Dive into your creative stream
as someone who has been told that their trauma isn’t ’bad enough’ or real by a psychologist, i want to reassure you that your feelings about traumatic memories you may have are valid. the therapist we’re with now supports us and listens to us and our feelings.
after our interaction with that therapist, including several negative events that affected and worsened our mental state, we grew to believe we were delusional, crazy, and a liar. we were terrified to speak to anyone about it because we feared they would call us liars.
it took us months to gather up courage to talk about anything regarding the topic again with a new therapist. it’s honestly terrifying talking about this right now- but we’re working on getting back our progress again, despite our setbacks and the challenges we experienced.
find a therapist who supports and listens to you- preferably one specializing in dissociative disorders and trauma work- not one who fake-claims you because you aren’t extremely overt and because your trauma seems outlandish or unreal. DID is a covert disorder by nature. just because you don’t seem like you have it on the outside, doesn’t mean it isn’t real. in fact, that’s what it’s supposed to do. it takes several months if not years to even get a diagnosis- because of how difficult it is to pinpoint.
a journey to diagnosis is difficult, even if you have the money for it because of the stigma against DID, OSDD variants, and UDDS, and it takes extreme persistence, some may not even want a diagnosis because people will treat them differently for it- negatively. But, no matter what, your feelings are valid. Your experiences are valid. Your coping mechanisms are valid. If you experience it, it’s real. Even if it’s not in a specifically endorsed label.