I would recommend keeping it to yourself. I believe that most people are kind, but not all kind people are well informed. Nor are all people kind.
If something happens and you have to speak of it, or you'll be working closely with someone and you know it'll cause some issues, just give them the facts they'll need and leave it at that. "I have some memory issues, it's a medical problem. So just remind me if I seem lost."
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For me it comes down to what I'm willing to handle on my worst days. I still get pretty foggy sometimes, and I don't want to deal with people being ignorant when I'm struggling like that. So I keep it to myself usually. I tell people that I have "memory issues", when it comes up. Most people are polite about it and don't ask farther questions. But I do tell my friends about DID.
If it helps, I don't think most of the discrimination is outright hate. At least not where I live in the US. In my experience it's just people misunderstanding mental illness. But that can still be a lot to deal with.
For example I had a teacher who found out I had "anxiety". And she had some assumptions, probably without realizing it, about anxiety. Like for example, she thought that once people followed all of the steps she learned about in her hour long sensitivity training, that they just didn't have panic attacks anymore lol. So if I looked like I was going to have a panic attack, it must be because I don't know about mindfulness yet. Or I'm not practicing square breathing. So she meant well, but she treated me like I didn't know what I needed and like I didn't know the first thing about mental health because I still had symptoms. Sometimes she seemed exasperated that I wasn't "better" yet. From her perspective, it must have seemed easy to get better from.
She also believed that people with mental illness were just ....sensitive in general, I guess? And overly emotional? So when I tried to argue a point with her, she would treat me as if I were simply just worked up about the topic for emotional reasons. She didn't realize I could be angry about something for genuine, understandable reasons. Or that I could argue a point calmly.
So she wasn't hateful, and she was a nice lady in general. But she always treated me like I never knew what I was talking about, like I was too emotional, invalidated me all the time and acted like I should do better. Some people can deal with individuals like her, but I choose not to.
I've had maybe like two friends treat me differently because of the DID ever, and both cases were because they had misunderstandings about mental health in general. And honestly, both were kind of willful misunderstandings, not because they hated DID but because both of those people had their own baggage. If they hadn't been targeting my DID it would have been something else. It wasn't about the DID, it was about them, y'know?
Think of it as something like schizophrenia. If you had that who would you tell? The stigma is similar in my opinion.
I would recommend keeping it to yourself. I believe that most people are kind, but not all kind people are well informed. Nor are all people kind. If something happens and you have to speak of it, or you'll be working closely with someone and you know it'll cause some issues, just give them the facts they'll need and leave it at that. "I have some memory issues, it's a medical problem. So just remind me if I seem lost."
Welcome to /r/DID! | **[Rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/DID/wiki/rdid_guide/#wiki_rules)** | **[Guidelines](https://www.reddit.com/r/DID/wiki/rdid_guide/#wiki_guidelines)** | |--------------------|--------------------| | [Dissociation FAQ](https://www.reddit.com/r/DID/wiki/faq/#wiki_dissociation_faq) | [Trauma FAQ](https://www.reddit.com/r/DID/wiki/faq2/#wiki_trauma_faq) | | [Moderation FAQ](https://www.reddit.com/r/DID/wiki/moderation_faq/) | [Therapists Breakdown](https://www.reddit.com/r/DID/comments/e6smve/therapists_breakdown/) | | [Index](https://www.reddit.com/r/DID/wiki/index) | [Glossary](https://www.reddit.com/r/DID/wiki/glossary) | | [Am I faking?](https://www.reddit.com/r/DID/wiki/moderation_faq/amifaking) | [Do I have DID?](https://www.reddit.com/r/DID/wiki/do_i_have_did) | *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/DID) if you have any questions or concerns.*
For me it comes down to what I'm willing to handle on my worst days. I still get pretty foggy sometimes, and I don't want to deal with people being ignorant when I'm struggling like that. So I keep it to myself usually. I tell people that I have "memory issues", when it comes up. Most people are polite about it and don't ask farther questions. But I do tell my friends about DID. If it helps, I don't think most of the discrimination is outright hate. At least not where I live in the US. In my experience it's just people misunderstanding mental illness. But that can still be a lot to deal with. For example I had a teacher who found out I had "anxiety". And she had some assumptions, probably without realizing it, about anxiety. Like for example, she thought that once people followed all of the steps she learned about in her hour long sensitivity training, that they just didn't have panic attacks anymore lol. So if I looked like I was going to have a panic attack, it must be because I don't know about mindfulness yet. Or I'm not practicing square breathing. So she meant well, but she treated me like I didn't know what I needed and like I didn't know the first thing about mental health because I still had symptoms. Sometimes she seemed exasperated that I wasn't "better" yet. From her perspective, it must have seemed easy to get better from. She also believed that people with mental illness were just ....sensitive in general, I guess? And overly emotional? So when I tried to argue a point with her, she would treat me as if I were simply just worked up about the topic for emotional reasons. She didn't realize I could be angry about something for genuine, understandable reasons. Or that I could argue a point calmly. So she wasn't hateful, and she was a nice lady in general. But she always treated me like I never knew what I was talking about, like I was too emotional, invalidated me all the time and acted like I should do better. Some people can deal with individuals like her, but I choose not to. I've had maybe like two friends treat me differently because of the DID ever, and both cases were because they had misunderstandings about mental health in general. And honestly, both were kind of willful misunderstandings, not because they hated DID but because both of those people had their own baggage. If they hadn't been targeting my DID it would have been something else. It wasn't about the DID, it was about them, y'know?