Is it like The Crowded room?

I sat on the grey couch in my living room with a soft grey and white blanket on my lap. My head felt full, and I could feel the rustlings of many alters/parts inside. (I use parts and alters interchangeably, as they are essentially the same thing). I’d just watched The Crowded Room, the most recent series featuring a character with Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID). Not only was I curious about the film, but I’d had so many requests from our social media to give my feedback on it as a DID system (System = collective of parts) and trained therapist. 

 

Having just finished watching and writing about Split and Glass with its horror and high violence themes, my expectations for this series were not exactly high. I don’t know what I was expecting, but The Crowded Room certainly wasn’t it. Perhaps it was my low expectations that left me pleasantly surprised to see at least some accuracies.

DID forms from ongoing childhood trauma before the age of 8/9, and the film accurately depicts this. Danny’s history is filled with childhood trauma, from ongoing bullying at school and classmates to trauma from teachers to ongoing childhood sexual abuse from the age of 4 from both biological and stepfathers.

 

AMNESIA

Often, initially, those with DID have no awareness that there are others. As in the case of Danny, one part had no awareness, and others had an awareness of each other. This is due to the amnesia between parts and is quite common. It serves the purpose of being able to keep the system from being overwhelmed by the enormity of the trauma by segmenting it up. It allows parts to be able to go on with normal life without the memory of the trauma. In our system, I am one of those parts who has not experienced trauma, and although I do know about some of the trauma now, I don’t hold those experiences, which has enabled me to go on with normal life duties such as working. The gaps in memory and the confusion about not knowing certain things had happened, only to find out it was another alter, were all too familiar. Different parts can hold information that others don’t – and this was an accurate reflection. 

If you haven’t had any prior awareness, finding out you’re not the only one can be a lot to take in. Many systems don’t have any awareness that they have DID until diagnosis – highlighting the covert nature. Some systems, like myself, have had some awareness and suspicion, which was confirmed by the diagnosis. 

 

ALTERS/PARTS

In short, alters are all essentially parts of the brain. Everybody’s brain is born in parts; however, around the age of 8/9, there is a developmental stage where the child’s brain begins to form stronger connections between each part and operates more as a whole. However, for some children who have experienced severe childhood trauma, the connections between the brain don’t properly form or don’t form altogether. And each part begins to develop independently and separately from each other. This also leaves the brain vulnerable to further splitting or fragmentation should more trauma occur. Alters are not simply a figment of the imagination, a ‘construct of the mind’ as the therapist in The Crowded Room puts it; they are a very real part of the mind. They develop based on what the child needs at the time to survive the trauma they are going through.

As alters develop, they will begin to have their own history, memories, personalities, likes and dislikes. As Danny’s system depicts, some will have different accents and inflections. In some systems, some alters may even speak different languages. The show accurately reflects that there can be a variety of ages and genders and that alters in the inner world can have very different appearances.

The show does portray a ‘main’, implying that the others are not real. However, all parts are equally parts – there is not necessarily a ‘main’. There may, however, be a part that is more frequently out at different times. There also may be more or less developed parts; however, they are all still important to the system.

Another common assumption is that having DID means there are multiple people living inside. Although that is the closest way I know how to describe how it feels, I also know that they’re not actually different people – they’re different parts of the brain that have developed.

Another common assumption is that DID is the same as schizophrenia. In both cases, there may be voices that are heard, but there is an important difference. In Schizophrenia, the voices are based in non-reality and are heard outside of the head. Whereas with DID, the voices are inside the head and are the very real voices of parts. Unfortunately, there are times in the show when the alters are depicted outside of the head, which is not true of the DID experience. Of course, conditions such as DID and schizophrenia can co-exist, but DID itself does not experience voices outside the head.

The external presentation of switching – where a different part will end up in control of the body – is quite realistic. For some systems, the switching will be more noticeable, but for many, it is more covert or unnoticeable unless you know what you’re looking for. Switching can be unnoticeable for our system unless someone knows us and knows different parts. For us, from the outside, it can look like we are becoming spacey, not paying attention or losing focus. As in the show, parts can also impersonate or mask as other parts; making it sometimes difficult for the average person to detect a switch.

In the show, the internal portrayal of switching of passing a torch, or ‘being in the light’ seems to be more of a creative interpretation and doesn’t reflect the experience of the systems who I have talked to. Although, of course, every system is different and may have different internal experiences.

Different parts can have different roles or hierarchies – depending on the system and how it has formed or developed. This is touched on in the show with Jack having more of a say over what parts do and don’t do. Some parts might control access to different parts of the inner world, or to different parts, or might have a more protective role or hold more trauma.

 

INNER WORLD

An inner world is a space inside the mind where parts exist when they’re not ‘out in the body’ or co-conscious. Co-consciousness is when a part is aware of what is happening but isn’t in control of the body – like sitting in the passenger seat of the car. How the inner world looks is going to be different from system to system and will range from very simple to incredibly complex. In our inner world, it’s comprised of two houses, one where the more traumatised alters live and the other where the alters who have little to no trauma history.

Some systems may have no access to their inner world, at least not initially. This can change over time and with therapy. This is somewhat referred to in the film as Danny starts to get flashes of his inner world. Other systems have very clear and vivid inner worlds with access. In our system, some have access to the inner world, but others don’t – meaning when they’re not out in the body, it’s like they’ve gone to sleep.

Some systems can interact with each other and do things in their inner world. Alters can form relationships with each other, be it friendship or, in some systems, romantic relationships. In our system, there seems to be no interaction at the time of writing – it’s more that part will end up in their rooms. However, for us, parts can interact with each other when co-conscious.

The film depicts that internal meetings happen when the body has gone to sleep – but as far as I’m aware from the systems I’ve talked to and observed, once the body goes to sleep, everybody is asleep. It’s like a blanket unconsciousness. What happens when the body is asleep is more in the dream realm.

The show portrays inner conflict – and let me tell you, this is a very real thing. There’s not a single system I’ve spoken to who has never experienced inner conflict between parts at some point or another. Inner conflict is quite a normal and common experience – and it’s taken us much therapy and learning how to communicate and work together to minimise internal conflict. It still happens, but it’s overall less than what it used to be.

I’m often asked if alters can be ‘killed’ or ‘gotten rid of’. Alters cannot be killed, as they are essential parts of the brain. If one alter dies or is killed, the entire system dies. They can, however, be tricked into thinking they have ‘died’, or they can also go dormant. Dormancy is essentially when an alter hasn’t been active in a while. Parts can be tricked into believing they are dead – often quite common in intentionally created systems (Although not exclusive to). An intentionally created system is one where the abusers know about DID and will intentionally torture a child in specific ways to create DID within the child. Alters will then very frequently be trained to do specific jobs. Alters who are non-compliant or otherwise unhelpful are often tricked into thinking they have ‘died’ and are held in ‘disposal/dump’ areas in the inner world. Parts can also be ‘locked up’. Although the film itself is not about intentionally created DID, the disposal/basement part of the system is reflective of intentionally created DID.

 

THERAPY

There are generally two different goals in the treatment of DID. The first might be ‘fusion’, which is essentially the process of two parts merging together to create a new alter – a combination of the two. The second is integration – which is more about teamwork and helping parts work together and communicating together. The goal of treatment depends on the agreement between the system and the therapist. Janina Fisher, a leading trauma expert, suggests that Integration or ‘Functional Multiplicity’ is a much more realistic goal and often has a much better reception to the system as a whole. Many systems fear treatment or ‘fusion ‘ because parts fear they are unwanted and going to be ‘gotten rid of’. It’s true that a system designed to keep safety and is adaptive in the beginning may become not as helpful once the system is out of the dangerous and harmful environment. And it’s about helping the system begin to learn new and more adaptive ways to function, whichever goal fits the system better. 

Unfortunately, in the film – the therapist does push for fusion and implies that the alters are merely constructs of the mind to be kept inside and almost ignored to a point. Consent is imperative in any trauma treatment – and the lack of consent throughout the therapist’s interactions is concerning. It is depicted as an illness – rather than an adaptive trauma response. The therapist pushes for fusion in a concerningly short period of time – whereas therapy for DID will generally will take years.

 

CONCLUSION

Overall, The Crowded Room was a significant improvement on the film Split. However, it still included themes of violence, which is unfortunate as people with DID are no more likely to commit a crime than someone without DID. The lack of accurate media without themes of violence is minimal to none, meaning the average person has little to no accurate reference point of what living with DID is actually like.

I appreciated that the series made an effort to interweave that DID is from ongoing childhood trauma – and how the brain created the different alters to help cope with it. I did find it disheartening to see the way the therapist described it as a ‘degenerative illness’ rather than an adaptive trauma response. DID is actually an incredibly clever way for the brain to help the child cope. I also found it discouraging the way the therapist forced the idea of fusing/getting rid of parts on the system in quite a potentially damaging timeframe.

There were quite a number of accurate portrayals of how the system worked and what it’s like to live with DID, which I greatly appreciated. Much more than Split, I will say!! However, I will say that there is room for improvement, and I would love to see more mainstream media that accurately depicts what DID is like without the criminal and violent associations.

 

References

Webermann, A.R., Brand, B.L. Mental illness and violent behavior: the role of dissociation. bord personal disord emot dysregul 4, 2 (2017).

Miller, A. (2012). Healing the unimaginable: Treating ritual abuse and mind control. Karnac Books.

https://www.psychiatry.org/patients-families/dissociative-disorders/what-are-dissociative-disorders

 

https://doi.org/10.1186/s40479-017-0053-9

 

 

https://news.isst-d.org/dissociative-identity-disorder-individuals-societal-threat-or-societal-victim/

 

KADIR, NAZIAH & Salleh, Hamdan. (2021). THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN DISSOCIATIVE IDENTITY DISORDER AND VIOLENT BEHAVIOUR. Quantum Journal of Social Sciences and Humanities. 2. 10.55197/qjssh.v2i4.85.

 

https://www.sane.org/information-and-resources/facts-and-guides/dissociative-identity-disorder

 

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK568768/

 

https://www.isst-d.org/public-resources-home/