Whoever they are, you’re meeting someone who has shared a deep truth with you. Having DID, you’ve seen some shit. It’s hard to relate to people who had “normal” lives and “normal” childhoods. Things they’ve been through might seem unbelievable to you. Listen, try to understand.

Be kind. Be aware. 🖖🏻

DID is as varied as human beings. Peoples’ interests will show themselves in parts of their selves. You might meet a dragon. You might meet an anime character. You might meet a guy who has been working here way too long and wasn’t even supposed to he here today.

When you deny others the right to describe their own experience, you do a devil’s work for them, and the mission of the defunct FMSF lives on. You contribute to a culture that doesn’t believe survivors.

If you believe you’ve met a faker, keep it to yourself. Truths come out on their own eventually.

On this DID Awareness Day, I want you to be aware of the climate you create when you fake-claim others. Even if you’re right, you intimidate people around you. A friend that is struggling with dissociation or their parts, may not say anything. A person who is already in denial dives deeper.

I know there are people in the world who claim to have this condition, who don’t. Some are mistaken, malingering, simply misdiagnosed. I’m not immune to speculation about fakers—but I’m not their therapist, or them, so what right do I have to deny their reality? If I’m wrong, someone gets hurt.

I could repeat the clinical description of DID, but I’m a poet: DID happens when children have to weaponize their imaginary friends to shield themselves from pain inflicted on them by the world.

I didn’t know I had it until I was 28 years old. Life got really weird really fast.

FMSF was founded by two parents whose child accused them of CSA. Their members testified as expert witnesses in hundreds of abuse trials.

Now, an organization founded by “falsely accused” child molesters, promoting amnesia, to help parents accused of abuse… are you seeing a conflict of interest?

Much of the misinformation you know about DID is the result of intentional activism. The False Memory Syndrome Foundation was a nonprofit organization dedicated to the promotion of the pseudoscientific “false memory syndrome,” historically in association with “repressed memory” therapists.

It is good to ask why. It is good to ask for evidence of a claim, especially one that’s hard to believe. It is good to wait and think before giving an opinion. It is good to examine your biases and attempt to avoid them. It is good to believe things after the evidence is presented, not before.