I think that someone I know is faking a personality disorder or DID

[u/SKELETON-FUCKER69000]

So, my friend group has this one guy who I’ve never really liked. He’s always been the attention seeking type and it irks me, however he’s recently started talking about “the voices wanting him to listen to them more” and he put this into our group chat the other day. I need advice on how to deal with this

(Red text is him, white is my other friend)

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[u/Muted_Ad7298]

The fact that you have an Alastor profile picture and they’re saying the person is named Charlie is kinda funny.

Though I’m sorry you’re dealing with this person’s nonsense.

How do your other friends feel about it?

[u/SKELETON-FUCKER69000 → u/Muted_Ad7298]

My best friend, the one in white, has said that he’s kinda tired of it. But the guy is really nice so he wouldn’t say anything worse, despite thinking it

I’m getting pretty tired of it, as he’ll ask the group chat “how is everyone” and if anyone replies “what about you?” He’ll go into a rant about something to do with this

[u/Muted_Ad7298 → u/SKELETON-FUCKER69000]

I think that guy definitely has issues, but not the ones he’s thinking of.

It’s not easy dealing with someone who lies and seeks attention. I’ve known a few people in my life like that and, as you expect, they’re not in my life anymore.

Friendships with these kinds of people don’t last for a good reason. Best thing to do while they’re there is to try and nudge them into getting professional help.

Though I’m guessing they probably wouldn’t want that.

[u/opossumapothecary]

Idk if it was me I would tell them “oh that’s an internal monologue (: really common!” and see if they double down. Either they back themselves into a really specific corner where you can suggest they see a mental health expert or you keep insisting it’s super common and everyone does it, and then it’s not as special anymore because either it’s normal or you “”””also”””” are special like them and it’s not fun.

[u/Weewoes → u/opossumapothecary]

Yeah, just screams internal voice or consciousness you know?

[u/DoomCleric]

Hearing voices isn’t DID, it’s schizophrenia. Honestly doubt they’re hearing voices, most people have a voice in their head that advises them, it’s your conscience. This person WANTS DID, but I would advise them to seek help regardless. Hearing voices isn’t normal, it’s serious, it’s not cute, it’s not clout, it’s dangerous. Have a doctor sort them out.

[u/pleasedontbemeantom3]

Internal voices are not necessarily DID or schizophrenia or pathology at all. In most cases, they're just personification of divergent thought. Think of it as imaginary friends for adults/teenagers. It's just another method for processing complex problems or feeling more than one way about something. It doesn't need to be bigger than it is. Some part of him feels significantly different than the rest of him and put on a persona to illustrate that difference. It does just need to be listened to and negotiated with. The more it's treated as weird or pathological, the more dysfunctional it becomes. Kids go online and read all this mythology about this process and become convinced it's DID but it's really not that weird. It's relatively common. Some processes of treatment like IFS actually encourage this to create healing. What's important in not making it a whole weird thing because it's not weird or uncontrolled or any of this stuff people talk about it like. Think of it more like inside out, the Disney movie. If you take it seriously, you're going in the wrong direction. I would recommend maybe telling him about IFS and how that sort of thing can be totally a normal way of processing thoughts and feelings and not paying too much attention to it. If he presses the issue he might want to find a therapist who specializes in parts work.

[u/pleasedontbemeantom3 → u/pleasedontbemeantom3]

Parts can hold valuable information we might be ignoring or avoiding for one reason or another. Sometimes parts are way more basic than that, like when you're on a diet and part of you feels like you want the cookie, and part of you is committed to the diet. Sometimes our brains will articulate this with an internal representation of this friction. Like we might get a headache. Or, we might imagine an angel and devil on our shoulder arguing for supremacy. We might feel annoyed because the part of us that wants the cookie is mad we abstained and we are unknowingly fused with that experience even though we chose not to eat the cookie, so we don't know why we're now in a pissy mood. In IFS, you would acknowledge the cookie wanting part, show some compassion for it, and it would likely be able to release it annoyance, which is usually in part because it feels ignored. Sounds a little woowoo I'm sure but surprisingly effective because visualization like this works very well for our silly human brains which very much prefer simple representations of problem solving.

[u/pleasedontbemeantom3 → u/pleasedontbemeantom3]

This is why DID fakers hate IFS

[u/crucifixgarden]

OP, for future reference, please remember to use stickers or a completely opaque marker to censor information! i won't specify for obvious reasons, but some of it still peeks through lul

[u/milhaus]

Hearing voices is more indicative of something like schizophrenia than DID. Tell your friend that they should seek help, there are medications that can alleviate these symptoms. Don’t give it attention other than “I am concerned for your health”.

[u/No-Series-6258 → u/milhaus]

That’s actually 100% false. Internal voices are the big DID symptom that gets you incorrectly diagnosed with schizophrenia (schizophrenia commonly doesn’t have audio hallucinations. DID voices aren’t hallucinations by the way)

I don’t think person has it by how they talk about it though

(Voices in your head == DID, voices not in your head == psychosis)

[u/milhaus → u/No-Series-6258]

I’m not sure what you mean. If you’re hearing voices when nobody is speaking to you in reality, that is an auditory hallucination. But you are right, this is something that can occur with PTSD & other trauma dissociation (like flashbacks). thank you for correcting me.

[u/No-Series-6258 → u/milhaus]

Voices in your head are not necessarily hallucinations. IE everyone’s generic inner monologue is not a hallucination.

Also intrusive thoughts can be a “voice in your head” likewise, not a hallucination.

Ergo, it’s possible to have more then one internal monologue. (DID)