Category: Dissociation FAQs
Dissociation FAQs
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What can I do if I can’t get therapy?
… it has really struck me how many people with a history of complex and severe trauma cannot get any help whatsoever via the NHS. Many are passed from pillar to post, either being told that they do not meet the criteria to receive services (they are not quite suicidal/traumatised/distressed/non-functioning enough) or that they exceed the criteria (they are too complex/suicidal/traumatised). This leaves people feeling understandably ashamed, powerless and frustrated…
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What is dissociative disorder not otherwise specified (DDNOS)?
DDNOS is seen by many people as a ‘not yet’ or ‘a not quite’ version of dissociative identity disorder and although it is supposed to be a ‘residual category’ and only given to a few people, in fact the vast majority of people diagnosed with a dissociative disorder fall into this category.
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What role does medication play in treating dissociative identity disorder?
What medications should be used in the treatment of dissociative identity disorder? This fact sheet takes guidance from the ISSTD’s Treatment Guidelines for DID.
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What are the usual responses to trauma?
The way we respond to trauma is not a matter of choice – it is a biologically preprogrammed set of responses which happen in a predictable sequence. Here we look at the five ‘F’ responses to trauma.
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What is psychological trauma?
Trauma is an event or series of events that are so overwhelming and threatening to life or sanity that a person cannot cope. The mind may switch off (dissociate) during the event or, at the very least, it will not be able to hold together the different elements of the event afterwards and ‘integrate’ them or join them together.
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What causes dissociative identity disorder?
Dissociative identity disorder does not happen in a vacuum: it does not result from a chemical imbalance in the brain, and is not caused by faulty genes. There may be biological, social and environmental factors which increase people’s vulnerability to developing a dissociative disorder. But more than anything, DID develops as a result of trauma and disorganised attachment.
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What is dissociative identity disorder (DID)?
Dissociative identity disorder is a creative survival mechanism for coping with overwhelming and chronic childhood trauma.
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What is the recommended treatment approach for therapy for dissociative identity disorder?
How should dissociative identity disorder be treated? This brief article provides a summary of the generally accepted approaches.
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What is dissociation?
Dissociation is a very common experience and can range from the normal to the pathological. Chronic, problematic, ‘pathological’ dissociation develops when there is repeated threat or trauma, especially when it starts at a young age, and when there is inadequate support or soothing from an attachment figure.
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How is dissociative identity disorder diagnosed?
Diagnosis of dissociative disorders is by no means straightforward, mainly due to a lack of training and knowledge. The main diagnostic criteria can be found in the DSM-5 and this article explains how diagnosis is made.
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What diagnostic tools are available?
There are a number of diagnostic tools available for assessing dissociative disorders. This article lists the principle ones.
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What are the diagnostic criteria for the dissociative disorders?
Dissociative disorders appear as diagnostic categorisations in both the American-based DSM-5 produced by the American Psychological Association (APA, 2013), and the other ‘diagnostic’ bible used more widely in Europe, the World Health Organisation’s ICD-10.
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