# Steinberg Depersonalization Questionnaire



## Jane (Aug 14, 2006)

http://strangerinthemirror.com/questionnaire.html

I tried searching the site for a thread about scores or discussion of this questionnaire, but I couldn't find one, so I'm starting a new one.

Anybody take this test? Did you agree with your score/outcome?


----------



## Jane (Aug 14, 2006)

Yeah, my score was something like 21 ... 'mild DP'. And then my twin sister took it and got 48. And she's like, 'Whatever.' Go figure.


----------



## Ni Hi Li St. (Jul 1, 2006)

I used her questionnaire from her book "Stranger in the Mirror," and I found one very important difference. On the website, it completely omitted the level that included "moderate depersonalization," which I think was around 25-40 or something like that. Since I got something like a 32 on both questionnaires, the one on the website seems much more dramatic since "serious depersonalization" was now 25-72! I'd say that if you have a score somewhere in the range of 25-40, you should still take an official SCID-D, but don't freak out about it.


----------



## Dreamer (Aug 9, 2004)

Ni Hi Li St. said:


> I used her questionnaire from her book "Stranger in the Mirror," and I found one very important difference. On the website, it completely omitted the level that included "moderate depersonalization," which I think was around 25-40 or something like that. Since I got something like a 32 on both questionnaires, the one on the website seems much more dramatic since "serious depersonalization" was now 25-72! I'd say that if you have a score somewhere in the range of 25-40, you should still take an official SCID-D, but don't freak out about it.


Agreed. Also, you really can't take this test out of the context of the other tests in the book. There are questionnaires sp? rating all the Dissociative Disorders.

*1. Dissociative Amnesia
2. Dissociative Fugue
3. Depersonalization Disorder (which includes derealization)
4. DID Dissociative Identity Disorder (formerly MPD, multiple personality)
5. Dissociative Disorder NOS (not otherwise specified)*

All five of these tests include an interrelated/integrated spectrum. For instance dissociative individuals can have various levels of key "core dissociative symptoms"
*amnesia
depersonalization
derealization
identity confusion
identity alteration*

Obviously the most severe is considered DID, or MPD, which is poorly understood, and to this day many people don't believe exists, including many physicians. Sigh. So why should they find DP of any interest?

*You have to look at the scales after taking all five tests. I clearly have severe Depersonalization. I don't recall my score, but it could have been 60. Note 14 is "normal" Many healthy people dissociate.

I also have, and shrinks over the years would agree, but would have called it something else, a degree of identity confusion. I also have high derealization, on the severe end, but apparently not as high as the DP.

I don't have amnesia, or alteration, and am not DID.*

In two other discussions, it is important to acknowledge the limitations of these tests.

I digress, an example of a physical test in the doctor's office:
[My blood pressure for instance is normally 110/70. It comes out virtually exactly that number no matter who uses a pressure cuff. A few times it has come out as 90/60. In those times the nurse asked me, "Do you feel dizzy or faint?" I had no clue what she was talking about, I felt fine.]

http://www.dpselfhelp.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=9640

http://www.dpselfhelp.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=9390

In both of these posts the scales were discussed ... the Cambridge and the Steinberg. They have problems. So does the MMPI, the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory, but each has a story to tell. People also lie on these tests.

But the MMPI and other sophisticated tests ask the same question in a variety of ways. I used to score these when I worked for a shrink some years ago.

As noted, the Steinberg scale is very vague. I made a note of this for myself in another thread.



egassem_lanimilbus said:


> If I had taken that test before I got DR/DR I would have scored dangerously high too, except now that I really FEEL these symptoms I can relate to what the questions are asking... imo those questions are BS for people who don't suffer from them.
> 
> Edit: LOL check what you get if you tick all the "only with drugs & aclohol" and then yes for all of the 3 last questions..


My response was: 
Sadly, I agree with you egassem ... this is a problem really with all of the tests in a sense

Looking over the test (and I've taken all of them in the book), I see how "healthy" friends of mine would answer the bulk of the questions as "yes". The following would be "oh, yeah, I feel that" 

1.	I have gone thru the motions of living while the real me was far away from what was happening to me.

4.	I feel that I can turn off or detach from my emotions.

5.	My behavior has felt out of control.

7.	I have gone thru the motions of working while I felt that my mind was somewhere else.

8.	I feel as if I am "spacey". [("Spacey" is such a vague word, and overused as a layperson term. It has so many different meanings.)]

10.	One part of me does things while an observing part talks to me about them. [A lot of healthy people say, "Oh yeah, I'm yakkin' to myself all the time as I go through the day. I even talk to my dog!"]

*I'd say all of the above questions a healthy person might respond to with a "yes*

------------------------------------------------------------------ 
These questions, someone with DP can clearly ID with although some "healthy" people might even say they have "felt that sort of" except the desire to cut and a few other things.

2.	I have felt that I was living in a dream

*6.	I have purposely hurt or cut myself so that I could feel pain or that I am real.

9.	I have had the feeling that I was a stranger to myself or have not recognized myself in the mirror.

11.	I have felt as if parts of my body were disconnected from the rest of my body.

12.	My whole body or parts of it have seemed unreal or foreign to me.	
15.	I have felt invisible.*

*And key is are these socially and occupationally disabling, and as noted, or have these things occured under the influence of alcohol or rec drugs?*

The tests are not very good -- the more I look at them, especially out of context. Steinberg's book is interesting as a whole however. It needs to be examined as a whole and the DP test in context of the other 4 tests.

Best,
D


----------



## Dreamer (Aug 9, 2004)

Triple post!!!!???? :shock:


----------



## Dreamer (Aug 9, 2004)

:shock:
sorry


----------



## Ni Hi Li St. (Jul 1, 2006)

First and foremost, if any of you haven't read all of Dreamer's post just now, *scroll back up and read it all right now!!* I completely agree with the fact that the tests have their flaws. Looking at the scales, the gap between "once or twice" and "sometimes" could be pretty big. I know that Steinberg intended these to give a rough estimate of what's going on, but I think it's about time for her to revise these questions and scales.

But I must now ask, who here has taken an official SCID-D? I'm planning to take one after all my applications are done. For those who have taken it, how accurate do you think it is?


----------



## SunshineUnhappy (Nov 5, 2006)

It says i have severe dp


----------

