TY - JOUR

T1 - “It's not like you have PSTD with a touch of dissociation”

T2 - Understanding dissociative identity disorder through first person accounts

AU - Parry, Sarah

AU - Lloyd, Mike

AU - Simpson, Jane

N1 - This is the author’s version of a work that was accepted for publication in European Journal of Trauma & Dissociation. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. A definitive version was subsequently published in European Journal of Trauma & Dissociation, 2, 1, 2018 DOI: 10.1016/j.ejtd.2017.08.002

PY - 2018/1/31

Y1 - 2018/1/31

N2 - Purpose . Five participants with diagnoses of dissociative identity disorder offered to discuss their experiences, to provide new insights and understanding around their condition, which is often misinterpreted, misunderstood and mistreated. Procedures . Through an interpretative and idiographic analysis of first person accounts, three themes emerged to capture the experiences shared by participants. Main findings . Firstly, recognising who I am and when I am in time discusses the difficulties in locating and finding stability for the central persona in terms of time perception. Secondly, understanding the needs of the internal system connects experiences of dissociation to emotional regulation and relational difficulties, which were reported across the accounts. Thirdly, trying to help others understand what the self doesn’t always fully understand explores the complex process of facing unusual experiences and then trying to foster understanding with healthcare professionals. Principal conclusions . The participants’ accounts indicate that their alter parts have specific life times and as such some younger parts are often not aware of key life events or strengths of the adult parts. Most of the participants reported benefitting from psychological or psychiatric support at times, although experienced many relational challenges and struggled to articulate important information about their unique conditions during times of crisis, which was often when participants were invited to share information. Eight recommendations for practitioners emerged from the analysis.

AB - Purpose . Five participants with diagnoses of dissociative identity disorder offered to discuss their experiences, to provide new insights and understanding around their condition, which is often misinterpreted, misunderstood and mistreated. Procedures . Through an interpretative and idiographic analysis of first person accounts, three themes emerged to capture the experiences shared by participants. Main findings . Firstly, recognising who I am and when I am in time discusses the difficulties in locating and finding stability for the central persona in terms of time perception. Secondly, understanding the needs of the internal system connects experiences of dissociation to emotional regulation and relational difficulties, which were reported across the accounts. Thirdly, trying to help others understand what the self doesn’t always fully understand explores the complex process of facing unusual experiences and then trying to foster understanding with healthcare professionals. Principal conclusions . The participants’ accounts indicate that their alter parts have specific life times and as such some younger parts are often not aware of key life events or strengths of the adult parts. Most of the participants reported benefitting from psychological or psychiatric support at times, although experienced many relational challenges and struggled to articulate important information about their unique conditions during times of crisis, which was often when participants were invited to share information. Eight recommendations for practitioners emerged from the analysis.

KW - Dissociation

KW - Dissociative identity disorder

KW - Memory

KW - Interpretative phenomenology

U2 - 10.1016/j.ejtd.2017.08.002

DO - 10.1016/j.ejtd.2017.08.002

M3 - Journal article

VL - 2

SP - 31

EP - 38

JO - European Journal of Trauma and Dissociation

JF - European Journal of Trauma and Dissociation

SN - 2468-7499

IS - 1

ER -