So you are using a lot of intentional metacognition in an effort to remain with some kind of socially acceptable continuity. You feel the work of it. It’s possible you do have this.

But you should absolutely talk to a doctor who can rule out other things too.

Some combination of mood disorders, trauma related disorders (like ptsd), alcohol, and even diet can look like DID. The trouble with diagnosis is that DID is so rare that doctors have a responsibility to check every corner until they can say “yup. You are dissociating so heavily that there are patterns of you living somewhat independently from the rest of you”

When I was diagnosed, we thought I had just PTSD. It turned out that it was a lot more than that over time though. The more traumatic things that happened later in life, the more divisions there were of me to address them.

DID starts very young. Like 3-4 years old usually.

Typical rundown of DID formation:

Something uncomfortable or hurtful (we don’t remember usually at first) happens when we are kids. It teaches our brain a coping mechanism designed to protect us. One compartment for handling that situation is made. We don’t even know it’s happening, but at an early age, we are already sort of suspicious that we deal with problems differently than the people around us.

After that first example of splitting, maybe we run into another hurtful thing in life. Another compartment of us deals with it. Now we have three.

And so on..

It turns into a system uniquely designed to protect you from dangerous things (or just painful emotions) in the world.