People with DID seem to be in many support rooms found online for mental health support. From our experiences, it seems clear that a little bit of everything is involved in the greater numbers of people who suffer from this disorder showing up online. First is the greater knowledge and education amongst behavioral healthcare professionals about this disorder. This has been accomplished by greater research in this area in recent years as well as more information being trickled down to the clinicians who actually do most of the diagnosing and therapy of individuals with this disorder. In addition to greater numbers of individuals being diagnosed with this disorder, many more of those people who get the diagnosis are coming online to find out more information and support for their problem.
Many misconceptions still exist and are even perpetrated by some mental health professionals.
So information found online may fill some people's needs with this disorder. But because it is a rare disorder, it also means there won't be any support groups available in their community for this problem. This fear is not nearly as powerful or present when in an online chat room or discussion forum. This is probably because such forums are devoid of many of the social cues and nonverbal communications which may encourage an emerging personality to present him or herself. There is no clear reason why so many people seem to have this disorder in online chat rooms.