Controversial: Trisha Paytas claims she has DID for views

Trisha Paytas is a known YouTuber troll and often makes videos that are controversial for the sake of being controversial. She has "come out" as a gay man, as a transgender man, and now as someone with Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID). If you don't know, Dissociative Identity Disorder is a mental illness that is caused by repeated childhood trauma, which causes the mind to split into multiple identities, or alters.

On March 12th Paytas released her first video called "Meet my Alters" where she tells everyone that she has DID and everything just spun out from there.

Here's a quick timeline:

March 4:

Anthony Padilla releases his "I spent a day with MULTIPLE PERSONALITIES (Dissociative Identity Disorder)" video. This video included YouTuber DissociaDID - during the interview three of DissociaDID's alters fronted, Nin (Host), Kyle (Protector), and an unnamed little (a child alter) - and two other systems.

March 12:

"Meet my Alters | Dissociative Identity Disorder" video posted to Trisha Paytas' channel. In this video Paytas tells her viewers that she has DID and simultaneously spreads misinformation about the disorder. In this video she explicitly mentions DissociaDID and calls them crazy.

March 13:

DissociaDID releases a reaction video filmed by Nin correcting the misinformation spread by Paytas in the video.

Anthony Padilla posts support for the DID community on his Instagram Story and calls out Paytas.

"Dear Anthony Padilla" video is posted to Trisha Paytas' channel. In the video she is screaming, cursing, and threatening him and others.

March 17:

DissociaDID tweets about the after effects of Paytas' videos.

Paytas releases a video "My Alters SWITCH (Caught on Camera) LIVE FOOTAGE! | Dissociative Identity Disorder" In this video she discusses her side of the story and is very defensive. She claims to have filmed a switch, but it feels very staged/fake.

March 21:

DissociaDID posts "TRISHA PAYTAS - THE IMPACT. DissociaDID | Dissociative Identity Disorder" on their YouTube channel. This video is filmed by Kyle and discusses how the system is reacting to everything that has happened in the last week.

March 22:

Paytas posts two videos. "dissociaDID please stop bullying us" and "I'm actually really not okay." In these videos Paytas plays the victim and is placing the blame solely on DissociaDID for how people are reacting to her.

DissociaDID tweets asking for space during this time so they can recover.

I don't want to say that Paytas does not have DID. It's not anyones place to say whether or not someone does or does not suffer from a mental illness or disorder. Only a trained medical professional can diagnose Paytas. It's possible Paytas saw DID trending and decided now was the time to "come out." However, watching her videos it is clear that Paytas put no thought into her video, there was no research done, and she didn't care if her words hurt the community she claims to be a part of.

Paytas is deliberately spreading misinformation about a widely misunderstood disorder that will cause even more harm to the community. She specifically calls out DissociaDID, a proud adovcate for people with DID, in her videos even though they have been nothing but civil in their response to Paytas calling them crazy for having a diagnosed mental illness.

The fallout of Paytas' videos was loud and intense. Her "Dear Anthony Padilla" video involved a lot of screaming, threatening, and cursing that many found incredibly triggering. Some YouTube systems have revealed that the stress and worry this video has caused them resulted in a new alter to form in their systems (including DissociaDID). Many DID systems have also said that Paytas' video makes them want to hide their disorder from people once again.

These videos have caused real harm. What Paytas is doing is not just her shouting into the void. She has a massive following of people who listen to her and care what she has to say. Paytas does not have the privilege to spread misinformation with absolutely no consequences. Her videos are completely irresponsible, and every video she has posted since her first "Meet the alters" video has been incredibly defensive and oozes insincerity. Paytas has yet to apologize for her actions and is continuing to play the victim in each and every one of her videos.

The DID community is a relatively new community on YouTube, but they are vocal about their passion for educating people on what it's actually like to live with DID. They want the world to know that they are not monsters because of their mental illness, they are just people.

Mental illness is a serious issue. DID, specifically, has been demonized and villainized in media over and over again. "Criminal Minds" has multiple episodes where the UnSub/murderer is a person with DID and the movie 'Split' is about a person with DID who has a "beast" alter that is superhuman and kills people. Perpetuating these stereotypes does nothing but make a vulnerable community more vulnerable.

DID is an insanely complicated and horrible mental illness. People who live with it are able to live full and happy lives, but it's a difficult thing to live with because - at its heart - it's a disorder that is caused because of childhood trauma. DID is a coping mechanism that the brain comes up with at a very young age so that as a child you can continue to live without facing the horrifying thing that's happening to you.

I hesitated writing this article. When we give people like this the views we validate what they are doing and it makes them feel they are allowed to do it again. I have chosen not to link to any of Paytas' videos because I don't want to promote any misinformation. I am urging those who are interested in what Paytas said to please not watch her videos directly from her channel so that we are not giving her more validation through views.

If you are interested in learning more about DID please check out Anthony Padilla's video or other prominent educational DID YouTubers like DissoicaDID, EntropySystem, MultiplictyAndMe, TeamPinata, and many others. These are channels by people with DID who are willing to put themselves out there and educate people to break down stigmas around DID.