Ever wonder why people develop a reliance on dissociation as a coping to the point of possibly developing Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID) or OSDD?

People who grow up with caregivers who are not attuned to them are more likely to develop dissociative coping strategies.

If a child does not fall into the presumed cisgender, heterosexual, neurotypical way of relating to themselves and the world, this naturally increases the chances for misattunement between parent and child.

If the caregivers do not meet the emotional and physical needs of the infant, then the child is vulnerable to learning to shut down their awareness of their body because it is too painful to be aware and in need. This shutdown is facilitated by the infant’s brain releasing its natural opioids as a means to dull the pain of their needs not being met.

It’s in these initial caregiver relationships where children learn to regulate their emotions and integrate their experiences into a sense of self. When their needs are consistently unmet, they may learn to dissociate because they aren’t being taught any other means of managing their emotional needs. The infant is also less likely to be able to integrate all their emotions, needs and perceptions into a coherent, unified sense of self in such a situation.

As young children, not getting our attachment needs met is traumatic. And when that is occurring, the child does not have the option to escape or fight back, which may leave dissociation as primary method of coping.

We theorize that in these early attachment relationships with caregivers affect how the infant’s nervous systems gets organized and influences the type of nervous system responses are likely to occur under stress, such as dissociation.