Doctor REACTS to The Crowded Room (Ep 3-5) | Psychiatrist Analyzes Dissociative Identity Disorder

[@Maxwellish]

this show doesn’t even relatively deserve the negative reviews, it’s so good.

[@ciennabailey2647]

I think this is so interesting because she is acting as a therapist but she also is in an interesting situation with the fact that she also has to get as much information out of him in such a short amount of time so it is cool to see the pacing of their daily meetings together

[@rhondajohnson8310]

I binged this show this weekend based on your analysis of this show. One of the best I've seen this year.... just powerful.

[@Charmane72]

Thank you! I watched it live but was surprised by the negative reviews. That last 3 episodes had me leaning forward the entire times.

[@janets7291]

I was in a therapy group when one of the participants had a flashback. It must have been very re-traumatizing for her. It was 30 years ago and I still think of her and hope she was able to heal.

[@connermcintosh4322]

I really enjoy this show and think this depiction of DID is incredibly fascinating. While not entirely accurate with the alters appearing to him as separate entities, it makes sense to televise it that way. I do however think it’s important to note that the person this is based on is NOT someone named Danny Sullivan. It is based on billy Milligan who unlike Danny did not (somewhat understandably) go after his abuser. He was a horrific and serial rapist. I think the harm to the did community done by this show would absolutely be mitigated if it was marketed as fiction or without billy milligans name attached to it. But it unfortunate that the combination of the disorder and the marketing being associated with such a horrific person makes this yet another show centered around did that can spread misinformation. Namely that rape is excusable if someone is a system.

[@connermcintosh4322]

Again for clarity I think this show does a good job at explaining some of the disorder, has some things that we now know to be inaccurate (but thought true at the time), but overall tying this show and this disorder to the name/person billy Milligan does quite a bit of harm.

[@simbelmyne7767]

Yeah :/ I really don't like that it's tied to Milligan. I can give it a little grace though, in that I see that they wanted to make the story about proving it in court, and changed it so that the story does the exact opposite of excusing a rapist. A lot of the damage of the Milligan case on the public idea of DID has already been done, and now when people look it up maybe they'll find this show and watch it and learn a thing or two...it's messy. I can be lenient because I read an interview with the writer and he genuinely cares and is more educated about DID than I ever expected. I guess what I'm saying is I agree with you, but it softens the blow for me that there's good with the bad, and I want to give credit where credit is due for how well they did. DID rep is a train wreck and Crowded Room completely blew past any expectations I had. They could have been lazy and sensationalist and when I heard about the show I was Not on board, but after watching it I can't imagine anyone walking away from it with the impression that DID excuses SA. If there is someone like that, then honestly they're already awful and no TV show will change that.

[@connermcintosh4322]

@@simbelmyne7767 yeah I think I agree with you 100%! Thanks for taking the time to read my long ass comment haha.

[@simbelmyne7767]

@@connermcintosh4322 hey cool, same to you lol. And I appreciated you bringing up that physically manifested alters aren't Accurate but they make sense for the visual storytelling, I haven't seen anyone else mention that :)

[@oobergoober23]

I agree w a lot of what you said! But it is important to remember that Billy Milligan’s story (& the book by Keyes) are all copyrighted (Billy’s story in particular is a copyright nightmare). So while I wish they didn’t make any reference or connection w Billy’s story (esp since they changed A LOT) I think legally they have to include that it’s based on/inspired by the book no matter how loosely it is :/

[@nikolkovarikova3448]

I think an episode that would focus on the differences between C-PTSD and BPD would be great!

[@amelial3517]

Premature trauma work can hurt - very true. Sometimes, it may not be possible to fully process whatever that has happened, especially if it happens when one was a child, with limited understanding of what has happened. It has been insightful to have had both the layman and professional lenses on, so as to speak. Hopefully with awareness, those who suffered won’t have to suffer further from stigma and prejudice on top of trauma from sexual/physical assault.

[@mangantasy289]

I have several comorid mental health issues, including cPTSD. I'm in therapy with my psychiatrist for over 15 years now. There are sill things that I was not able to tell him yet. Or pushed so far away I almost forgot about them. For some reasons, since a while, more and more traumatic experiences flair up again. These last sessions were just terrible, refeeling it all while telling him about it. I had some asthma attacks during the sessions (we do per telephone a lot), getting so distressed I literally can't think and hardly form sentences any more, get sick and have my whole body shivering for minutes after we ended the session. It's just so so hard to live through... I did not know about this show until I found your reaction on it just today. It seems very well done indeed.

[@emilyc9605]

I really hope you finish the series is so wonderful and I want to know your insight!!!

[@farahiccol3424]

They changed a lot of things from the original story of billy and from what the book. Especially the number of the alters. Some of the alters are mixed together. Danny is obviously Billy but they add the painting portraits hobby that Allen had. Itzhak is Ragen (but Ragen was serb croat not iranian). Jack is Arthur. Ariana suppose to be Adalana (the lesbian) but they add in her also the alter of David (the pain holder) and a little bit of April (the one who wanted to get revenge and kill billy's step-father). Mike is Allen. Johnny is Tommy but he has some of Allen personality as well. Adam is Danny. They eliminated Christine (the 3 years old alter), Christopher (13) and the rest of the undesirables who are barely mentioned.

[@hyacinthlilim6323]

GOT A RECOMMENDATION! I really REALLY think you should check out some episodes/clips from Shameless. One of the main characters in the family is a gay teenager named Ian who inherited Bipolar Disorder from his mother Monica which starts to develop in seasons 4-5, and you get to see him both manic and depressive as well as how his family and especially his boyfriend Mickey cope with and help him through it. (One of the big symptoms that Ian exhibits before his family recognizes that he's Bipolar is hypersexuality btw, he starts working at a strip club and doing a lot of drugs while underage) List of episodes to check out in season 4 are Episode 5: (40:50) Episode 7: (33:20) And then all the other episodes after 7 in this season, you can skip episode 6 Season 5 is where Ian becomes a main focus and you see him finally experience a depressive episode as well as be hospitalized for his safety in a psych ward, he finally gets his diagnosis and is given medication, etc So I recommend checking out that whole season for clips!

[@annawagnerr]

I just want to say I get so excited everytime you post a new vídeo, regardless of what you're commenting on, I love your content! ❤

[@simrabawany2546]

I cant wait for the end of the series. Love your review

[@lowisshy]

what are your thoughts on the critique that some people with DID have had of this show? I've seen lots of criticism around yet another program portraying a person with DID as violent. Personally, I think this show is far better than sensationalist movies like "identity" and "split" which create fictional murderers, use DID as a psychological thriller, and vilify mental illness rather than empathizing with it. This show seems nothing like that to me. It's based on a real case, and they've changed the crimes committed to make it clear that Danny is a victim, not a villain. I think the writers, actors, and showrunners handled this very well and I really like the show - but I don't have DID so I'm not sure how much my opinion counts on things like this. Would love to hear your perspective though, you always treat these things with so much consideration and respect.

[@matthewcrome5835]

In the real case, Billy Milligan's crimes made whether he was a victim or not a little more ambiguous - he was a serial rapist.

[@dixonoliver2360]

There have been plenty of people online who have DID that have said the opposite tho. Also many of the people that are criticizing the show haven’t watched it, infact many of them are just repeating this narrative because they think the show is based on the Billy Milligan case which it is NOT btw and has been refuted multiple times by the show runners. Lastly if people were to actually watch the show they'd see that this is not a depiction of someone with DID that is portraying a criminal it's actually a depiction of boy who was failed by his family and community as you will see in episode 9.

[@simbelmyne7767]

Back when news of the show came out, people were working with the information they had, and it didn't look promising. Now that it's out, I do agree with you that it's MUCH better than expected. There is still the issue that it links DID with criminal behavior, though that is an issue of representation. If there were an abundance of other media about DID that portrayed nonviolent victims, I wouldn't have a problem with it. But in the current state of things, it is still an issue. People will form or update their understanding of DID based on this show, and that understanding will include that violent potential. I'll admit that scares me, and I wouldn't show Crowded Room to anyone I didn't trust to be able to overcome that association. Most ppl already think DID is crazy murderer disorder. It's hard to overstate just how oppressive that stigma is. That said, I am still of the opinion that it's a positive breakthrough, for the reasons you said. I really enjoy it so far (haven't finished it yet.) The reason I gave it a chance is because I read an interview with the writer and I was floored by the way he spoke about trauma. He actually cared and understood a lot about what DID really is, which is so uncommon in anyone who doesn't either have it or study it. The show isn't a 1:1 accurate portrayal of life as a DID system but it's closer than anything I've seen and lightyears ahead of some nonsense like Split. For my part, I'm glad it was made, even though the criminality thing is a roadbump.

[@M11969]

Why would you think your opinion wouldn't count? You don't have to have a disorder to hold an opinion. Perhaps your opinion is very empathetic, perhaps not.

[@lonely_viking6219]

i'm loving your reactions to this series

[@julia-eu8xo]

This show fucked me up and I literally cant stop watching it.

[@berf9445]

This is so facinating, and so triggering of my own CPTSD. Really interesting stuff.

[@LukaszSebastian]

Yup, I definitely have complex PTSD... I feel really called out listening to your explanation of it...

[@BelgorathTheSorcerer]

My opinion on how to judge a defendant accused of murder they claim was committed during a dissociative episode would be; the prosecutor has to prove they were the murderer obviously, but the defense will have to prove the dissociation isn't just an act to evade a murder conviction. If they meet that burden of proof, I would call it a rare win for the insanity defense. I don't want them put in a regular prison. Not only would that almost certainly make their DID worse, they would not be safe from the other inmates; at least not in prisons like we have in the states. You can throw me in a Scandinavian prison anytime you want; they're nicer than my house. The defendant did kill somebody, so is still a clear danger to society though. Just letting them go is not an option either. An in-patient psychiatric facility is the only reasonable place I could see to put them. I feel like they deserve a chance to be released if they can get better, but the rest of society have to be kept safe from them until that happens, and they probably need to be kept safe from people in their community that would want revenge for the murder of their friend or relative too. I liked what he said about crazy not seeming abnormal while you're doing crazy stuff. I can relate to that for sure. When my ex-wife ran off with her boyfriend, I was quite pissed off. I let her have a fairly normal carpet-F-bombing the next time I talked to her, and also accused her of being an entity from another dimension that had downloaded its consciousness into her brain, because I had a dream that she was actually dead and her ghost told me that's what happened. It sounds outrageous now, but it made perfect sense to me at the time, and was so much easier to accept than the truth.

[@xxevilellisonxx]

0:57

[@DenderFriend]

I'd love to see you react to storytime animators since they often provide interesting insights. I'm thinking Cypopps and Illymations discussing being autistic or Jaiden's coming out video Illymations also made a video about going to a psych ward and it may be a good video to check out since it helps spread awareness

[@vubar_gmat]

Elliot, have you reacted to Split yet?

[@parsaalishiri8138]

This was a great tv series

[@misszombiesue]

Please join me in begging, BEGGING Dr Elliott to react to an episode of Moral Orel

[@saladflambe1747]

Multiple alters are acting as protectors because, in truth, all alters are protectors...they just protect differently. This show looks good, but I doubt I can handle watching it lol. I do wish some of these DID shows would illustrate how neglect is actually one of the most common types of trauma that can lead to something like DID - not just sexual abuse. They always seem to tie it to sexual abuse.

[@justaramdomwanderer2490]

this show didn't directly point to neglect, but definitely demonstrated and implied as much!

[@atomiccrouton]

I wonder if perhaps there is some media or some way you can make a video around tulpas and tulpamancy and how it's different from DID? I've come across and interact with people who have tulpas and I don't understand it. I approach it in the same way as my queerness in that I don't question it and let the other person lead the way but I would like to understand better.

[@rachzen]

Where do you stand on the case of Billy Mulligan, the real person this story is inspired by? Because I thought it was commonly accepted that Billy faked his personalities to avoid any blame for his crimes.

[@betterd9160]

I’m pretty sure this story comes from a case of a psychopathic rapist.

[@katiefincher2433]

You may find it useful to use the model "ego state" instead of "persona" or "personality" when considering DID modeling.

[@minhhieunguyenphu1631]

Actually they are often called "alters", "parts" or "identities". They used to be ego states but has developed into an identity since then. And if that don't happen, you can't get a DID diagnosis since the first criteria is "Having at least 2 distinct, fully developed identities".

[@shawnellisuk]

Where's the drag queen?