Information and Resources

[Velvet Elvis]

notes:

• The list is a work in progress. I'm trying to provide some stuff for all dissociative disorders and not just DID.
• A lot of the resources on the web for these are crap, so the pickings are pretty slim.
• DID is controversial. It's not consistent with our site mission of being a pro-information sharing site to pretend like the controversy is not there. I'm including links from both sides of the recovered memory issue so people can make up their own minds.
• If you have any suggestions, post and I'll review them for possible inclusion on the list.

general

• International Society for the Study of Trauma and Dissociation. This appears to be associated with McLean hospital in some way. Or it may just be coincidence that their headquarters is in the same place as one of the best hospitals in the world for these issues. Either way, it's one of the best sites on the net. See their list of FAQs if you're just getting started figuring out what diagnosis may or may not mean.
• Many Voices newsletter archives.
• The Sidran institute has professionally written articles about dissociation, trauma, and PTSD.

controversy

• The Recovered Memory Project documents confirmed of cases of recovered memory.
• What about recovered memory?
• A long assed research review from Jim Hopper
• Article criticizing Stranger in the Mirror in Psychology Today
• Flash based false memory demonstration

Edited July 1, 2010 by Velvet Elvis

[Panz]

VE, I've just been recommended a new book. I have to read it still, just about to order it from amazon, It's called "Feeling Unreal: Depersonalization Disorder and the Loss of the Self" by Daphne Simeon and Jeffrey Abugel You might give it a peek. I'm hoping it will help me understand the disorder and maybe I can learn not to be the amazing puppet girl...blah! I HATE depersonalization worse than dissociation by far

Anyways, it looks good. I'll write a review of the book once I get it

Link to Amazon

Thanks

Panz

Edited May 31, 2007 by Panz

[Velvet Elvis]

I haven't read it either, but based on reviews I put it in the appropriate section of the crazystore

[Alyson]

Thanks VE for this topic, and Panz for your book mention.

I have been having very much a struggle within myself with this, and even have been to McLeans and day treatment for a couple months.

It is a very touchy subject, even when all is so right there full time in flashbacks during the day, beside night terrors, and way much more.

Kind of like you have learn to not trust, even your own thoughts, mind.

[SUEzie]

I just located an educational documentary on DID on the internet. It was produced by Gloria Steinem and Michael Medendorf for HBO, in 1993.

I think it's pretty well-done -very matter-of-fact (and everyone knows who Gloria Steinem is, right? So it's got some credibility, as far as being done with very good intentions, as far as education.)

It's an hour long, and it shows cases of 3 people (2 women, 1 man) who have full-blown DID (and what some of them are doing about it.)

WARNING: The people in the video definitely have DID, so if you don't want to watch a DID patient having a "seizure" in hospital (for one thing), then don't watch it. However, that's the only "violent" scene. The rest is just 3 DID people describing how they live their daily lives, and a bit about how-why they think they may have DID.

It might be nothing you're not already familiar with, if you have it - just sayin...

I thought it was one of the most objective videos on the topic I'd seen (and to be honest, there aren't that many of them out there).

Here are the links:

naturalchildhood.blogspot.com/2007/07/multiple-personality-disorder-video.html -19k-

If that doesn't work, try:

video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-1078314996890815904

It's on Youtube as well. To find it that way, just Google the topic: Multiple Personality Disorder videos.

It's the first one listed.

- Susan

Edited July 1, 2010 by Velvet Elvis

[wifezilla]

The people in the video definitely have DID, so if you don't want to watch people display symptoms of it, then don't watch it.

Huh? I guess i will have to watch the video now ...LOL. I honestly can't think of anything disturbing or upsetting I have ever seen Abi do because of her DID.

[SUEzie]

I amended that statement in my first post. I only said that, because I didn't know if watching it would be "triggerring" for anyone, or not - and I posted a warning just to be "on the safe side".

It's not a violent video (except for that one scene in the hospital), just factual. Still, in the video, you see people "switch" a lot. Not that people w/DID wouldn't be already used to this - I just wasn't sure whether people watching the video would want to watch someone else do it.

But it is an informative video. Also, it's a video done w/some dignity - not one that makes DID folks out as some kind of circus curisoity, that other people would watch for "entertainment" or out of sheer curiosity- (which is the impression I sometimes get w/some of the info. on the market) - this video genuinely throws compassion on the topic in the way its presented, and is enlightening in general, IMO.

- Susan

Edited August 25, 2008 by pleasemakeitstop

[lysergia]

i can't believe i missed this before. damn we've been out of the loop.

VE, thank you THANK YOU for the pinned note here - the way you approached the issues is VERY respectful and we really appreciate that. when we're in a place that we can think academically again (hah that could be awhile), we'd like to contribute to the lists of resources and information.

susan, thanks for the link to the video - i haven't been able to finish it yet, so i can't really say much until i've seen the whole thing. but i think suggestions for videos are GREAT - lots of people find the academic stuff too confusing or too dry to get through. video presentations get past that, even if they can't be quite as precise in their explanations. i haven't actually done any poking around for video or audio stuff (which surprises me - you'd think one of us would have looked for that on that horrible addictive youtube site). i think the majority of what i'll find is drama, but i'd like to look for more nevertheless. we don't even read much of anything about DID anymore, since most of it is either outdated or outright drama. maybe that's changing and we should pay attention again.

i tried going to youtube to hit up the first video on MPD like you suggested, and this documentary is NOT it (for anyone else who tries). when i did it, the first link was to a press release from Herschell Walker (the NFL player who came out of the DID closet not too long ago). that wasn't a bad video, though, even if it was only four minutes. i like to see people who are the exact OPPOSITE of what layfolk expect multiples to look like - nobody would peg a two hundred pound black football player for that kind of crazy, eh? and he seemed sweet, even if his speech doesn't add to the "facts" pool.

wifezilla we can always count on you to clarify the delicate wording around here

thanks for that.

there's hope for this subforum yet

[SUEzie]

Sorry about that. I am not sure why it happened.

I just Googled the phrase: Multiple personality disorder videos - and noticed that there was a video on the 1st page I got linked to - (under a company name called: Natural Child Blogspot, and also another link to the same exact video, under a link called: videogoogle.

I was just curious, so I clicked on them - and found they were both the same video done by HBO (and it noted it was done by a guy named Michael Medendorf), in 1993. Then when I watched it, at the end, it also noted it was produced also by Gloria Steinem.

BUT - if it's not the 1st one listed when you Google that phrase,"Multiple Personality disorder videos"

it should be on the first (or at the very least, I'd think, the 2nd), page. If it's not, I am not sure why. Maybe everyone's Google connections work differently?(Dunno.)

I am not sure why the links I posted didn't work when I typed them here, so you could just click and go to it, but they didn't (and I kept trying to post them. I tried posting, like 3 times.)

I really wish there was a way I could get those links on here, better (AArgh!) - 'cuz it's a decent video.

Trying to Google that phrase might still work for some folks (but you apparently need to search down the a page (or maybe 2 pages) to see if what comes up looks like it could be link(s) to the video (again, I'm sorry.)

It's not amazingly spectacular, but it's definitely a cut above some of the stuff I've noticed out there on DID, IMO.

- Susan

Edited August 26, 2008 by pleasemakeitstop

[fatguy]

These resources are also good:

Kinhost Wiki - The multiplicity manual

Dutch site with a huge library of articles on dissociation and trauma related stuff

And this is a very nice for dealing with stuff inside and coping strategies:

Getting Through the day..

[tryp]

Getting Through the Day is an AMAZING book. Love it. It's given me so much insight. Best dissociation/CPTSD thing I've ever read.

[Panz]

Facebook DID awareness page

Not so much information but they are trying to raise awareness about DID and I thought it was interesting

[Panz]

DID/MPD work book

I found this site recently and it looks like they are trying to do good things...I hope that it is helpful to some one

Sorry VE for the double post

I am making progress with my inner family and want to help others.

Cheers

Panz

[knitten]

We have found Judith Herman's Trauma and Recovery to be very helpful. Another really helpful book is by Pat Ogden, Trauma and the Body. Articles and books by Bessel Van der kolk have also helped us understand things better. the first two books are about trauma but they both discuss dissociation. We found them helpful because they had recovery plans and focused more on recovery then on the trauma. hope they pass muster.

[AnneMarie]

The [link=http://www.empty-memories.nl/www_1.html#abuse]Empty-Memories Library[/link] has a lot of research articles, some are specific to dissociation, some dissociated identy, and others to trauma and other stuff. Some of the info is scientific, other articles are more general.

[Zoe]

Sorry about that. I am not sure why it happened.

I just Googled the phrase: Multiple personality disorder videos - and noticed that there was a video on the 1st page I got linked to - (under a company name called: Natural Child Blogspot, and also another link to the same exact video, under a link called: videogoogle.

I was just curious, so I clicked on them - and found they were both the same video done by HBO (and it noted it was done by a guy named Michael Medendorf), in 1993. Then when I watched it, at the end, it also noted it was produced also by Gloria Steinem.

BUT - if it's not the 1st one listed when you Google that phrase,"Multiple Personality disorder videos"

it should be on the first (or at the very least, I'd think, the 2nd), page. If it's not, I am not sure why. Maybe everyone's Google connections work differently?(Dunno.)

I am not sure why the links I posted didn't work when I typed them here, so you could just click and go to it, but they didn't (and I kept trying to post them. I tried posting, like 3 times.)

I really wish there was a way I could get those links on here, better (AArgh!) - 'cuz it's a decent video.

Trying to Google that phrase might still work for some folks (but you apparently need to search down the a page (or maybe 2 pages) to see if what comes up looks like it could be link(s) to the video (again, I'm sorry.)

It's not amazingly spectacular, but it's definitely a cut above some of the stuff I've noticed out there on DID, IMO.

- Susan

Holy smokes now that was a surprise. I went and watched that video on DID the one that was on HBO in 1993. Well, imagine my surprise when the first lady that was on the video had been my art therapist a year ago. I worked with her for about 2 years. She was (is)(she had left to work somewhere new last I saw her) the most amazing therapist I've ever met. She seemed like she could read my mind or something. I'd never seen this video before, and I didn't know that my therapist had DID. Wow. That was upsetting and scary and thrilling in a way to actually know someone who changed their life so much and for all intents and purposes is "cured". I'm so glad I stumbled upon this. So, a follow up on "Gretchen" she went on to be the most awesomest art therapist that ever existed in the history of the world and seemed to be very, very happy. I can't seem to stop saying wow.