Do you think there is any difference between the terms “DID” (Dissociative Identity Disorder) and “MPD” (Multiple Personality Disorder)? How do you feel about either of these terms and their use?
New Landscape ~ DID/MPD Support Group
New York support group for people with Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID) / Multiple Personality Disorder (MPD)
i generally use them interchangeably or together (ie, DID/MPD). to me, it’s just words, and i don’t have a strong attachment to either one. then again, i do feel like people are more likely to recognize MPD, so i often use that one.
i suppose DID was chosen because, oh no, we can’t say there are multiple personalities. there is only *ONE* personality, et cetera et cetera.
when i’m referring to what goes on with me, i usually just say i’m multiple, so i guess i actually lean more towards MPD in how i refer to myself. but probably that’s because i use “dissociative” to refer to the act of dissociating.
one thing i like about DID is that it puts it on a spectrum, so you can be more or less dissociative. with MPD, it’s either/or. you either have multiple parts or you don’t. but at the same time, i think there’s a difference between having distinct, separate parts and being dissociative.
i guess there are positives and negatives with each term.
i suppose there are people who object to the word “disorder.” and i kind of agree with that take… well, more specifically, i’m inclined to think that it’s not being multiple that is the problem, but rather that having all the after-effects of abuse that is the problem. being multiple just makes it a little more challenging to *heal*, because different parts need to be approached in different ways, and one has to spend more time figuring out how to reach them, rather than my experience of therapy prior to being diagnosed, where it was assumed (both by me and by my therapists) that whoever was present in therapy was actually the same personality that needed the help.
“DID” seems nicer – maybe easier for the outside world to understand or accept. If I have “DID”, I can say to someone that it means I dissociate, or disconnect from the world and myself sometimes.
Even so – it’s still a tough concept for anyone to grasp, unless they’ve seen it for themselves.
It might also fit better for those parts that seem to be “fragments” and not very whole as personalities in and of themselves. I have parts that only seem to do one thing and might only be out momentarily. So they may be dissociated aspects, rather than “personalities”. So it seems like DID fits better.
But – if you really want someone to understand what you have, you basically still end up saying “well it used to be called MPD”. To which the person goes “OOOHHHHhhh – now I get it.” So MPD doesn’t really require as much explanation.
Hard to say – both seem to work at times. Seems like people I know use both at various times. And in any case, for the most part, I avoid ever using either term! I almost always stick with telling people I have PTSD (post traumatic stress disorder) if a situation arises where I have to explain myself somehow for something I did. Pretty much everyone understands that one….. “that thing that war vets often have…”