Causes of Dissociative Identity Disorder

Very well written post.

I totally agree with you Holly, I too am not blaming myself in any way, but rather am learning that the development of DID is a cumulative process with an interactive dynamic occurring over time. Also I have found that focussing too much on what has come first the chicken or the egg issue, only leads me to down pathways that divert my attention. So instead of trying to determine the exact source of my anxiety and nail down to a tee what percentage of genetics and environment had a hand in it, I now look at what being anxious meant to me. How it drove certain thoughts and behaviors of mine, and what it meant in regards to how I saw myself and the world around me. This way I validate what I felt and deal with the impact it had, and still has. This seems to work better for me at the moment.

Hi Holly, I've been really thinking about this issue a lot lately, and I just want to thank you so much, because in coming closer to understanding how and why I developed DID, I'm also unearthing truths about how I reacted to my childhood experiences, and who I was as an "individual" amidst the sea of events that swirled around me. I always thought that my childhood abuse was the cause of every problem in my life, and that it was an entity unto itself, but never really looked at the interaction between those events, and the unique child that I was. Certainly from when I was very young, I was easily intimidated by people, and I found other children very hard to understand. I kept very much to myself and lived a lot inside my own head. If there was ever any tension around me I always pulled inward, and when overloaded, imploded silently. But then again, like you I lived in an environment full of silence and denial, so it's hard to tell if being unto myself so much and not speaking up, was because of who I was innately, or if it was something I learned from my parents and siblings. What I do know is that I was a very anxious child, and it didn't take much to scare me. Also when distressed, it took a long time for my emotions to come back to an even baseline. And at least now I know that I was a factor in the mix of my life, not the invisible entity I thought I was. This is important because it means I was a unique individual with a personality unto myself, even though for most of my childhood and teenage years I didn't experience myself as a definitive singular entity. This topic has really pushed me to look deeper for some of my truths, and that for me is a very good thing. So again thanks for writing such interesting posts.  

The explanation of causes of Dissociative Identity Disorder, indicates the complexity of etiology and pathogenesis to any psychiatric entity, especially those with neurotic phenomenology. Up to date achievement in neuroscience investigation, didn't give still an exact and convincing clarification on causes of these enigmatic diseases as well as immense medical inaptitudes. Therefore remains many cloud words about the essential nature of these problematic illnesses. In this blind-alley, well-comed are the oneself subjective viewpoints of mentally ill patient. The same plays a great role in the treatment of persons with mentally disorders. All the more when it is known the fact that most of psychiatric diseases are treating symptomatically and not causally. With this acquaintance in psychiatry we should to look mentally ill individual and not as isolate morbid entity.

Hey Jason,
A big yay your a writer I bet it will be amazing.
We come from the same kind of places you and I and really some of my me's have been so amazing I am speechless I don't even feel equal to speak with them. Of course that is part of my problem too ! :)
Anyway I look at it as phantasmal gone wild in a child put in a place that no other option was present. Makes it so much more full of awesomeness that way! I am not taking away the seriousness of it but looking at it that way for me helps me tolerate it. I have a super active imagination, I keep getting older waiting for it to diminish it never does.
It is simple really to me. If you are going to escape or fade away you have to have a place to go and something to replace you so no one comes looking.
I am an awesome playwright in my own head though! Just have to remember to look back out sometimes.
By the way I sound so much more accepting of DID then I am, its a say it till you accept it kind of thing.

I did develop DID through a nightmarish childhood with severe emotional, physical and sexual abuse, including a beating that caused a NDE. A therapist said it was the closest thing he ever heard to Auschwitz.. I am a writer and I wonder if part of the refuge in so many characters is that I have a very good imagination. I am writing a novel and it feels great being all the characters. It's a far-out idea but I wonder if at least one of the contributing factors is a strong imagination. I have recovered but some of the alters had incredible gifts and they introduced me to music that I would have never heard....and lots of life experiences that I might not had any other way...writing this feels strange because only one person ever guessed I had DID...

I once asked a therapist why I developed DID, when I knew of people who had lived through wars and had been raped as part of the war crimes inflicted against them. Her response was that those people probably had a cushion to fall back on. They had a solid sense of themselves before, during and after the abuse because they had a cushion of love to fall back on. So when something horrific happened to them, they could go back and talk about it, grieve over the losses and acknowledge what had happened. That's not to say that those people went psychologically unscathed, but rather their traumatic experiences presented in other ways.
There are many factors which can contribute to any of the traumatic disorders, DID amongst them. It's rarely positive for anyone to make comparisons as to the severity of trauma.

as a scientist, contributing factors are different from causes. the only known cause of DID in particular is childhood trauma. this does not mean that trauma is what adults think trauma is. it's like, giving an adult three doses of an iron supplement wont hurt them but if you give it to a small child it could be dangerous. same thing with trauma, perceived danger is the key, what a child sees as danger, or a "big" trauma" may seem to an adult incidental or a "little" trauma.
I know there are a couple others causes of other dissociative disorders such as heavy "recreational" drugs, but childhood trauma is indeed he mot prominent

Thanks again Holly for being brave and sharing your thoughts.
Sensitivity is a big one for me. I did experience more trauma in my years of life then not. But I also know I am a very intuitive, empathetic like person. Walk by me in a crowd with something heavy on your mind I will notice.
Not in a psychic type way but for whatever reason I am wired to pick up on every little thing about someone that most say they miss. This causes me to spend as much time in a controlled environment as I can cause I will just get drained otherwise.
I also think what happens to each of us is relative to us. One person may react to something a different way then another. It was very natural for me to escape inside myself. For another pushing out may be there reaction. I do think you need more then just trauma to develop DID.
I wonder if there has ever been a study of DID in introverts vs extroverts. I am willing to guess the introverts would have a tendency to develop DID more under similar circumstances above the extroverts. That would be pretty elemental information but interesting anyway.