Does Web of Angels deal with any other mental health issues besides Dissociative Identity Disorder?
All of what are called mental health issues have some elements in common which are also true for DID (multiple personalities). The most important of these is stigma and misunderstanding, which cause shame, a feeling of being different, and a need to cover up what is really going on in someone’s life.
There are some differences, though, between emotional and mental states caused by traumatic experience and those which are organic (though people disagree about what is organic, if anything, and how much is situational).
PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder) and DID are a result of terrible experiences which a child (in the case of DID) or someone of any age (PTSD) can’t escape at the time but most simply survive in the best way possible. Neither of these are disorders in the sense that the mental and emotional responses are natural in the circumstances.
PTSD and DID result from situations where there isn’t support to process trauma as it occurs, either because it actually occurs in a family situation or because of a widespread disaster or war in which everyone is subject to trauma and the focus is on physical survival. The lack of support itself has long-term effects. But the potential for healing is great because the “mental health issues” themselves are natural responses. When the situation changes, people’s emotional states lag behind the present reality, but people can learn that it really is safe now. As that knowledge sinks in emotionally, then the trauma can be processed and laid to rest.
If (and again there is debate about this) mental health issues are organic, ie independent of situational causes, then the difficulty is how can that be changed when they aren’t caused by what’s going on in a person’s life? We know so little, still, about what causes non-situational mental and emotional distress. However learning more, destigmatizing it, and compassion can help everyone whatever they are dealing with.
