Do you come out to your parents when it comes to your mental health diagnosis that is rooted in childhood traumas?

[Anonymous]

So long story short i have several diagnosis when it comes to my mental health and one of them is osdd1. A brief explanation is that it’s on the spectrum of dissociative identity disorder (DID). Basically i don’t meet the full criteria for DID as i don’t experience full amnesia between alters and i also don’t blackout. I have been in therapy for years and i can say i am at a point in my life where all of my alters work together to help me function and i am quite integrated. I have 5 alters in total, who stepped out when i was at different ages. But since osdd1/did is very hidden and i am very high masking and high functioning, noone knows i have it unless i told them about it. I used to be very ashamed about it but now i see it as my strength.

My partner and exes knows about it, my previous supervisor and some colleagues know about it, and some of my close friends also know (as i trusted them enough to tell them). The people in my life that don’t know about it are my family. My parents know what DID and OSDD1 is as that has been my special interest since i found out about it through my degree, i also make educational content in the position of a counselor instead of a person with OSDD1, and we talked about it a lot. My parents already has enough guilt for putting me through everything i had to go through in my childhood and i don’t want them to feel even more guilty, but at the same time i feel like i am hiding such a huge part of myself when it comes to people that i love dearly. Would you come out to your parents if you were in my position?

[CallmeTheKnight]

That’s gonna be a tough conversation to have. Because once you mention it’s from childhood trauma, there’s a possibility that your parents may feel that you are accusing them of being responsible of you “coming out that way”, when in reality you’re not.


If you ever do, it’s a possibility that it can be rough, but the question is, are you willing to have that conversation with them? Will it help?

[Asker]

Hm tbh my child alter want to be acknowledged and be able to speak to my parents and letting them know that she exists even after 19 years. I often would call my parents and letting my child alter talk to my parents and my child alter would try her best to pretend that she is me, but keep having to pretend sucks and it’s kind of sad as well. I want to have that conversation with my parents but at the same time knowing that information might just destroy my parents mentally. I don’t think it would be helpful for my parents, even though it would take a lot of weight off my chest… I think that i need to be more patience and wait for the right time, or i might just not tell them at all

[Kaneki05]

Family to me is people I hate but put up with or strangers I put up with or my dad whom we get along but not so much I'm going to show him I'm crazier than he knows.
I don't see how it helps besides it was my mother to blame for everything not him, and she isn't in my life.

[Anonymous]

I got diagnosed with Hashimoto's encephalopathy which is a neurological condition at 17. It’s not a mental illness.

I do remember before the age of 17 I did tell my mother things like how I felt insecure about the way I looked.

[WhitneySnow]

I do come out. And I think you should tell them.

[beenherebefore]

No. I deal with those type of things by myself and doing my own research.

[AngryCarl2]

My parents were aware of my diagnosis, but not the complex causation.

[Anonymous]

I feel like the bad decisions regarding relationships is due to my parents' influence, but I'm not going to tell them.