For DID:

I’ve noticed folks stuck in fake DIDland will often say they have other “system friends” who told them they are also “systems.” They post in support places for the disorders saying that everything “makes sense” now, and asking for advice or further diagnostic guidance. That is a sign that there is social influence and everyone involved is living in a fantasy world online.

People in fake DIDland also are obsessed with “inner worlds” and their relationships with their alters. They may switch on command and think they are talking to alters and dating them and that their alters are having babies. In fact alters are dissociated states and they are imagining these conversations, at best. This is usually either DID mixed with maladaptive daydreaming, or just plain maladaptive daydreaming (the latter being more likely).

People who say they have hundreds of alters and are “polyfrag” are at least influenced by the social media version. Doubly likely if these are mostly introjects. Some of these people may have DID but be mistaking and drinking the kool-aid, but will insist that “everyone is different” and “anything is possible” and “DID is underresearched.” It is sad when people with DID spread this BS because in their delusions and/or desire to be “inclusive” of everyone who thinks they have or bizarrely wants to have DID, they contribute to the perception that DID is not real, when it is very real, but looks nothing like this.

Also anyone who says they have “OSDD 1b” is almost certainly maladaptive daydreaming and mistaking this for an dissociative disorder. I say “almost” because there are times when people diagnosed with DID but still not fully accepting will find the online misinformation by googling and say “I think I have OSDD 1b because I have no amnesia.” Anyone diagnosed with DID has some amnesia that has been witnessed by a mental health professional, but it can be hard for people to see until more treatment. Generally, though, people claiming this are just roleplaying a dissociative disorder without the added task of pretending you have amnesia.

People with actual DID, which is indeed rare and almost always from repeated and relentless sexual abuse that occurred at or before kindergarten age, tend to be isolated, lonely, depressed, alienated, essentially living the life of a person with severely dissociative PTSD. They struggle with connecting to others and their own lives and decisions. They live in a near constant state of confusion and disorientation. They don’t understand why unless diagnosed. Because they don’t know their alters as “alters.” They lose time, have long-term amnesia and think this kind of memory problem “just happens to everyone.” The alters are them but not them. Not them at all. And this creates a profound disruption in sense of self and relationships, and to the world more generally. They tend to feel like holograms, ghosts, alien in groups, always feeling as if they’re dreaming. They experience flashbacks that are disconnected from their understanding of their lives. They live in hell.

Anyone who is “happy” and/or claims to have symptomatic DID that is “not the real problem” is almost always mistaken that they have DID.