Compare And Contrast D. I. D And Schizophrenia

Psychotic Disorders are a group of mental illnesses that drastically affect the mind. Psychotic Disorders are the cause of abnormal thinking and perceptions. According to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition (DSM-5), people with severe psychotic disorders lose touch with reality. Although Psychotic Disorders sound harsh and irreversible, they can be treated with therapy and medication. In my research, I focused on a particular Psychotic Disorder called Dissociative Identity Disorder. While researching Dissociative Identity Disorder, I mainly focused on the historical analysis, how it is represented in the media and literature, and first-hand reports of individuals living with Dissociative Identity Disorder.

Dissociative identity disorder (DID) is a psychological condition in which a person will create one or more alternate identities. DID (formerly known as multiple personality disorder) is just one of three dissociative disorders. This disorder is set apart by the way the identities “switch” from one to another. Patients who suffer from dissociative identity disorder can often lead normal lives when diagnosed properly and treated accordingly; sometimes, they cannot. People suffering from dissociative identity disorder often have similar causes, symptoms, and treatments.

Dissociative identity disorder is called a multiple personality disorder up until 1994 when they changed the name to give us a better understanding of the condition. Some people believe that patients with DID can become easily hypnotized and their symptoms are iatrogenic, "meaning they have arisen in response to therapists' suggestions. Brain imaging studies, however, have corroborated identity transitions in some patients." Usually a primary identity will carry the individual's name and is passive, dependent, guilty, and depressed. When an

Dissociative Identity Disorder is a severe psychological disorder characterized by at least two or more distinct personalities or different identities. The different personality states are said to occur spontaneously and involuntarily and function more or less independently of each other. The person suffering from the disorder also experiences memory loss that is too extensive to be explained by ordinary forgetfulness. Many people who experience this type of behavior are unaware that they have more than one personality because they can not remember anything that is happening while one of the mind alters are

Although there are many scientific facts that come with Dissociative Identity Disorder; there are many other factors that come along with it. A person with Dissociative Identity Disorder may have different likes and dislikes with taste of foods; and a person who may be allergic to peanuts may not be allergic to them the next day. The reason for this is, their alternate personality is not allergic to them. A person will not know how to play the piano one day, but the next day they know how. The most supported physical evidence of Dissociative Identity Disorder is the dramatic upsurge of eye vision in an individual (Visual Function in Multiple Personality Disorder 1). A person with multiple personalities can have contrasting eye vision. Along with eye vision comes medical needs. A person may have asthma one day and the next day they don’t. Many of these factors come along with Dissociative Identity

Schizophrenia is the most commonly diagnosed psychotic disorder (Steel, 2012), affecting 1 out of every 100 hundred people on average (Taurier & Wykes, 2004). Symptoms of the disorder include positive symptoms, which are auditory and visual hallucinations, as well as disordered patterns of thought such as delusions (Taurier & Wykes, 2004). Auditory hallucinations are the most common positive symptom, and often come in the form of voices (Steel, 2012). Delusions, which are the most common symptom of schizophrenia, involve a false belief that exists despite evidence being available that suggests otherwise (Steel, 2012).

Mental illness refers to a vast majority of mental health conditions, all of which are disorders that affect one’s behavior, mood, and way of thought. According to the National Alliance on Mental Illness, each year 1 in 5 adults in America suffer from a mental disorder. This means 18.5% -43.8 million people- have a mental illness of some sort. Out of the 43.8 million people, 10 million of them suffer from a mental disorder serious enough to hinder major life activities. This paper will be focused on Dissociative Identity Disorder and Schizophrenia, two mental illnesses that are sometimes hard to differentiate because of their similarities.

With so many factors contributing to schizophrenia, and many mental disorders with similar symptoms it is easy to confuse information. Some of the beliefs about schizophrenia range from, confusion while others are plain fiction. In some cases schizophrenia is used interchangeably with dissociative identity disorder; however, those that have schizophrenia also have auditory hallucinations which can be mistaken for shifts in personality (Dorahy et al., 2009).

Dissociative identity disorder is a disorder in which a patient may have multiple personalities or identities. DID been around for decades and is one of the most misunderstood and controversial diagnoses in the field of psychology because it has been sensationalized in books, films, and media. DID diagnoses are steadily increasing which causes

Schizophrenia is a psychiatric disorder differentiated by degeneration of thought processes and of emotional reaction. It is characterized by auditory hallucinations, delusions, or disorganized speech and thought process along with considerable social or occupational dysfunction. Onset of symptoms is usually during early adulthood. Diagnosis is based on DSM-IV criteria for diagnosis of Schizophrenia (PubMed, 2010).

A common mistaken belief is that people with schizophrenia have multiple personalities. Many people confuse schizophrenia with 'split personality' or 'multiple personality disorder' (Lilienfeld et al, 2010). The misunderstanding stems from the meaning of the word schizophrenia, as in Greek it means 'split mind' (Boruck, 2008). In 1990, Carlson proposed “schizophrenia is probably the most misused psychological term in existence” . Vaughan (1977), performed a study which found that 77% of students who registered for introductory psychology classes supported the myth about schizophrenics having a split personality. Although, more recent studies have suggested lower support for the myth as 50% of college students, 40% of police officers and almost 50% of those in the community agreed with the myth (Stuart & Arboleda-Florez, 2001; Wahl, 1987). Not only does this belief occur among the general population but it is also present in scientific journals. For example, Drummer's (2003) medical journal subtitled "The dermatologist's schizophrenic attitude towards pigmented lesions". As well as this, Shastry (1999) wrote in a journal schizophrenia is also known as split personality. Therefore terminological confusion seems to be one reason for this myth being common.

“Dissociative identity disorder is a condition in which a person manifests at least two or more distinct identities or personality states that alternate in some way in taking control of behavior” (Butcher, 2013, p. 285). Dissociative identity disorder has taken the place of the term "multiple personality’s disorder" because they needed a more accurate name for the disorder due to the fact that "the alternate identities are now seen as fragments of a single personality like a mirror broken into shards sometime in childhood." (Lost in the mirror: Women with multiple

The opposing side of Dissociative Identity Disorder claims DID is not a real condition and should be taken out of DSM-V for reasons concerning patients faking their symptoms, patients misdiagnosed and the treatments used on them. The first evidence used to show DID is not a real condition says patients diagnosed are faking their symptoms. David H. Gleaves of Texas University, author of The Sociocognitive Model of Dissociative Identity Disorder: A Reexamination of the Evidence, claims, “Individuals who are diagnosed as having DID are generally attention seeking and it is obvious in the clinical presentation” (43). The opposition believes patients may want to fake their symptoms for a diagnosis to avoid being identified as insane by others around them. It has been said DID symptoms are easily recognized, but patients diagnosed may show symptoms that are difficult to follow. Inexperienced clinicians still diagnose these patients as having Dissociative Identity Disorder. Inexperienced clinicians may also not recognize that some of these symptoms are linked to other disorders that they may be less familiar with. “Dissociative symptoms have been found to discriminate patients with DID from those with a variety of other disorders, including schizophrenia, eating disorders, panic disorder, borderline personality disorder, partial complex seizures, and simple posttraumatic stress disorder” (Gleaves 44). Dissociative Identity Disorder is a disorder that doctors can diagnose patients with if they are unsure what else this could be. This can be unbeneficial to the patients who are misdiagnosed because they are not actually receiving the correct treatment they need for the condition. Gleaves also states the treatment of Dissociative Identity Disorder can create or worsen the disorder by clinicians putting thoughts into the patient’s head.

Schizophrenia patients away from their reality and dissociative identity disorder meanwhile not affect the relationship with her. The split personality in Dissociative Identity Disorder occurs internally, the sufferer creates his alters from conflicting interactions in his own mind, in schizophrenia this phenomenon is seen externally as the voices coming from abroad to manifest and is therefore not hallucinations and personality

Dissociative Identity Disorder, commonly referred to as Multiple Personality Disorder, exists as a bizarre mental disorder in which a person acquires two