Diagnosis, social life, and benefits

[Twin Volition]

(04-30-2014, 05:44 PM)MakersDozn Wrote: This is a great topic, and we're glad that you brought it up, Arlen. Since we don't think there's any answer that fits every situation, we'll speak from our own experience.

Our body age is 52. We realized that we were multiple in 1996, when the body was 34. We weren't formally dx'ed; rather, we had been on the Internet for less than a year, and through a now-defunct survivors' forum, we met other multiples, and things started to click for us.

We found a very good therapist in the fall of 1998 and stayed with her until she retired in the spring of 2004. We've been with our current T since then. In the first situation, we began the first session by stating, "I'm a high-functioning multiple." When we began seeing our current T, our former T had briefed her on our situation.

In both cases, our dx of record has been major depressive disorder. For one thing, in New York State, law entitles people with MDD to an unlimited number of mental-health treatment sessions.

Beyond that, both our current T and our previous T have seen no benefit in adding DID/MPD to our formal diagnosis. For one thing, we don't see ourselves as "disordered." We have depression, anxiety, and PTSD, but they do not define us. And the multiplicity is simply our way of living with life as it has presented itself to us.

So....that's why we're not interested in having multiplicity as part of our diagnosis. We do what we can to live our life with what we see as our obstacles--the depression, the anxiety, the PTSD. Those are the things that we see as impeding our ability to function. We have a very good job and we live on our own, but we have few offline friends, no spouse, and no outside children. Living our life as it is presents enough challenges for us.

As we said, though, everyone's situation is unique. Or, as we often put it, "Your mileage may vary." We hope that you find an answer that works for you.

MDs

I guess it's unfortunate that I don't live in NY then.

We respect and do subscribe to the mentality that multiplicity is not a "disorder" per se, but at this point in our life, it has resulted in many of the obstacles to our functionality. So I suppose the object of treatment would not be to imply that multiplicity is the problem, but simply to help us become a high-functioning multiple in any way we can.

Although I believe it would not be the sole purpose of going for help again, we're still on the fence about a diagnosis; we don't see being diagnosed as necessarily submitting to the conceit that multiplicity is a problem. Rather, it seems to me a matter of our own insecurity. We would like to have people admit that multiplicity is a real phenomenon, and in our opinion, a diagnosis is simply such a confirmation. The question left is the one of trust--of whether we're willing to permit someone the ability to put us back in the hospital.

In the end, however, it's like you said: everyone's situation is different, so we have to make that decision for ourselves.

- Arlen