Could I Be “Crazy” Instead of Having DID or OSDD?

It is very common for people who are becoming aware of DID or OSDD symptoms to worry that they are “crazy.” There is no mental health diagnosis called “crazy.” Usually, when people fear they are “going crazy,” they are worried they may be psychotic or losing touch with reality.

Psychosis involves impaired reality testing, meaning a person has significant difficulty accurately distinguishing between what is internally generated (such as thoughts, beliefs, or perceptions) and what is externally real. In many cases of psychosis, the person is not strongly questioning or doubting the accuracy of their experiences.

With DID and OSDD, the opposite is often true. Many people with dissociative disorders repeatedly question, analyze, doubt, minimize, or reality-check their experiences. They may spend large amounts of time wondering if they are imagining things, exaggerating, overreacting, or somehow misleading themselves. This intense self-doubt is extremely common in dissociative disorders.

This page is part of the Could I Really Have DID, or Am I Imagining It? section of the CommuniDID site, which explains why recovery can feel slow, confusing, or discouraging and why experiences like grief, exhaustion, and resistance are common during the healing process.

Explore more:

• Questions about Could I Really Have DID?
• Why Your Experiences Don’t Seem to Make Sense
• Why Your Experiences Can Feel Inconsistent or Contradictory

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