Avoiding a DID Diagnosis: Seeking Advice

i do agree with what audrei said in that a therapist cannot diagnose you. a psychiatrist is the only person who can really give you an official diagnosis, a therapist will just nudge you in the right direction and give you some coping mechanisms to help you manage it and work through any issues. but i would also like to make a note that my diagnosis hasnt had any bearing over anything for me legally. ive heard a lot of those rumors going around and, in the US at least, i think its all just fearmongering. i havent had my drivers license revoked, ive never been fired or turned down from a job because of it (in the US at least its covered under the ADA, and technically a job cannot fire/refuse to hire you on that basis). you actually arent obligated to disclose your disability status to an employer at all, its something you give voluntarily. so unless you plan to seek accommodations from your employer for it, you dont really have to tell them at all. none of my employers have ever known about my DID, and i plan to keep it that way. again, this is all assuming youre in the US - i dont know how it works in other countries, maybe someone else could offer input on that. but despite what a lot of fearmongerers will spread online, a DID diagnosis wont lead to you being locked away or shunned from society forever. i (we?) actually live quite a normal life, getting a second job soon to save up to go back to college, building relationships, living on my own, paying my own bills. im actually a delivery driver for my main job, so that kind of kills the license myth. you are under no obligation to seek a diagnosis at all if you dont want one, and i assure you that a therapist cant give you one. but if it does happen, just.... keep calm, okay? its not the end of the world, or even your world.

Therapists cannot diagnose anyone. At all. Unless theyre also a psychiatrist on the side there's nothing they can do but suggest you to get diagnosed. In my decade of therapy/6 different therapists ive only ever had one try to diagnose me, and she was absolutely shit. Like, allowing my abuser to come into the sessions and abuse me there, allowing my abuser to give her a tarot reading during my session, telling me i need to take drugs for a "chemical imbalance" i didnt have, forgetting everything i said as soon as it left my mouth, talking about herself and her other clients more than she let me talk, etc. She tried to say i was autistic. Like i said, she was the only one who tried to diagnose me and she was a terrible therapist in every aspect. Professional therapists will never try to diagnose you, bring up what they "think" you have, etc. At the very most, they might say "i think you should look into it".