Myth: People with DID are dangerous

A diagnosis does not tell you who will harm someone

The dangerous-alter story is a familiar one. It also asks a diagnosis to do a job it cannot do: predict a person's behavior.¹

One study followed 173 people with dissociative disorders who were already in treatment. In the previous six months, 3% reported being charged with an offence, 0.6% reported incarceration, and none reported a conviction or probation. Dissociative, post-traumatic stress, and emotion-regulation symptoms did not reliably predict recent criminal behavior in that sample.¹

This was one treatment sample, not the whole population, and it cannot tell us what any one person will do. But it does challenge a common assumption: dissociation itself was not a useful shortcut for identifying who had recently become involved with the criminal justice system.¹

What safety assessment actually asks

When someone may be at risk of hurting another person, the details matter: what they have said or done, what is happening now, whether substances are involved, and whether there is immediate access to a means of harm. A diagnostic label cannot answer those questions by itself.¹

The same goes for a person with DID who is frightened by their own thoughts or behavior. Take the concern seriously. Do not turn the diagnosis into an accusation.¹

The risk that often gets missed

The safety picture is often pointed inward. A meta-analysis of 19 studies found that psychiatric patients with dissociative disorders were more likely than psychiatric patients without them to report past suicide attempts and non-suicidal self-injury.²

That finding is about suicide attempts and self-injury, not a prediction that someone will die by suicide. Still, it is a reason to ask directly about safety, make a plan for difficult moments, and seek urgent help when there is immediate danger.²

Why the stereotype costs people something

Calling people with DID dangerous does more than make a bad film premise. It can make an already difficult disclosure feel unsafe, especially when someone expects to be disbelieved, avoided, or treated as a threat.³

In one survey of people with dissociative symptoms, participants described stigma, anticipated negative treatment experiences, and difficulty finding clinicians trained in trauma or dissociation as barriers to care.³ Better awareness is not about pretending that safety never matters. It is about asking the right questions, then responding to the person in front of you.

Footnotes

1. Webermann, A. R., & Brand, B. L. (2017). Mental illness and violent behavior: The role of dissociation. Borderline Personality Disorder and Emotion Dysregulation, 4, 2. Results and conclusions. Recent criminal-justice involvement and predictors of violence in the study sample. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵

2. Calati, R., Bensassi, I., & Courtet, P. (2017). The link between dissociation and both suicide attempts and non-suicidal self-injury: Meta-analyses. Psychiatry Research, 251, 103-114. Abstract. Meta-analysis of 19 studies comparing suicide attempts and non-suicidal self-injury in psychiatric patients with and without dissociative disorders. ↩ ↩²

3. Nester, M. S., Hawkins, S. L., & Brand, B. L. (2022). Barriers to accessing and continuing mental health treatment among individuals with dissociative symptoms. European Journal of Psychotraumatology, 13(1), 2031594. Results and discussion. Survey findings on anticipated negative treatment experiences, difficulty locating trained clinicians, stigma, and other barriers to care. ↩ ↩²