To all who are interested… As you know, I am new to this ng. What I should really do is lurk and read for a few days. But this is not my style/MO. 
There are no doubts I have had bouts of dissociation. I feel I have a good handle on things now. I would like to ask a few questions:
I was wondering if anyone can tell me the difference between DID and DDNOS?
I was wondering if anyone can tell me the difference between DID and DDNOS?
DID is exactly what is defined in the DSM-IV (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 4th edition), which is published by the American Psychiatric Association as a manual for making diagnoses. They outline certain criteria someone who is dissociative needs to show in order to be called DID (Dissociative Identity Disorder)–someone else can type them in, I’m feeling too lazy to get out the reference. DID is one of a category of Dissociative Disorders, which also includes Depersonalization Disorder, Dissociative Fugue, and Dissociative Amnesia (if I got these correct from memory). DDNOS is the abbreviation for Dissociative Disorder Not Otherwise Specified. In other words, if someone is clearly having problems with dissociation, but they don’t fit the strict criteria for any of the other Dissociative Disorders in that chapter of the DSM-IV, then they get called DDNOS. DDNOS could mean the person almost fits the DID criteria, but not quite, or could mean the person almost fits the criteria for one of the other dissociative disorders, but not quite, or could mean that the person shows dissociative symptoms in a totally individual way. it’s a *very* wide category. astri
Hi, jumping in here even tho’ I have not read the whole thread (problems with my server) so sorry if I’m butting in …. Hmmm. I am working on this topic too. I’m so very frustrated. I have definite black-outs of several incidents or events in college and it is weird.
Same problem as me. I have not just lost many many parts of my childhood but also of my adulthood. I am working through kind of guided relaxation or hypnosis with absolutely no suggestions or inferences from my counselor.
I am undergoing hypnotherapy with a wonderful therapists who is now seemingly at a loss of which point to actually start from. I have started remembering some things but not the most important ones. Those seem to be really buried. But it only gives bits and pieces… Still nothing on what could have frightened me so…and I was frightened. Some of the bits are just ideas or thoughts, I don’t know if I am just projecting into the blackness or if they’re real…
I put the same thing to my therapist yesterday, what is real what is fantasy? She said that at the end of the day, when the picture is "complete" we will then know. I don’t know how much sense that makes, but we shall see. Yesterday, I was so into my thoughts I almost caused a car accident. I was aware of where I was and all, just…i don’t know, distracted, I guess. Scared the dickens out of me!! Also have those incidents when my son will ask me if i remember this or that or some movie or something and it is a blank.
Same here. Often, "Mom, do you remember ?" I say no. Even recent things – totally gone. Can’t remember movies, books etc. Part of me so desperately wants to know what happened and part of me is so afraid it is going to be something horrific that I did…
or that maybe someone did to you? I am also experiencing this fear. The strong one in me, the one in control, is not allowing the digging to commence truly. It is extremely frustrating. I don’t know… I am just so tired of being frozen in time emotionally. BTW, what is spp??
sci.psychology.psychotherapy. But, I don’t know if you want to go there. It is pretty intense. Scamper – Hide quoted text — Show quoted text –
Hmmm. I am working on this topic too. I’m so very frustrated. I have definite black-outs of several incidents or events in college and it is weird. I remember to a point and then the curtain comes down. I am working through kind of guided relaxation or hypnosis with absolutely no suggestions or inferences from my counselor. But it only gives bits and pieces… Still nothing on what could have frightened me so…and I was frightened. Some of the bits are just ideas or thoughts, I don’t know if I am just projecting into the blackness or if they’re real… Yesterday, I was so into my thoughts I almost caused a car accident. I was aware of where I was and all, just…i don’t know, distracted, I guess. Scared the dickens out of me!! Also have those incidents when my son will ask me if i remember this or that or some movie or something and it is a blank. Part of me so desperately wants to know what happened and part of me is so afraid it is going to be something horrific that I did… I don’t know… I am just so tired of being frozen in time emotionally. BTW, what is spp??
Hi Karmagrrl, Scamper here … i’ve talked a lot about recovering repressed memories of childhood abuse. but i was reading a post about it over on s.p.p. that made me realize, i am *still* repressing and recovering memories! but i don’t post about that very often. i probably should, if only to learn more about it.
You’re right on that score. At least when you post people get to know where you need help and if they can offer advice, they will. I also read a bit on spp but thought I had better get out of there ’cause there is alot of heavy stuff that I can’t deal with right now. By the way, I am impressed that you posted there – I was too scared to 
i’ve been diagnosed as having episodes of "dissociative amnesia" and got 2 more opinions, the same. something that i consider traumatic will happen, and then i can’t remember what happened … but others around me will tell me what i did/said during the episode! which would be where an alter/alters "come forward" to take over temporarily so i can function. also some alters come forward to relate how i am feeling at the time, usually from a child’s perspective. so i’m only able to put together what happens to me by hearing back from other people what i said/did in a particular situation, if i can’t remember it.
This sounds so familiar. I experience the same thing. My son will say "mom, do you remember ….?" and I will think very hard and say "No." My life, more from the age of about 28 years old and backwards, seems to have gone on without me being there. Even when specific events are referred to, nothing happens. I can’t remember. My psychologist has diagnosed that I suffer from disassociation (sp) and MPD and I have gotten alot of feed back from Alan and others about the subject just from reading on the ng. [snipped]
I hope you don’t mind me "jumping in on your post" it is just that I could relate so much to what you were saying. peace, karmagrrl
Scamper
i’ve talked a lot about recovering repressed memories of childhood abuse. but i was reading a post about it over on s.p.p. that made me realize, i am *still* repressing and recovering memories! but i don’t post about that very often. i probably should, if only to learn more about it. i’ve been diagnosed as having episodes of "dissociative amnesia" and got 2 more opinions, the same. something that i consider traumatic will happen, and then i can’t remember what happened … but others around me will tell me what i did/said during the episode! which would be where an alter/alters "come forward" to take over temporarily so i can function. also some alters come forward to relate how i am feeling at the time, usually from a child’s perspective. so i’m only able to put together what happens to me by hearing back from other people what i said/did in a particular situation, if i can’t remember it. last night, me and my husband were almost in a bad car accident. he drives great and we have good tires and antilock brakes, so it was a near-miss but at least we missed! it would have been head-on into the side of the car that ran their red light. i’m able to tell the details of it here only from hearing what my husband told me about it, however. here is what he said went on: i screamed, then i stopped breathing. he stopped the car and got me to breathe again, and calmed me down. i don’t remember any of the near-miss incident. i do remember being in a parking lot and hearing a lot of screaming going on in my head, and my husband explaining what had happened. i also have overlapping memories of an accident i was in when i was 17. the only clues we had as to when an "alter" was out was when he told me i’d be ok because we have antilock brakes and airbags, and i had absolutely no clue what those things meant! of course i know what those things are, but apparently i didn’t last night. tonight we got into the car to go to the store, and when we came up to a green light i panicked and held on tight. but i didn’t know why! when my husband said it was probably because of the near-miss the night before, at first i didn’t know what he was talking about. then slowly, i remembered him calming me down after the near-miss, but i still don’t remember the near-miss itself. this isn’t the only time something like this has happened. there are a lot of incidents that i don’t remember and sometimes i’ll recover the memory a few days or weeks later. there are some incidents, even in the last year or so, that i don’t remember at all. i just wanted to say, if it’s possible for a person to repress and recover a memory as an adult, it’s equally as possible for the same thing to happen to a child. peace, karmagrrl
Spoilered for Exorcis*(M) 9 9 9 9 9 9 http://clairvision.org/Clairvision/Books/Entities/_Entities.htm
Dr. Jim Stevenson wrote:
Both these posters illustrate the down hill course of untreated schizophrenia. Joachim Bauer <cusa…@infosel.net.mx> wrote:
Mike I remember a patient who was psychotic that I was giving the usual antipsychotics. He had the feeling that litle deamons where pulling his gut. Mikey now replies: Schzophrenia, dilusional, psychotic, paranoid schizophrenia: I am neither of these. John, who was also sent a copy of this, has confirmed that mine is but "spiritual", for the most part. For your information, quite a different diagnosis, which is really quite "comforting". The words psychotic, dilusional, and schizophrenia have been eliminated, here, thank God. The psychiatric field is finally moving in the right direction; as you will see here: Paste Follows: – Hide quoted text — Show quoted text ->DSM IV, section 300.14, pp 486-487, and i quote, "the diagnosis of >dissociative identity disorder takes precedence over dissociative amnesia, >dissociative fugue, and depersonalization disorder.
Apologies if this is not the right group… Could some kind person explain to me what the meaning to a lay person is of the diagnosis Disassociated Personality Disorder Not Otherwise Specified. Thank you. Kristin — Kristin Rachael Hayward http://130.111.120.13/~hayward
Apologies if this is not the right group…
This is the right group. Could some kind person explain to me what the meaning to a lay person is of the diagnosis Disassociated Personality Disorder Not Otherwise Specified.
It means that you fall into the humongous huge giant category of people who have a dissociative disorder *of some type*. There are a variety of dissociative disorders that seem to be too closely aligned for pshrinks to catalogue them seperately. DDNOS is not a diagnosis that tells you anything other than just that you have a dissociativeness ( thats the first d in dd )which is causing you problems (disorder, which is the last d in dd) and that the pshrink or therp who made the diagnosis of a DD isn’t quite sure of what specific form of dd you have ( which is the nos in ddnos ). The commonly accepted definitions of dissociative disorders and the various known attributes of said disorders and tendencies is in the asdis FAQ ( Frequently Asked Questions ) and is long and detailed and will perhaps leave you with more questions than it answers. If you give more info perhaps someone can give you more. Thank you.
Sure. Kristin — Kristin Rachael Hayward http://130.111.120.13/~hayward
Nation of Jackie this account borrowed from jcash
[...] If the FAQ is on a web site, can someone point the direction.
if you do a web search with *any* search engine for alt.support.dissociation, you will pull up about 1000 copies of the FAQ. it comes in 4 parts, so look for all 4. they are convienently labelled parts one, two, three, and four :) astri #AKA pink bunnies# `o’_* |/(((( |/ All conditions are temporary — For more information about this service, send e-mail to:
: : :Could some kind person explain to me what the meaning to a lay person :is of the diagnosis Disassociated Personality Disorder Not Otherwise :Specified. : : It means that you fall into the humongous huge giant category of :people who have a dissociative disorder *of some type*. There are a (lots of good stuff snipped) : : The commonly accepted definitions of dissociative disorders and the :various known attributes of said disorders and tendencies is in the :asdis FAQ ( Frequently Asked Questions ) and is long and detailed and :will perhaps leave you with more questions than it answers. If you :give more info perhaps someone can give you more. :Nation of Jackie :this account borrowed from jcash : Yes, whatever it is, I have it bad. Two weeks in Friend’s psychiartic hospital in Phiadelphia, an attempted return to work, now on disability. 
If the FAQ is on a web site, can someone point the direction. If not, and someone has archived it, could someone mail it to me. Otherwise I will wait for its (I assume) monthly posting as they do in other groups. Again, thanks.. Kristin — Kristin Rachael Hayward http://130.111.120.13/~hayward
: :[...] : If the FAQ is on a web site, can someone point the direction. : :if you do a web search with *any* search engine for :alt.support.dissociation, you will pull up about 1000 copies of the FAQ. :it comes in 4 parts, so look for all 4. they are convienently labelled :parts one, two, three, and four :) : : astri #AKA pink bunnies# : `o’_* Yup, should have tried that. AZ gives me 300 references. Thanks. Kristin — Kristin Rachael Hayward http://130.111.120.13/~hayward
This post is out of order, I know. My comment is here, the original post is in the middle, and Pope C’s most excellent response is at the end. Hi Pope C! You’ve hit this reply right on the mark! The only thing I want to add is that usually we’re a group of people who are extremely intelligent, resourceful, adaptable and creative! Likely to do extremely well in an academic settings, getting into RL with the issues it brings is a bit of a different story. I wanted reply to you about what you wrote about going to therapy with your SO. I think it’s good for both of you, and it was a good present to get. The understanding, the REAL understanding of a SO of us dissoids is very important I think. My SO was reluctant to go to counseling with me. MY SO’s reply was "which one of you would be going to counseling with me anyone?" Ouch! My SO figured that when we settled down into one, and were totally 100% firmly integrated then marital counseling might be in order. I explained to SO that HIS present behavior, attitudes, etc. have alot to do with how my therapy progresses at the moment. I do mange to have him somewhat convinced, and have scheduled joint counseling with a husband & wife couples counseling therapists the SO and the other self went to. I was "gone" for 18 years 10 1/2 months and that makes me mad, but as therp says "at least you have the memories" yet some are very fuzzy. I switch, but this main part (me here) was left out of the rotation for that time. Therp says I was stuck in a dissociation. Yeah, left out of my own life! My therp says that if I had no knowledge of the time I was gone, I would be one step below multiple. Because I do have knowledge of the time I was gone(I recognized the RL children the other self gave birth to, yet didn’t have the bodily knowledge or experience how to drive a car), he considers me to be two steps below true multiplicity. And my being DDNOS, I seem to be in many ways alot like you, the other parts who were not out at therapy would at least have listened to what went on, and try to apply that new knowledge to themselves when they come out. Do you know what I mean? My therp says that I’m not that bad, but being like this isn’t too great either! This type of DDNOS I guess isn’t so bad for a therapist that’s had experience working with full blown polyfragmented DID, but involved enough to scare off your average family therapist that’s astute enough to realize he’s got a highly dissociative person as a client. My therp said not to go around advertising this, and not to write it down anywhere either. Definitely not something to put down on a job resume. Just thoughts! Nice to touch base with you again Pope C! Hope and Peace, Crackers – Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – Newsgroups: alt.support.dissociation (posted/mailed) : Apologies if this is not the right group… This is definitely the place for that question. : Could some kind person explain to me what the meaning to a lay person : is of the diagnosis Disassociated Personality Disorder Not Otherwise : Specified. Hi, Kristin! DDNOS could cover a whole range of things. Officially DDNOS means that someone has been diagnosed as definitely having some sort of dissociation-related condition, but one which doesn’t fit into the neat pigeon-hole categories the insurance industry and psychologists have defined in the DSM-IV (Diagnostic Standards Manual, 4th edition). Some of those other categories are Dissociative Amnesia, Dissociative Fugue (both fairly rare, I think) and one you’ll hear talked about here a lot: Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID) or as my friend ceej says "DID, formerly Multiple Personality Disorder, now under *Entirely New Management*" In theory, DDNOS is a catch-all. There are a bunch of independent groups of symptoms listed which can trigger a DDNOS diagnosis, including a pervasive sense of unreality, or of not being a person. However… in practice, what DDNOS *most* often seems to mean is that someone has some of the indicators for DID, aka "multiple personalities", but is missing some of the key diagnostic criteria, especially memory loss or rigid barriers between "identities". For instance, I sometimes switch into very pronouncedly different patterns of behavior, thought, and perception, especially when I’m by myself. I may also have different parts of me talking or arguing inside my head at one time, even when it’s "me" in control or "in front" as normal. If (for example) in my normal state I didn’t remember what I’d done when one of these other states or identities is "in front", I’d probably be classified as DID. As I do remember what I say or do (though it’s occasionally fuzzy) and I am able to recognize that these others are part of me – I don’t feel we’re totally separated – I have an official diagnosis of DDNOS. Lots of people here have a similar diagnosis of DDNOS on a similar basis. It gets confusing, because once someone gets diagnosed as DID, *this* is the state they’re typically trying to work towards at first – gradually becoming able to communicate with each other inside and cooperate, being able to remember what the others do, be conscious when others are "in control" ("copresent") and be aware of each others’ thoughts ("coconscious".) However, if someone starts with a diagnosis of DID, the psychs tend to stick with it for someone who’s progressed to this state – if you start off from this state, as I seem to have, you’re more likely to be diagnosed DDNOS. I’m now inclined to perceive myself as simply "multiple", because it’s more descriptive, and obviates some of the confusing distinctions between DID and DDNOS. How I experience certain things (e.g. "switching") is very similar to DID folks I’ve talked to here. Hope this helps. — C — Pope C the Anonymous "The road to hell gets a total resurfacing…" — Jim Woodring anonymized]
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