Myths vs Facts

Common Myths Debunked

The following are a few of the common myths that people spread and the facts supported by research that show these myths are NOT true:

People with DID or who claim to have DID are faking it: A study was conducted using functional MRI to monitor the brain activity of individuals with DID. Two control groups were also measured, non DID people with high fantasy proneness, and non DID people without high fantasy proneness. Studies showed a marked difference in brain activity as well as other measures including heart rates and blood pressure. Another study was conducted using two groups, one with patients with DID and the other without. The brain scans were run through a computer looking at several biomarkers. The computer was able to identify the brain scans of the DID patients with an accuracy rate of 73%. DID has been recognized by both the World Health Organization and the American Psychiatric and American Medical Association and has valid measures of assessment.

People with DID are dangerous: The evidence to support this blanket statement has never been conducted. There are no actual studies to support this statement. The majority of people with DID who have what are known as perpetrator parts, typically attack themselves and other parts inside of themselves the majority of the time, resulting in self harm and suicide attempts. Individuals who undergo therapy for their dissociative disorder have even less issues in the criminal justice system

DID is primarily diagnosed in North America and nowhere else: Many different studies have been conducted showing that DID can be assessed around the world. Some of the countries that have been studied include Turkey, Finland, China, Switzerland, Netherlands, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, United States, Germany and others.

DID is really rare, and so there are not that many people with actual DID out there: When people hear rare that can mean many things. Years ago psychiatrists were taught that DID was so rare that a therapist might only see one client with DID in their lifetime. What has shown to be true on average worldwide is that DID can be found in about 1.5 percent of the General Population. When you just look at 1.5 percent, it is easy to think in small numbers as rare, but that means with the current population count in 2023 as being slightly over 8 billion people, 1.5 percent of that means about 120 million people around the world could be diagnosed with DID. In the State of Texas with a population of 31 million people, around 465,000 people could be diagnosed with DID. This is about the same rate as people with Red Hair.

Therapists are the ones creating or making clients believe they have DID when they do not: The International Society for the Study of Trauma and Dissociation located in the United States, the Blue Knot Foundation in Australia have published treatment guidelines specific to making sure therapist maintain ethical boundaries. A survey of practices and recommended treatments strategies showed that therapist who work with people with dissociative disorders, work more on containment and stability with clients vs trying to create more mental distress in clients, and that no studies have been conducted by those making this claim have ever been conducted.

False Memory Wars

Since the early 1990’s there was a concerted effort to spread false information around memory recovery, and that bled over into denying the valid diagnosis of Dissociative Identity Disorder. Although training for psychiatrists and other mental health professionals was lacking prior to this for other reasons, the wildfire of misinformation caused victims to be revictimized, and professionals to become victims themselves through lawsuits and loss of licensure. The organization behind the misinformation was the False Memory Syndrome Foundation. FMSF was created by parents of child abuse victims. The FMFS disbanded in 2019 because the remaining members have died or are in their 80’s and 90’s and funding dried up a long time ago. There was never any valid scientific evidence to support their accusations, and their never was a medically accepted diagnosis in either the DSM, or ICD of False Memory Syndrome, because it could never be scientifically studied or verified. The FMSF did unfortunately have the power to raise money on their fake science and promote this false narrative through media outlets, courts of law, and even get published in University text books, and other teaching materials that can be found to this day in University classrooms. This has contributed to why there are not enough appropriately trained therapist in Complex Trauma and Dissociative Disorders and why unfortunately there are still therapists and medical professionals who do not believe the legitimacy of Dissociative Identity Disorder. It has only been more recently that the media and courts of law are starting to recognize that adults that were abused as children can recover memories of their abuse and most often that memory recall happens outside of the therapy office. This is typically what leads people to seek mental health treatment. There are efforts being made by professionals who research textbooks to contact publishers to change what is being printed. The media chooses to investigate and support the victim versus interviewing the accused and just taking their word for it. More and more therapists are learning about trauma and the impact of trauma on children and adults. There were some necessary changes that did happen as a result of the Memory Wars. Forensic interviewing has changed to not lead victims into narratives that might not be their own, the people conducting those interviews are trauma informed. Professional Organizations created more robust Standards of Care, Ethics, and Licensure training requirements. Memory and how the brain works continues to be studied, but with more stringent evidence based scientific method practices.

Media Portrayals and Stigma

Unless you are in the mental health field, most people only know about DID through media and films like Sybil, Three Faces of Eve, and more recently Split and the Disney series MoonKnight. Individuals with DID typically do not present symptoms in the way that Hollywood has portrayed. DID is a disorder that likes to “hide in plain site.” Individuals with DID were brutally traumatized as children and live to protect themselves from being “seen.” Even if other self-states are forward, many times those parts work towards convincing the outside world that they are the person named to the body they live in. Most people with DID are more dangerous to themselves because they do not have access to their whole life story. They are unable to learn from past experiences because those experiences are not connected. This leaves individuals with DID to be more vulnerable to revictimization later in life. Research has not shown that individuals with DID are more dangerous than individuals with other mental health disorders. In many cases most individuals with DID are actually more protective of others, they believe they deserve to be hurt and therefore can sacrifice themselves for the “greater good.” Due to Media stigma, individuals with DID who have good integrative capacity have had police called on them, child protective services called on them, been fired from jobs, and have had to endure many other stigmatizing and humiliating events. Most individuals with DID live pretty standard lives. They can be married, have kids, take care of pets, hold down jobs, go to school, and even be doctors, lawyers, soldiers, policemen, firemen, teachers, and therapists.

Media has a long way to go, to improve the situation, but unfortunately there are already more movies in the works.

The two best media programs to view at this time are:

Petals of a Rose: https://www.dylancrumpler.com/petals-of-a-rose

Many side of Jane: A Television Documentary from 2019 produced on A&E

Following is a list of research studies referenced in this section:

Brand BL, Sar V, Stavropoulos P, Krüger C, Korzekwa M, Martínez-Taboas A, Middleton W. Separating Fact from Fiction: An Empirical Examination of Six Myths About Dissociative Identity Disorder. Harv Rev Psychiatry. 2016 Jul-Aug;24(4):257-70. doi: 10.1097/HRP.0000000000000100. PMID: 27384396; PMCID: PMC4959824.

Reinders AATS, Marquand AF, Schlumpf YR, Chalavi S, Vissia EM, Nijenhuis ERS, Dazzan P, Jäncke L, Veltman DJ. Aiding the diagnosis of dissociative identity disorder: pattern recognition study of brain biomarkers. Br J Psychiatry. 2019 Sep;215(3):536-544. doi: 10.1192/bjp.2018.255. PMID: 30523772.

Reinders AA, Willemsen AT, Vos HP, den Boer JA, Nijenhuis ER. Fact or factitious? A psychobiological study of authentic and simulated dissociative identity states. PLoS One. 2012;7(6):e39279. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0039279. Epub 2012 Jun 29. Erratum in: PLoS One. 2012;7(7): doi/10.1371/annotation/4f2000ce-ff9e-48e8-8de0-893b67efa3a4. Reinders, A A T Simone [corrected to Reinders, A A T S]. PMID: 22768068; PMCID: PMC3387157.

Webermann AR, Brand BL. Mental illness and violent behavior: the role of dissociation. Borderline Personal Disord Emot Dysregul. 2017 Jan 23;4:2. doi: 10.1186/s40479-017-0053-9. PMID: 28138388; PMCID: PMC5260135.

Loewenstein RJ. Dissociation debates: everything you know is wrong. Dialogues Clin Neurosci. 2018 Sep;20(3):229-242. doi: 10.31887/DCNS.2018.20.3/rloewenstein. PMID: 30581293; PMCID: PMC6296396.

Yu J, Ross CA, Keyes BB, Li Y, Dai Y, Zhang T, Wang L, Fan Q, Xiao Z. Dissociative disorders among Chinese inpatients diagnosed with schizophrenia. J Trauma Dissociation. 2010;11(3):358-72. doi: 10.1080/15299731003793468. PMID: 20603768; PMCID: PMC2929575.

Mitra P, Jain A. Dissociative Identity Disorder. [Updated 2023 May 16]. In: StatPearls [Internet]. Treasure Island (FL): StatPearls Publishing; 2023 Jan-. Available from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK568768/

Brand, B. L., Myrick, A. C., Loewenstein, R. J., Classen, C. C., Lanius, R., McNary, S. W., Pain, C., & Putnam, F. W. (2012). A survey of practices and recommended treatment interventions among expert therapists treating patients with dissociative identity disorder and dissociative disorder not otherwise specified. Psychological Trauma: Theory, Research, Practice, and Policy, 4(5), 490–500.

Salter M, Blizard R. False Memories And The Science Of Credibility: Who Gets To Be Heard? J Trauma Dissociation. 2022 Mar-Apr;23(2):141-147. doi: 10.1080/15299732.2022.2028219. Epub 2022 Jan 20. PMID: 35050833.

https://news.isst-d.org/the-rise-and-fall-of-the-false-memory-syndrome-foundation/

Cook, Lynn. False Memories The Deception That Silenced Millions First Edition 2022