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I think this is a nice sentiment, but in reality is incredibly disingenuous. Malingering exists in every disorder. DID/OSDD is no different. While I understand the need to offer validation, what this may actually offer is confirmation bias and shame for unintentional malingering. https://twitter.com/Dried_FIowers/status/1360754443608809473
It's more than OK to think you were a system, only to find out you're mistaken. This is why we will always advocate self-discovery over self-diagnoses. If you aren't a mental health professional, you don't understand the many presentations of various mental health conditions.
Introduce comorbidities into the equation, and most psychologists worth their license will tell you how difficult it becomes to suss out the root cause of a patient's symptoms. Imagine trying to self-analyze all of that...
Even if you ARE a mental health professional, you obviously lack the insight to be able to look objectively at your own experiences. Unfortunately this is NOT as simple as "I think, therefore I am."
Many people have been confused about their systemhood, only to find out that they were actually singlets, likely with other underlying mental health conditions. And there is NOTHING wrong with that, as it's a part of their self-discovery on their journey to heal.
I'm not here to install doubt in anyone. Moreso to ask: what is it about being a system that would make you (not directed at OP) so distraught to discover you aren't one?
Is it an attachment to the control which your conviction in that escapism gives you, or is it that discovering you may have been wrong about your systemhood means you now have to address the root cause of a problem that you don't know how to begin to address?
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The latter is valid, the former is rooted in focusing more on diagnosis than symptomology, and is a huge factor in the issue of confirmation bias. Every system has denial, ESPECIALLY towards symptoms that have no other explanation than "I went through life-shattering trauma."
But this level of toxic positivity is not how we should be going about addressing it. There ARE malingerers in the community, both unintentional and otherwise.
Let's instead educate and offer resources on more disorders than just DID/OSDD, and start pushing that it's MORE than okay to find out you were wrong, because now you can get on the right path in your healing.
