Functional Doesn't Mean Okay

[@MeowMusicNightcore]

This aligns with our experience as well; we could talk about our experiences with no emotions to find that later, our system was actually deeply wounded and carrying emotional scars I did not have an awareness of. We were also missed because we showed a lack of distress and were not the most, but "getting by" functional. People assumed we were okay. I believed I was okay. I love you spreading awareness about something like this

[@riversrhodell2359]

Glad therapists are coming into a better understanding of this generally, cause it can be real easy to fall through the cracks - Other Jayson

[@xx-sof-xx]

This!!! I can only speak from my experience with the Danish psychiatry, but they don't screen for dissociation here. When I look back at my medical papers and my own journaling, it is so obvious that I was experiencing complex dissociation, but I think only one of my many psychiatrists/psychologists/therapists ever clocked it as that. I was misdiagnosed bipolar, BPD/EUPD, schizotypal or with panic disorder instead depending on the doctor. It's wild they were quicker at giving me antipsychotics instead of screening me for dissociative disorders or PTSD. I even switched to child alters during therapy and my then therapists just asked me to "do the child voice again", which was super humiliating especially because I was scared and didn't even know I had DID yet. Same therapist also told me I couldn't have PTSD, because my flashbacks I reported weren't "real flashbacks", so I thought I must just be overreacting. I left the psychiatry because even after acknowledging they had misdiagnosed me as bipolar when it was trauma, they didn't want to move me to their trauma specific team and wanted me to still get treated by their mood disorder team and take meds that didn't work. I'm so mad how so many doctors could miss my very obvious trauma disorder - especially when they all acknowledged that I had trauma and dissociation, they just thought it wasn't "true PTSD" for some unknown reason. I've heard other trauma survivors in Denmark having similar experiences as me. I really hope people working with psychiatric patients will get more trauma informed, because honestly I think most of the people they see have some degree of trauma and I've read that almost 50% of psychiatric patients struggle with dissociation

[@GianuSystem]

🫂🫂🫂

[@anonymousprivate6814]

Thanks for this video. I am 50, from the UK and late diagnosed autistic/CPTSD and waiting for DID assessment. I am only realizing how I have normalized having a system of parts which influence my mood and behaviours my entire life. I have been educating myself a lot on DID and how it can be very covert. I also feel a huge sense of unreality about my life and the outside world as well as my sensory issues. My functioning in life has been greatly impacted and I am on disability benefits. I can see how I have masked a lot in my life. I also see how I have intellectual memory or bits of memory but no full memory of what happened to me and parts experience the flashbacks.

[@GianuSystem]

🫂

[@LinkDID]

Oh my geez, this is so true. Functional is like... a bare minimum, not an end of the journey goal. Just because the surface of the surface of the pond is calm doesn't mean there isn't something happening beneath the surface.

[@isthiscereallife]

in my late teens and early 20s, i/"i" matter of factly and disconnectedly would talk about all my traumas and... my therapists all thought i was fine and that id moved past it because i could be so frank about it. and im only 27. i get passed over for learning to cope with flashbacks even though i have them, and have said i have them, because im so disconnected that it doesnt feel like its really "me" who went through those things. and its been _every_ therapist ive seen who thinks im past it.

[@GianuSystem]

🫂🫂🫂

[@kellyschroeder7437]

Yup, so learned to cut off emotions

[@kellyschroeder7437]

So relate

[@choosexolove]

May I ask your opinion on the opposite? When a dissociative client believes they’re fine but the therapist believes that there’s a lot more going on? How do we reconcile that? Love your content- so helpful!

[@GianuSystem]

I’ve heard a lot of stories of exactly that in the community. If I were giving advice, it would be to treat them for the symptoms even while the client thinks they’re fine. Teaching grounding and other safety and stability techniques as well as emotional recognition can go a long way.