④ Clinicians have a difficulty explaining to the patient about dissociative disorder.
When clinicians explain to their patients or their family members about some disease, they often use metaphors and descriptions in lay terms. As for depression, they might say that it is “a mental fatigue from stress” or “chemical imbalance due to overwork” or “psychological fatigue,” all of which convey some nuance of the illness. In the case of schizophrenia, it might be “to believe in something unrealistic”, or “to shut down relation to the world and confine oneself to his own world” etc. For neurosis in general, expressions such as “having emotional breakdown” or “nervous wreck” is commonly used.
However, for dissociative disorders, we do not have any common way of describing it. We certainly have a formal definition. As I mentioned already, “partial or complete loss of the normal integration between memories of the past, awareness of identity and immediate sensations, and control of bodily movements" is the ICD description of dissociation, but it is rather abstract and experience-distant. Not having good metaphor to explain to people about what dissociation is like can be a real problem.
⑤ Dissociative disorder can be misunderstood in its relationship with folk remedy
Dissociative patients are not only treated by psychiatrists, but also the subject of spiritual healing and folk remedy. Especially in DID, presence of other identities are sometimes considered as a type of possession of evil spirit, and family members might take the patient to spiritual healer or exorcist. They often visit these healers before they come to a psychiatric clinic. Although it might sound anachronistic, even nowadays in our societies many people depend on spiritual healing and religious belief for help.
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