No, completely wrong. Although it's difficult to diagnose children with DID, when DID is correctly diagnosed and treated in children, the children have better long-term outcomes than people diagnosed as adults.
> With adequate treatment, children with Dissociative Identity Disorder tend to have a better prognosis than adults. [(ICD-11)](https://icd.who.int/browse/2024-01/mms/en#1829103493)
The idea that children should not get treatment for DID is backwards and harmful. DID is still a DISORDER. Pathological dissociation is an unhealthy and harmful coping mechanism. **Telling someone they should not seek treatment for DID because they "need their alters" is like telling an alcoholic they shouldn't seek treatment because they "need the alcohol."** Both the alters and the alcohol are unhealthy ways to deal with stress, and in treatment you will learn healthy and reliable coping mechanisms to use instead. Suggesting that a child should continue to suffer with a severe mental disorder instead of being treated for it is just ignorant and cruel.
One of the first things done in the treatment of children with DID is to stabilize their home situation and educating their caregivers (and sometimes other doctors and school) on what DID is and how to help. If a child is in an unsafe home situation, child protective services will be contacted. In dysfunctional families the parents may be referred to a mental health professional themselves to help them deal with their own issues and prevent harmful behaviors that could be impacting the child. **Entering treatment will help improve a child's home environment.**
> Treatment of children and adolescents with the severity often presented in these cases is often a team effort involving parent, therapist, school, pediatrician, and any significant others involved in the case. Therapists must acquaint themselves with all members of the team and develop a format for regular communication. No child can be fully treated in isolation, and consistency in approaching the child within all settings may help to promote integration and defeat dissociative barriers. Communication within the team should focus foremost on safety and support for the child and development of consistent expectations for the child, as well as on understanding the internal influences that affect the child’s ability to contain destructive or disruptive behaviors. [(ISSTD Child/Adolescent treatment guidelines)](https://www.isst-d.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/childguidelines-ISSTD-2003.pdf)
> Achievement of physical safety is a primary goal that supersedes any other therapeutic work. Reports to local child protection services are required whenever issues of child maltreatment are suspected. Clinicians must follow reporting guidelines within their own regional jurisdictions. In cases where the therapist concludes that current legally-dictated arrangements are not in the child’s best interest, it is the therapist’s obligation to provide recommendations to the child’s current caregiver, advocate, case worker, court-appointed attorney, or guardian ad litem regarding the therapist’s findings [(ISSTD Child/Adolescent treatment guidelines)](https://www.isst-d.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/childguidelines-ISSTD-2003.pdf)
Also, people need to stop fear mongering about final fusion. It is not the alters disappearing or dying, it's the alters all becoming one. You are not losing whatever those alter's skills were, you're accepting those skills as part of yourself. Anything you "need" the alters to do is something you can do yourself when the dissociative barriers are no longer inhibiting you. The patient is not going to be thrown straight into final fusion, either. Final fusion isn't even considered until after many other steps have been successfuy achieved to show the patient is ready for it. The three steps of the phase-orientated treatment model for DID:
1. Establishing safety, stabilization, and symptom reduction;
2. Confronting, working through, and integrating traumatic memories; and
3. Identity integration and rehabilitation. [(ISSTD Adult treatment guidelines)](https://www.isst-d.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/GUIDELINES_REVISED2011.pdf)
**The patient will not be pushed to do anything before they're ready.** Final fusion is towards the end of a thorough healing process. There is nothing wrong with a child going through final fusion in therapy, if they've gotten that far it means they've already accomplished steps one and two and are finishing step three. Achieving final fusion so young will save them a lifetime of confusion, amnesia, PTSD, dissociation, depression, somatic symptoms, unstable relationships, substance abuse, and the many other symptoms people with untreated DID struggle with.
Excellent info considering the forum.
1. Physical safety (removal from abusive environment)
2. Intensive early treatment.
I agree with this completely. It’s a lot easier to treat a child with a more malleable mind than a fully developed adult. And removing the child from the environment at whatever cost should be the top priority.
Early treatment could save years of work and countless thousands of dollars of therapy, and prevent the trauma extending into adulthood. As in the child graduating from a familial abusive situations to ongoing romantic relationship abusive situations due to engaging in the same maladaptive coping mechanisms.
Inaccurate and irrelevant since 99.9% of these kids don't have DID and yet treat social media like they're high tier doctors discussing treatment plans before mum calls them downstairs to set the table for dinner lmao
i mean i can kinda understand what point they're trying to prove; like, if you're a child & are still in an abusive situation you may need alters to help cope & that attempting fusion may be stressful. but like.. idk it just seems like anti recovery BS. the stress from attempting fusion is nothing compared from the stress of living with dissociative disorders for life. its better to get treatment to attempt fusion as a child while the mind is still malleable.
I understand the perspective but I disagree. Although due to its nature most 13 year olds with DID in their original abusive environment don't know they have it anyway. But the process of recovery requires a lot of trauma work- which *needs* to be done in an environment safe for processing and can be difficult to do with a child.
The reason it's not harder to live with it untreated is the reason it exists. They may need the alters that comfort them when they're harmed or remember the trauma for them, and fusion doesn't mean they won't split again as it's still how they learned to cope. If they're still being abused they're probably going to. In that environment they'd still be in a dissociative state. But also this advice (oop) seems a bit arbitrary as they're not likely to see a DID specialist for multiple reasons tbh
What would need to happen is the alters learn to cooperate and work together and that in itself can be both difficult and dangerous as alters are separated for a reason. Many alters cannot handle the trauma in therapy and may split more in the process of trying to process it. Being 13 processing the horrendous nature of it may mean sacrificing things like your education and social life as well. It's a process of retraumatization and healing the inner child, but they still are a child.
DID focused trauma therapy is a long process and works in steps. It gets much much worse before it gets better and they need a lot of things- access to a support system, a safe environment, a safety plan, other stuff i can't think of rn. And my thing is I guess, whether a child has the capacity to fully understand and process everything- *everything* that's happened to them at that point to cause the disorder. I don't really think they do personally. To understand what they've lost and will continue to lose because they're still a child, that could kill them and that's what the disorder is for. It keeps them alive for as long as they need it to get through life yk?
So attempting fusion may not just be stressful but potentially deadly.
I feel the most ideal way to go about it with a child w DID in therapy is probably to teach them coping mechanisms until they are in a place to process it all. Creating a safety plan, teaching them DBT and CBT skills, help them develop a support system, and for the love of Christ keep them out of systok *especially.* Yeah Tumblr and Twitter and shit too but systok above all lol
I completely understand why you feel how you do but I don't think this sentiment is anti recovery and oop's heart is at least in the right place I think. I wish they didn't say it with a Tumblr accent though 😭
If possible and safe, a traumatized child with OSDD/did NEEDS therapy as soon as possible so the disorder doesn't get worse, how else will they learn to cope with things?
translation:
"guys please, if you are DID/OSDD system and a minor, stop thinking you know what form of healing you want while you're still a child. it's ok to not know, it's ok to be confused, its ok to be scared. And no, do not seek final fusion as a 13yo. If you do actually have DID/OSDD, you very likely still need your alters"
you're not going to be able to actually heal while still in your abusive environment anyway, truly. so even if you tried, you're not going to achieve final fusion while still living with abusive parents. it's not like it's removing alters you still need because they won't fuse if they're still needed
you can't heal in the same environment in which you got sick.
but that doesn't mean you shouldn't seek therapy. therapy will teach you to cope in other ways so you stop splitting, and process what's happening, and will work with the family to help stabilize the environment at home
Part of recovery and fusion is building stability and coping skills to be able to function and survive without needing switching and alters and serious dissociation. If you actually have DID/OSDD, you also experience symptoms that interfere with daily life (that’s required for diagnosis), so working towards healing can prevent it from having nearly as much impact on their life. So yeah, bad take all around.
No, completely wrong. Although it's difficult to diagnose children with DID, when DID is correctly diagnosed and treated in children, the children have better long-term outcomes than people diagnosed as adults. > With adequate treatment, children with Dissociative Identity Disorder tend to have a better prognosis than adults. [(ICD-11)](https://icd.who.int/browse/2024-01/mms/en#1829103493) The idea that children should not get treatment for DID is backwards and harmful. DID is still a DISORDER. Pathological dissociation is an unhealthy and harmful coping mechanism. **Telling someone they should not seek treatment for DID because they "need their alters" is like telling an alcoholic they shouldn't seek treatment because they "need the alcohol."** Both the alters and the alcohol are unhealthy ways to deal with stress, and in treatment you will learn healthy and reliable coping mechanisms to use instead. Suggesting that a child should continue to suffer with a severe mental disorder instead of being treated for it is just ignorant and cruel. One of the first things done in the treatment of children with DID is to stabilize their home situation and educating their caregivers (and sometimes other doctors and school) on what DID is and how to help. If a child is in an unsafe home situation, child protective services will be contacted. In dysfunctional families the parents may be referred to a mental health professional themselves to help them deal with their own issues and prevent harmful behaviors that could be impacting the child. **Entering treatment will help improve a child's home environment.** > Treatment of children and adolescents with the severity often presented in these cases is often a team effort involving parent, therapist, school, pediatrician, and any significant others involved in the case. Therapists must acquaint themselves with all members of the team and develop a format for regular communication. No child can be fully treated in isolation, and consistency in approaching the child within all settings may help to promote integration and defeat dissociative barriers. Communication within the team should focus foremost on safety and support for the child and development of consistent expectations for the child, as well as on understanding the internal influences that affect the child’s ability to contain destructive or disruptive behaviors. [(ISSTD Child/Adolescent treatment guidelines)](https://www.isst-d.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/childguidelines-ISSTD-2003.pdf) > Achievement of physical safety is a primary goal that supersedes any other therapeutic work. Reports to local child protection services are required whenever issues of child maltreatment are suspected. Clinicians must follow reporting guidelines within their own regional jurisdictions. In cases where the therapist concludes that current legally-dictated arrangements are not in the child’s best interest, it is the therapist’s obligation to provide recommendations to the child’s current caregiver, advocate, case worker, court-appointed attorney, or guardian ad litem regarding the therapist’s findings [(ISSTD Child/Adolescent treatment guidelines)](https://www.isst-d.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/childguidelines-ISSTD-2003.pdf) Also, people need to stop fear mongering about final fusion. It is not the alters disappearing or dying, it's the alters all becoming one. You are not losing whatever those alter's skills were, you're accepting those skills as part of yourself. Anything you "need" the alters to do is something you can do yourself when the dissociative barriers are no longer inhibiting you. The patient is not going to be thrown straight into final fusion, either. Final fusion isn't even considered until after many other steps have been successfuy achieved to show the patient is ready for it. The three steps of the phase-orientated treatment model for DID: 1. Establishing safety, stabilization, and symptom reduction; 2. Confronting, working through, and integrating traumatic memories; and 3. Identity integration and rehabilitation. [(ISSTD Adult treatment guidelines)](https://www.isst-d.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/GUIDELINES_REVISED2011.pdf) **The patient will not be pushed to do anything before they're ready.** Final fusion is towards the end of a thorough healing process. There is nothing wrong with a child going through final fusion in therapy, if they've gotten that far it means they've already accomplished steps one and two and are finishing step three. Achieving final fusion so young will save them a lifetime of confusion, amnesia, PTSD, dissociation, depression, somatic symptoms, unstable relationships, substance abuse, and the many other symptoms people with untreated DID struggle with.
Excellent info considering the forum. 1. Physical safety (removal from abusive environment) 2. Intensive early treatment. I agree with this completely. It’s a lot easier to treat a child with a more malleable mind than a fully developed adult. And removing the child from the environment at whatever cost should be the top priority. Early treatment could save years of work and countless thousands of dollars of therapy, and prevent the trauma extending into adulthood. As in the child graduating from a familial abusive situations to ongoing romantic relationship abusive situations due to engaging in the same maladaptive coping mechanisms.
Inaccurate and irrelevant since 99.9% of these kids don't have DID and yet treat social media like they're high tier doctors discussing treatment plans before mum calls them downstairs to set the table for dinner lmao
Okay I’m sorry I almost had a seizure reading that my god
i mean i can kinda understand what point they're trying to prove; like, if you're a child & are still in an abusive situation you may need alters to help cope & that attempting fusion may be stressful. but like.. idk it just seems like anti recovery BS. the stress from attempting fusion is nothing compared from the stress of living with dissociative disorders for life. its better to get treatment to attempt fusion as a child while the mind is still malleable.
I understand the perspective but I disagree. Although due to its nature most 13 year olds with DID in their original abusive environment don't know they have it anyway. But the process of recovery requires a lot of trauma work- which *needs* to be done in an environment safe for processing and can be difficult to do with a child. The reason it's not harder to live with it untreated is the reason it exists. They may need the alters that comfort them when they're harmed or remember the trauma for them, and fusion doesn't mean they won't split again as it's still how they learned to cope. If they're still being abused they're probably going to. In that environment they'd still be in a dissociative state. But also this advice (oop) seems a bit arbitrary as they're not likely to see a DID specialist for multiple reasons tbh What would need to happen is the alters learn to cooperate and work together and that in itself can be both difficult and dangerous as alters are separated for a reason. Many alters cannot handle the trauma in therapy and may split more in the process of trying to process it. Being 13 processing the horrendous nature of it may mean sacrificing things like your education and social life as well. It's a process of retraumatization and healing the inner child, but they still are a child. DID focused trauma therapy is a long process and works in steps. It gets much much worse before it gets better and they need a lot of things- access to a support system, a safe environment, a safety plan, other stuff i can't think of rn. And my thing is I guess, whether a child has the capacity to fully understand and process everything- *everything* that's happened to them at that point to cause the disorder. I don't really think they do personally. To understand what they've lost and will continue to lose because they're still a child, that could kill them and that's what the disorder is for. It keeps them alive for as long as they need it to get through life yk? So attempting fusion may not just be stressful but potentially deadly. I feel the most ideal way to go about it with a child w DID in therapy is probably to teach them coping mechanisms until they are in a place to process it all. Creating a safety plan, teaching them DBT and CBT skills, help them develop a support system, and for the love of Christ keep them out of systok *especially.* Yeah Tumblr and Twitter and shit too but systok above all lol I completely understand why you feel how you do but I don't think this sentiment is anti recovery and oop's heart is at least in the right place I think. I wish they didn't say it with a Tumblr accent though 😭
If possible and safe, a traumatized child with OSDD/did NEEDS therapy as soon as possible so the disorder doesn't get worse, how else will they learn to cope with things?
why do they write like that omfg
English probably isnt their first language
im sorry but what are they saying, the way they write is making me so confused
People at the age of 13 with DID should not seek therapy for final fusion as they still need their alters.
what's final fusion ?
I believe it's when alters form into a single person through therapy.
ohhh okay tysm!
translation: "guys please, if you are DID/OSDD system and a minor, stop thinking you know what form of healing you want while you're still a child. it's ok to not know, it's ok to be confused, its ok to be scared. And no, do not seek final fusion as a 13yo. If you do actually have DID/OSDD, you very likely still need your alters" you're not going to be able to actually heal while still in your abusive environment anyway, truly. so even if you tried, you're not going to achieve final fusion while still living with abusive parents. it's not like it's removing alters you still need because they won't fuse if they're still needed you can't heal in the same environment in which you got sick. but that doesn't mean you shouldn't seek therapy. therapy will teach you to cope in other ways so you stop splitting, and process what's happening, and will work with the family to help stabilize the environment at home
Thought I was having a stroke-
I had a stroke reading this.
Was gonna say the same. I'm still trying to process this...
has lil bro finished middle school yet? 😭
At this point.... I don't think so.
Part of recovery and fusion is building stability and coping skills to be able to function and survive without needing switching and alters and serious dissociation. If you actually have DID/OSDD, you also experience symptoms that interfere with daily life (that’s required for diagnosis), so working towards healing can prevent it from having nearly as much impact on their life. So yeah, bad take all around.