Thanks Theo :) and welcome to the discussion. yup DID is caused from severe abuse not just cults and satanic abuse but all kinds of abuse and DID from cults nad satanic abuse is rare. most DID people that I see and know their abuse is from plain old incest and sexual abuse from relatives, family members and strangers with no background in religious abuse or cult like history.

Dissociation happens on a normal level ie daydreaming and thinking of other things than what you are physically doing. add any percieved traumatic and abuse situation to that, in which that person fears for their life, so much so that the person imagines the abuse is happening to someone else and they are safe somewhere else and voila the makings of DID.

Hi Anne!Yes at times I do agree that adults who harm children either physically, mentally and all other ways should be locked up but I can't help but to think just how jammed crammed our jails would be and other times I wonder; how would that help the child that has already been abused???
I feel very strongly that those adults who are abusive are also damaged children who were abused by their own fathers, mothers, uncles etc. I know my mom was abused by my grandfather and I also know that when she abused me that she was always in a deep dissociative state of mind each time. I didn't know it then but in thinking back, when I visualize her; she always was "spacing" out when she would go into her rages and when she would do illogical sick things to me like hiding and jumping out to scare me. I know for sure that she had severe clinical depression but I also believe that she was suffering with another mental disorder (who knows she may have been DID as well) but I'll never know that for sure.
When I first started therapy I saw images in my head and I was both frightened and highly ****** off at her. But as I have healed, my outlook on her is more of pity than anger anymore. I think that her generation is lost; the ones who were damaged and damaged their children will never seek help because of pride. But our generation has too much pride to just sit back and let it keep going from our generation to the next. I'm so grateful for the laws that are set in place now that help the children who are so abused. However I feel that nobody really understands that the kids who need protecting will never get it because the severely abused are already too fractured into so many parts that the public could never tell that the child is anything other than sweet, polite and quiet. It's a shame that mental abuse is not illegal!!!

However it sounds like everyone here has done their homework! Even though I have this website and have only dealt with survivors of childhood abuse with DID; I have also heard of non-survivors who have lived with DID.
I really need to do some research on this but if I'm not mistaken, I think that the multiple (Played by Joan Woodward in "All about Eave") was not ever abused. She was only traumatized by a few certain events that she witnessed, did I hear that right? Like I say, I haven't done any research on that but I guess maybe I really should.
I certainly cannot claim that it's not true; that would be like my family telling me that I'm lying about my own DID, and yes they do. It's odd though, my mother is the only one who has recognized and accepted my DID. When I told her about it she thought for a moment and then she said how she remembers me watching TV and sometimes I'd see the tube with no problem and other times I'd have to squint my eyes to see. She mentioned other things too and then she said "So we've been talking to all these different people all your life?" And I said yes. Then she said she didn't want to ever meet or talk to any of the others! I didn't have the heart to tell her that she had already talked to three alters since we had been talking that day LOL.
Anyway thanks for posting everyone. I rarely get the chance to check out my own forum but when I do, I am always pleasantly surprised to see so many dedicated readers talking with one another.
Thanks again!
Candy
Webmaster

I read here on and off and decided to ask a question to you candy. "all about Eave" All about eve is a 1950 movie with Bette Davis about the relationship of two sisters. so I was wondering if you menat to write "the three faces of eve" if so the Eves were sexually abused. in one part of the movie eve was forced to kiss someone - her dead grandmother. being forced to kiss someone is sexual abuse. I had an uncle he didnt touch me at all didnt have intercourse with me but my parents made me kiss him goodby every time he came over to visit. I had to fill out a paper when I went for therapy and it asked if I had ever been sexually abused. I maked no. then when I was talking to my therapist vonnie going over the paper she asked me if I had ever been forced to kiss anyone or have sex with anyone or get touched in ways I didnt want. I told her about uncle stan and she crossed out the no on the paper and told me being forced to kiss someone is sexual abuse and it could be part of why Im DID.