Self Diagnosis

As a therapist I am not threatened by the idea that more people are self identifying as having Dissociative Identity Disorder because of social media.

Dissociation and dissociative disorders remain unrecognized, undiagnosed, & therefore untreated in most mental health settings.

This leads to unnecessary pain & suffering.

However, I do see a need for caution in use of social medial to self-diagnose.

There is a lot of potential for misinformation & misunderstanding.

Remember that not everyone on social media is honest in what they are presenting & some people out there have malicious intent.

Always take information/experiences presented with a grain of salt.

Not everything you see on social media may reflect or match your experience.

This DOES NOT mean your experience is invalid or not real.

You may have very different or very similar experiences to those you see presented. That’s okay.

And last but not least, please remember that social media often highlights the unusual or interesting.

This may lead to an over-emphasis on how many parts you have, the types of parts people have, the interesting dynamics between the parts, etc.

This can encourage a sense of voyeurism that I think dehumanizes those with dissociation.