traumatic Stress Adaptation". "Disorders" implies there is a lack of order, while "adaptation" suggests the brain is plastic. Actually, I changed my mind. We should let the people who theses terms describe to name themselves. Just like how we let other marginalized community name themselves.

Thank you for sharing. Every person with DID sharing helps others suffering to deal with it and to people observing understand better. It is not often that you see a system so well communicating. I am working with my husband on daily basis and we managed to get pretty much as close as you are communicating in between the fragments but never ever really saw someone being so far with it so it is very nice to see we are not alone working on this. Your talk definitely gives people hope. Much love to all of you in there :-)

That’s it everyone; Daddy jokes are cancelled. Seriously, knock it off. You have no excuse now that you’ve heard the pain it causes.

it makes me so so happy to see a community under the comments

He’s the only person I’ve heard discuss integration. And I like how he closed with reminding people to listen to their children, not listening to kids or being too busy to see what’s under your nose is perpetuating a lot of this trauma. Parents please check in and know most victims are in your own home and by hurt by someone you know. It is pervasive.

It's refreshing to see a system so similar to ours be so open about it. The little girl who used to be around for most of our childhood is also no longer around, leaving us in control. We've also worked our butts off to achieve good communication. I've had dreams about giving a presentation like this (probably without the switching- having that happen in front of people still feels like being caught changing or smth) thank you for giving this talk. It's reaching people even now, years later, who need to see it. I hope you're still doing well.

Respect to you, Roswell Ecker. It took me years to tell my mother about my DID. Our host (I'm the original but not the host) had to up and tell my parents herself.

It is so interesting that Maddie is not a main alter anymore since they were born into the body, but now don't come out often and leave it mostly up to the other alters. From what I've seen, the original alter seems to remain one of the main ones fronting most of the time, but in this situation it's like an entirely new person took over the body. Maddie replaced themself with someone else who could survive better in their body. It's astonishing what the body and mind are capable of. This was such a great TED talk!

Thank you Ross, Fox and please say a very soft and safe thank you to Maddie for being so brave and speaking up for US

This is so well expressed and so interesting. Thank you, Ros, for your courage and strength and for bringing this very important topic to our attention.

I too am a sociology major with DID! Thank you so much for this talk 💕👏🏼

That whole therapy thing is like...such a grey area because like, you don't want to be with a therapist who doesn't want to work with your illness because they could say horrible things, do horrible things, and like, make your illness worse but also...it just seems wrong for a therapist to pick and choose who they want to help and that just...that just doesn't sit well. Because I mean, it could leave people suffering their whole lives because no one wants to help them... But also, this was amazing in terms of explaining things.

The key is forgetting the movie Sybil. Accept people for where they are at and just let them be, whomever that should be. Its more common than people realize being dissociated into different states or parts. Everything is disconnected inside the person. Thoughts, feelings and memories. Nothing is one and the thoughts, feelings and memories each formed a life of their own. Thats all it is.

Thank you so much for this talk! I was diagnosed with PTSD and OSDD in my mid-twenties, following a mental breakdown, and it's taken me literal DECADES to accept the idea that I really DO, in fact, have alters and I wasn't just imagining it or 'falsely' claiming the people in my 'team' were not me just for the 'kudos.' It's not hard to fall into this kind of denial, particularly with the advent of KZfaq and those creators whose content revolves around them having DID. So many of them turn the condition almost into a kind of cosplay show - I appreciate they want to draw in viewers, and part of doing that IS to give them something 'interesting' to watch, but it seems like so many of them, when they 'switch,' do it almost like a Jekyll-and-Hyde thing; their voice completely changes, their mannerisms, their whole persona - some of them even dress differently and do wildly different make-up and hairstyles, depending on who's 'fronting.' While my people are definitely very different from each other, they don't have this urge to completely transform into themselves if/when they 'front' - if my middle-aged male alter comes forward, for example, he's not suddenly horrified he's wearing womens' clothes and desperate to run off and change into a man-shirt and cordrouys ASAP. This is what made me believe for a long time that I couldn't possibly have an identity disorder - precisely because there was no urge to 'transform' to 'match' whichever alter who was driving (at least, not as far as I know.) It was reassuring to see that, when you switched to another alter, your voice and mannerisms didn't dramatically change - that's much more like my experience than many of the DID KZfaqrs. I have since learned that there are two types of ID systems; 'covert' and 'overt.' I'd definitely put us in the former category; we don't want the whole world knowing our secret, so it's in our own interests to always appear to be only one person, even if that means acting a role (and some of us are better at pulling that off than others!) The 'overt' ones are, I guess, those aforementioned KZfaq creators. And yes, Hollywood has a LOT to answer for in its depiction of identity disorders. The only one I think got close to it was, surprisingly, Peter Jackson's 'The Two Towers' movie from the Lord of The Rings trilogy, in that scene with Gollum and Smeagol arguing with each other. I still remember watching that scene and thinking "YES! That's it! THAT'S how it feels when you're in a fight with one of your alters!"

Yea...we recently came out with our system and is been both scary and relieving because our roommate is amazing but in public its terrifying. Our alters are so different

Thank you all so much for sharing this with us; what a gift it is to learn from you and your whole systems’ experiences. ❤

Thank you, Roswell, for giving us all so much food for thought and especially about the needs for more human empathy.

This is beyond an amazing video, informative, raw, real.

What an interesting talk. Found this to be completely eye opening.

A huge thank you for giving this talk! DID and OSDD are very often stigmatised and misunderstood so I‘m very glad for videos like this who take part in breaking down the stigma! Thank you very much, you are brave!

Currently doing a research paper, thank you for providing this! :D

I love you, speaker. Not in the weird way, just..that so grateful I love you kind.

I would like to thank all within system for helping others out there to understand. This should be seen by all therapists and in general by anybody so they understand it better. Me personally I've and the name of being eclectic and excentric due to people not understanding or believing. Thanks again

Thank you so so much for talking out about this. I have DID and integration is something doctor who does med management is trying to force on our system. Thank you thank you!

This is so good. I have DID also. I wish I knew as much about myself as he did.

very eye opening...especially the daddy part.It's important to keep an open mind to all different kinds of people and this KZfaq channel does just that. Ive learned a lot from listening to peoples stories on here

Thank you for your story and insight...

All of this was so well said. Loved this.

absolutely amazing. it's so good to see such a misunderstood disorder represented well like this. we appreciate it a lot. shame only 45k people have seen this.

Incredibly good presentation on this matter

Yes! Thankyou for this. Taken a long time for me to find an accurate and appropriate video from Ted.

I have d.i.d and I'm 15 duo to my parents abused me they hurt me and my other personality had a friend and i don't remember him

Thank you so much you are so brave! Thank you

I'm very glad you've posted this. It makes a lot of sense.

Integration simply refers to integration of memories/ emotions/ etc. *Fusion* actually refers to multiple alters combining into one.

This talk stated that DID is caused by trauma between ages 6 to 9, but actually it takes trauma *before* age 6 to 9. The cut-off is usually age 6, up to age 9 to account for those with developmental delays. This is because the personality is fully integrated by age 6 to 9, so DID cannot form after this integration into one personality. (According to structural dissociation, backed by research.) Otherwise great talk, thank you to the speaker.

The alters are the symptom, not the cause ❤️

This is such an interesting talk

What a lovely person. So well articulated.

This is neat and this person is very brave and intelligent.. Learned alot. Thank you

You are very brave .

i know people dont blv it easily that DID is not scary personality . first i didnt blv it either not until it happened to believe that inside me i am one of them . it starts with only two person living inside me . one always talking ans asking questions and other listen and answer .. then i have been thrown some very difficult time in life ... after that there are several persons born inside me .. now i have like five person inside one body . never talked about this before here . so its kinda finding less words how to explain how am i coping with them and the impact on me ... in society 98% people dont understand me . So you must be know how my life is . i talk less more after that and never let open that im not one person i am multiple person . but when it comes to close to someone and talking day after day , switching into distinct me people dont take it easily and hurt me without knowing . i am glad that at last i talk about me .

It feels so strange hearing about other people's experiences with DID, I so far know of about 6 IDs in my system but for me it isn't like I'm able to "talk" or communicate with my other "moods". Only 2 or 3 of them have names different from our birth name and all I notice when it comes to "switching" is that my most recent memories are from 2-3 weeks ago or going by my chat history that my approach to other people has taken a complete 180* from the day before. I think part of the reason for all of this might be that I still connect DiD with "being insane" or it being seen as such by others, so even though there are some real telltale signs I suffer some sort of dissociation disorder or DID I'm still subconciously denying it because I fear I'll be ostracized

Excellent presentation.

The comment on Sybil is too true. I can’t tell if I’m laughing or crying.

If anyone can ask if this person feels comfortable giving out their twitter/instagram/etc i would appreciate it. need some good ppl to follow

I am currently making a short film for school about a character with DID. I want to shed light on the disorder. with an accurate depiction. this was very helpful

wonderful work

Ddlg has to do with two adults only so do not stimatize ageplay u must be 18 and up to be into bdsm community we hate when minors try to get into the kink community And as my therepist said age regression for mental health existed way before kink and many mental health proffessionals are pissed off about ageplayers in kink.

Yes. Right. Everything. Yes.

I did not know the thing about "Daddy", which kinda surprised me, cause looking back it's not a difficult connection to make, I guess I just always took it for granted. Anyhow thanks for informing me about that.

We are in a 60 year old body. Some of our young ones make the body look younger...and people still don't talk to our alters...they just want Desirée. 24 of us have been diagnosed by 99% of our doctors. The 1% OF DR.S who do not accept the truth of M.P.D. are shocked to see our different brain scans, eye colors, allergies, and hair color. ❤

amazing.

I haven’t been diagnosed as I never realised it wasn’t something that everyone has. I thought that my girls (4) was something wired into every humans brain.... I’m 19 and I’m finally realising that my trauma is the cause of possibly DID. Does anyone have a much longer process of changing from alters? I’m trying to understand myself more. I have a counsellor who I’ve talked to about it and they’re really helping me to getting diagnosed appropriately.

I wanna be friends with them they were fantastic! Phenomenal video

I only realised recently that I have this, Im 62, and now disabled. I think I have about 20 personalities, not sure.

This is an excellent way of explaining it I see so many people go on KZfaq try and explain it but put it all in child young kid abuse.... but you saying it as a teen and other abuses answers some questions I had on it

Great talk, a lot of “umms” other than that, well spoken. Thank you.

The stimming from knowing a fellow system is in a TEDx Talk about DID :DDDD

I just became a teenager, yet I love to study this, and I cant talk to kids I know that are my age because they don't know about DID but I really want to become a counselor when I'm older!! DID is my TOP FAVORITE to learn!! and I love learning about it!!

Dear tedx talks. I very very very much need to see if this speaker would be willing to just have one conversation with me. But me, not anyone else in the body. Bc I need the help and have no access.

I was diagnosed with DID last summer and ive had therapist refuse to work with me or drop me becuase im so broken......

So many questions, and this talk answered many of them. Still, I wonder how do alters arrive at their names? Does the host get to choose or do alters name themselves? With practice, how much control is there over which alter gets to present? (Please forgive me if I'm using to incorrect terminology, btw.) Also, does each alter have a different group of friends, or is it more like several different relationships all with the same person--like one alter views "Tim" as a best friend, another views "Tom" as simply a mere coworker, another is romantically interested in "Tim", and one even perhaps dislikes "Tim"?

DID is one of the subjects that most interest me

I had a few, there names were: Cherry, Red, Timid/Grey, Ingrid and Robin. I don't know why I haven't been triggered to have them come out anymore. I'm not even sure if what I had was real. I was abused for years - I can't even begin to describe to you what I I've been through. This is VERY interesting and I'm thankful to find this video.

Thank you so much wo0w1o0w

Is there any way for the speaker to contact me?

WOAH! THE ALTER'S NAMES ARE BUCKY AND STEVE???? I wonder if those alters have any resemblance to the characters.

Thank you for giving me the courage to name my selves.

As a psychology student (this may seem very wrong) I find it so cool. I can't understand why a therapist would not want to treat it. It's so amazing how the brain manages things! DID is very interesting and I would find myself so lucky to treat a patient with DID although I wouldn't wish it on anybody.

DIS starts around the age of 4 do to prolonged and extreme trauma. It is a survival technic of a young childs unconscious mind. What happens is that the emotions and stress of a traumatic event puts the child in a mental pressure cooker. Once the pressure becomes to much, the conscious mind of the child wil dissociate. As if it is not there anymore. But there is still some one in there going through the traumatic moment. That part of the mind now becomes a person of some sort. An alter. An alternative state of mind. Every time a traumatic experience like that will happen again, that alter will take over because that part can deal with it. For every new traumatic event the brain can create a new alter. Depends on how on safe the child feels. That's why some people have a few and some have almost a hundred. But let me tell you one thing! If you truly have DIS YOU DO NOT switch alters on command! DIS is created to protect you from the outside world and doesn't want anyone, including yourself to know you have it or that you could be seen as different. I've seen people switch in front of camera so many times on purpose but never once was I able to switch so clearly to an alter. You may get in contact with your alter but concisely be that alter is far too exposed and in contradiction with what DIS is supposed to do for you. It doesn't make any sense. DIS was supposed to protect you and keep your inner thoughts and feelings secret because that was safe and not show it to anyone, especially not in front of a camera. From what I've learned treatment is supposed to help you work with your alters and be in control of them instead of the other whey around and to let the alters work together so that they won't keep you away from your trauma anymore and you can finally heal it. And the alters will gradually become one again. One u. But I haven't been in treatment that long so if I m wrong and if I have offended anyone than I'm sorry. I still have a lot to learn. It's just that I think people don't realise how young DIS starts and the switching on purpose gives me and my alters the creeps! 😅❤

Here’s the thing if you wanna say daddy or whatever don’t say it around people who have had csa or maybe people say it to deal with their csa who knows

I'm here as someone interested in DID to be able to write some of my characters well and oh goddesses! I know it's probably not comfortable switching and trauma is still a trauma, but imagine having one person who isn't you who are all your friends. You can have huge parties even when there are only two physical bodies (of course sometimes only one alter shows up but when you are making a party there is still a possibility that only one friend will show up) I'm sorry if it's rude or something I just like the idea. Btw how does the fast switching feels? I know car analogy so i suppose that Ross and Fox were at driver and seat next to driver positions, but how does it feel when you are switching back and forth this fast? Is that part which isn't your alter fronting feeling differently? Thank you for answers!

Quick question, what are the other ways alters communicate with each other

Mm, how do you keep little or younger alters in?

😢

Internet will never forget Mirjam Heine TedX

I wish I had this coping mechanism instead of just falling completely apart every time I’m triggered. Thank you.