TW/CW(Trigger Warning/Content Warning): Mentions of different types of trauma, including bullying, child abuse, and SA

Whenever I turn on social media, I check on my friends and have conversations in servers and group chats. We laugh and have fun, and I always look forward to talking to everyone I know. There is a safe space server I am in where the other users in it usually complain and vent about their lives as of right now, and a private channel where they share their own trauma from long ago. Many of these people suffer from many mental illnesses, and one catches my eye. The disorder is a bit different from the rest, it is called Dissociative Identity Disorder/Other Specified Dissociative Disorder type 1. 

Currently, many people are enduring the after-effects of past trauma in their life. They might easily come to terms with the trauma, while others have a harder time coping. Physically, mentally, and even emotionally, everyone can be affected by trauma. Trauma can include the loss of a loved one, abuse from someone else, being bullied, being sexually assaulted, and more. There are types of treatment, such as many types of therapy, that help relieve the clients from their past experiences. 

Before the ages of 6-9, and through extreme and repeated trauma, Dissociative Identity Disorder, or DID for short, may form. It is also associated with strong attachment to their caregiver that is disturbed or disordered. DID is a complex dissociative disorder where there are one or more dissociated self-states, called “alters” or “parts,” in one body either than the host. The host is an alter in a system that controls the body the most. Having control of the body is also called fronting. All of these parts together in one body are called a system, and they have different alter roles to organize and protect their system. 

There are different types of systems, there is a DID system, an OSDD-1b system, and an OSDD-1a system. OSDD stands for Other Specified Dissociative Disorder. There are many types of OSDD, but OSDD-1 is another dissociative disorder similar to DID. It is missing one key component required for a DID diagnosis, whether it would be highly distinct parts (OSDD-1a) or dissociative amnesia between parts (OSDD-1b). All of these dissociative disorders are valid and real disorders.

DID systems are often stigmatized, but people with OSDD-1 are stigmatized more than DID systems, just because it manifests differently than DID systems. Even people with OSDD-1 doubt themselves having their disorder, too, and they might be faking and lying. They might even say that their trauma is not “bad enough” to have a system. If you have OSDD-1, your trauma is just as valid as someone with DID, and everyone who has DID/OSDD goes through dissociation. Your problems and what you went through are real, and no one should say anything else otherwise.

Many of my friends online who have systems usually are online to escape from their traumatic life, and since DID/OSDD-1 is mainly caused by trauma, and sometimes, they may think that their only time to be alive is online. Other alters in their system may not, and that is okay. All alters have differences from each other and may react differently to a variety of things. Everyone in their systems has different roles in the system to keep it at bay, and is important to their system in some way. Whenever I interact with them, I treat them with respect, just like how you would with a classmate or an acquaintance. People with these kinds of disorders are just as acceptable as another human being, therefore do not be afraid to greet them if you encounter them online!