When we look into the childhood history of DID patients, it varies a great deal depending on the individual. Apart from the overt physical and sexual abuse, many other stressful situations including strict disciplining, bullying in school, sexual abuse, physical illness, etc. can be found or speculated. Some of them are revealed at the initial phase of the assessment, some later as the treatment progresses.
Among 18 patients that I presented, two of them mentioned some episodes of sexual trauma for the first time after two years into the treatment process. A woman discussed her experience at the age around five. One day in a playground, a man approached her and took her to the public restroom and molested her. Another woman reported some memory of apparently sexual contact with her own father. Further details were not obtained in either of these cases because of their resistance to disclose any more. On the other hand, some patients who display overt DID symptoms do not suggest the presence of any overt physical and sexual abuse in their childhood.
The attempt to obtain the patient's childhood history is like groping in the darkness. The cases that take a long time to disclose their history of abuse present their clinicians a problem of how far we should attempt to explore
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