YouTube star Trisha Paytas is facing backlash after posting a new video in which she claimed to have Dissociative Identity Disorder, a disorder once known as Multiple Personality Disorder that forms in early childhood in response to repeated trauma.
On March 12, the 31-year-old uploaded a video titled "MEET MY ALTERS" to her main YouTube channel in which she told her 4.9 million subscribers that she has several distinct personalities called T, Trixie, Tyson, Tierney, Tobolter.
"Honestly, I've never been diagnosed with anything," she says in the 20-minute clip. "The closest thing that I have is self-diagnosed myself with, I guess, is multiple personality disorder or dissociative identity disorder." She added — incorrectly — the two disorders are distinct and that she lives with both.
Paytas went on to explain that she "never really formed [her] own personality" and would take on qualities of those closest to her. Over time, she said, she developed different personalities — some human, some nonhuman — who emerged in response to various trauma she'd suffered in the past.
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She then called out other content creators, calling YouTuber Chloe Wilkinson (who runs a channel called DissociaDID that aims to erase the stigma surrounding the disorder) "crazy."
In less than 24 hours, the video has received nearly 220,000 views and thousands of comments from enraged subscribers.
"We need to report this video y'all. Absolutely disgusting she's trying to profit off this," one commenter wrote. "You need to stop spreading misinformation and self-diagnosing."
"Wish I could dislike this more than once. Calling people with childhood trauma crazy is disgusting," another said.
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Paytas isn't receiving backlash in just the comments section; her fellow content creators wasted no time in weighing in.
YouTube star Anthony Padilla, who recently posted a video in which he interviewed people with DID, immediately responded to Paytas' claims with a video shared to his Instagram story. In the clip, he repeatedly right-clicked Paytas' video and selected the "add to trash" option on the menu bar.
"Claiming you have dissociative identity disorder is not a cool excuse to mock people in the community and call them crazy," he captioned the video.
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His response was later shared on Twitter by @gershyskiss.
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"anthony padilla calling out trisha paytas?" she wrote in the tweet. "f--- i love him."
—e.j ♡ (@gershyskiss) March 13, 2020
The YouTuber behind the DissociaDID channel, who goes by Chloe Wilkison professionally but identifies as a system of personalities with different names, responded to Paytas post with a 40-minute YouTube video of her own.
"Trish is obviously not very educated on the subject or has misunderstood," Wilkinson says in the video as she holds back tears. "It's hard to sit here and watch someone call me crazy and spread information that's very incorrect and damaging about our community, which undoes a lot of the hard work that me and a lot of other content creators in the DID community have done."
While Wilkinson refused to make any comment on the validity of Paytas' self-diagnosis, she did issue corrections to several of the YouTuber's claims throughout the video (including the definition of "alter") and called Paytas' perspective on DID "outdated."
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"All of these things are completely wrong. Scientifically, they are wrong," Wilkinson said."I'm not sure that Trish realizes how damaging this is."
Paytas later responded to Padilla's Instagram story and Wilkinson's feedback in a follow-up YouTube video titled "Dear Anthony Padilla..."
In the seven-minute clip, Paytas expressed her frustration that opening up about mental health led to invalidation from fellow YouTubers.
"F--- you Anthony," she says in the video. "F--- you for pretending to be some sort of mental health advocate — to be a spokesperson for mental health and depression. You yourself say you suffer from anxiety and depression. I could just be like 'no you didn't you were fine.'"
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"I don't care if this gets f----- demonetized," she added.
She went on to defend herself over calling Wilkinson "crazy."
"You're on YouTube," she said. " Guess what? People are entitled to say whatever the f--- they want about your video. It's called freedom of speech... All I said was, watching that, 'yeah that girl seems crazy.'"
Responses to the second video echoed sentiments from comments on the first upload.
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"She must have this goal to offend as many people as possible and be hated by as many as possible," one viewer wrote.
Read more:
The life and controversies of YouTuber Trisha Paytas, from public feuds and breakups to identifying as 'a chicken nugget'
YouTuber Trisha Paytas has responded after receiving criticism for coming out as transgender because she's attracted to gay men
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