It's very difficult to diagnose. My counselor has me diagnosed with D.I.D. My psychiatrist just has me diagnosed with a "disociative disorder". Some professionals believe D.I.D. to be a diagnosis some do not even recognize it exists .regardless we do have a disociative disorder, we are disconnected from ourselves, this is how we survived trauma as children. The more we process the trauma, the more effectively we handle stress and anxiety the less disociative we will be resulting in either integration or co cousisness. We know there are "others" the professionals do not live in our bodies or our minds so they can not know. I am unable to video record mine cause I don't know when I am switching. I also don't know how many alters their are due to this...I know a child one showed up in therapy once and a teenage one has fronted several times. Also one really enjoys sex...but i am so disconnected during that I can't recall pre sex actual sex or after sex..so there has got to be another one...from what i hear she is very sensual! Go her! Lol...i have an aversion to touch though so can't be me.

I don't know I switch either I have asked my friends to tape or let me know when I switch so I can better understand them people say that if you know you switch then you don't have DID some of them I can communicate with but it's rare my counselor said I do dissociate but not enough to split personalities I don't believe her. I don't even know it happens and when it does I always say no way I didn't switch no I didn't they say yes you did and I say no way. I have server PTSD but I don't dissociate. I have a friend who has DID and she knows I do too just so confused. Is there anything that can help me.

How long have you been with your therapist?
You are comfortable with your friends and have seen them in many situations. But often in therapy (at least for myself) we present our healthiest, most capable self. Or at least an acceptable crazy us. Animals do this, they dsont want to beseen as vulnerable and picked off.
If you haven't been with them long, it could be that there is one of you who dominates in session and she hasn't seen any other alters. If its possible to go to sessions and concentrate for a while on some other aspect, say stress management, and learn what you can about something asidebfrom the DID maybe at some point your alters will be relaxed and find their ways out.

I think sometimes we feel like we need a stamp of approval from someone that says what we already know. I wonder if you go with the thought that you want to help yourself, and not worry about the diagnosis part (which is really hard) your alters might demand acknowledgment sooner than you expect?

Its really hard though, I know. Validate yourself, lean on your friends who know. If your therapist doesn't see it after a while, get what you can from sessions and then see if you need to change.
But validate and believe yourself

Agree with KittyTwist

If your therapist doesn't believe you then perhaps she is not trained in or has limited experience with DID and a therapist who has more experience may be better equipped to help you. We are not making a suggestion only voicing an observation. As a suggestion we would say be open and forthright with your therapist about how you feel. A true professional will appreciate and incorporate the feedback.

Willow (formerly C.) Elisa and April.

Well I have explained that she is wrong and yes she not trained in DID but I don't talk much about it with her cause she is not believing me. I hope she sees that I am not kidding.

I have a question. Does it really matter if she is right or wrong? Labels are for the sole purpose of helping us understand something about ourselves. True DID is so rare most psychologist go their entire career without meeting one in their practice. Most individuals fall just outside that diagnosis to varying degrees. This is probably what is driving her to be skeptical, not anything to do with you in particular.

Because you are not aware and in control of all the different facets of your personality and sometimes (or often) react in unpredictable ways means you are disassociating. The cold hard fact is all those varying fragments were fractured from the real you.

Think of the fractures as small streams and rivers made of your own life force. What is supposed to be pure is filled with all the excess emotional garbage that was dumped on you as a child, all your fears, self-doubts and the things that would have crushed a weaker person's soul. All the things that were said and done to you were a result of them being broken, not you. Maybe this damage was so extensive, it's the reason you fractured, but you can heal and be the person you were meant to be.

Your job is to begin slowly sucking up all that toxic fluid, filter out all the negativity and toss it away where it can't hurt you. Once you realize that every little thing that was done to you was not your fault, was so horrible that it damaged your soul and NO ONE should have ever subjected you to such things, sorting through it will become easy. You are simply sifting through to remove their contamination from your life force. Once one small stream is clean, you integrate a small piece of your life force and grow stronger. Each time you deal with a trauma you grown stronger still.

After you filter enough of these streams and rivers, you heal. Maybe you will always have a protector part to your personality that steps in, but by and large you are integrated. All the pieces that were once broken away and acting independently are now part of the whole. You don't lose anything, you just grow strong by unification.

Continue with your therapy focusing on healing your traumas. Don't keep chasing around trying to prove DID, cause in the general scheme of things it doesn't matter. Let you therapist think whatever she wants. You alone know the truth, and no one can ever take that from you.

I totally agree with gutted. We don't do therapy anymore cause therapists are idiots. (My opinion). You can easily educate yourself to a comparative masters degree in yourself. You don't need validation to heal.

I don't disagree with Ambience. Some therapist can be idiots, but most are more like one trick ponies. The thing they're really good at is walking you through an issue, helping you make sense of it and assisting you in finding closure on that issue.

I'd sit down and make a list of your six most serious traumatic moments, most pressing issues, biggest fears or whatever you see as holding you back. DO NOT give the therapist your list. Keep it in safely your pocket. Pick the least stressful one, share it with your therapist and let her do her trick. Once you get closure on that issue, bring up your next least stressful one. If you work from least stressful to most stressful, you are in effect cutting the legs off the monster before you attack it. This will make it easier to get your head around it, break it apart and deal effectively with the big one. Plus you will have the strength of knowing you can do it, because of all the smaller successes that came before.

Pretend you're playing super mario brothers and save the big boss for last!