Dissociative Disorder Essay

However, not all psychologists believe that dissociative identity disorder is real. Some have suggested other mental illnesses such as bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, and borderline personality disorder is often mistaken as dissociative identity disorder. Individuals diagnosed with dissociative identity disorder more often than not also have dissociative amnesia as well. Another Dissociative Disorder would be Dissociate Fugue, which is a disorder that illustrates the individual’s sudden amnesia and identity confusion. When in a fugue state, the individual might unexpectedly travel long distances from home, wandering through different cities. In some rare cases, individuals have been known to take on a totally new identity.

The phenomenal ability of humans is that we are able to change aspects of our personality by role-playing. Personality shifting is common and something we do everyday from having to go to work and be the boss to coming home and being part of the family. This is one reason why skeptics doubt Dissociative Identity Disorder as a real psychological disorder. Another reason for the skepticism is due to its short history which date back to 1791. The first official report of Dissociative Identity

There are three main types of dissociative disorders along with a fourth type that is less often categorized. The types of dissociative disorders are dissociative amnesia, dissociative fugue, dissociative identity disorder (DID), and depersonalization or derealization. Dissociative amnesia is characterized by extreme memory loss that is caused by extensive psychological stress. Individuals with dissociative amnesia can easily remember everyday tasks and procedural memories but they are unable to remember their own identity and

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

Dissociative identity disorder can be diagnosed with, “the presence of two of more distinct identities or personalities states (each with its own relatively enduring pattern of perceiving, relating to, and thinking about the environment and self), b. at least two of these identities of personality states recurrently take control of the person’s behavior, c. inability to recall important personal information that is too extensive to be explained by ordinary forgetfulness, d. the disturbance is not due to the direct physiological effects of a substance or general medical condition”, (Levy & Swanson. 2008. Clinical Assessment of Dissociative Identity Disorder Among College Counseling Clients. p. 11). Physicians argue that the evidence that the patient presents is real, they are looking for something more, or rather dig deeper to diagnose each separately as its own issue. Psychiatrists also argue that criminals may “get off” due to the individual’s alters playing a role in the diagnoses’ everyday life.

National Alliance on Mental Illness says that there are many dissociative disorders some are dissociative amnesia, dissociative fugue, depersonalization disorder and dissociative identity disorder that was called multiple personality disorder (NAMI, 2016). This paper will look at dissociative identity disorder and what brain abnormalities occur. According to Mayo Clinic, dissociative identity disorder (DID) is written off as the swapping of alternate identities in one person. The person may feel like there are one or more other people living inside them or talking to them. They may have their own names and different personality accompanied by different voices and even gender. People with DID usually have dissociative fugue and amnesia as

I do not know of anyone experiencing this disorder nor have I experienced it myself. I have always liked the concept of “multiple personalities” and find movies and books pertaining to this subject matter to be highly interesting. Two that come to mind would be the movie “Frankie” with Halle Berry and a short-story entitled “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte P.

To begin to understand what happens within a person with dissociative identity disorder, it is important to first explain what the disorder is exactly. As defined by a forensic psychiatry and forensic psychology book: “Dissociative identity disorder (DID or multiple personality disorder) represents a ‘disruption of identity’ in which ‘two or more distinct personality states’ (also referred to as ‘alters’) occur. Further characteristics include: ‘marked discontinuity in the sense of self and sense of agency, accompanied by related alterations in affect, behavior, consciousness, memory, perception, cognition, and/or sensory-motor functioning.’ There may be gaps in recall of every day events, important personal information, and/or traumatic events inconsistent with ‘normal forgetting’”

Dissociative Identity Disorder, or DID, is defined as: “The result of a marvelously creative defense mechanism that a young child uses to cope with extremely overwhelming trauma” (Hawkins, 2003, p. 3). Ross describes DID in this way: “In its childhood onset forms, the disorder is an effective strategy for coping with a traumatic environment: It becomes dysfunctional because environmental circumstances have changed by adulthood” (1997, p, 62). What types of traumatic environments are we talking about here? Often children who form DID are involved in some sort of abuse. These types of abuses can be physical, sexual and even ritual. Such abuses are not meant for children to have to endure, however, the mind

Patients with dissociative disorder often feel as though they have been detached from their own speech and behavior; some even report hearing voices. These voices often result in a train of thought and strong emotions that the patient cannot control. Patients have reported they even feel the physical aspect of their body change, such as their body type and age (“Symptoms of Dissociative Identity Disorder”). Because patients dissociate under certain circumstances, identities can have completely different memories. When an alter surfaces, the dominant personality describes “blacking out” until further

Subtle alternating personality changes such as a shy child with depressed, angry, seductive, and/or regressive episodes.

Dissociative identity disorder is a rare mental disorder that is characterized by an individual possessing two or more states of personality. This form of identity disorder is commonly caused by childhood traumas that fall under extreme, repetitive physical, sexual, or emotional abuse (American Psychiatric Association). A famous case of dissociative identity disorder followed the case of Shirley “Sybil” Mason, who was believed to suffer from female hysteria — an outdated medical diagnosis that was thought to have explained the trauma that women face, such as nervousness, a heavy abdomen, and irritability. It did not help that it was later discovered that “women are more likely than men to develop dissociative identity disorder” (Cleveland

Dissociative identity disorder is a type of dissociative disorder. A dissociative disorder can be explained as an individual becoming dissociative with his or her sense of self. These disorders disturb both memory and identity and usually have a psychological cause. Dissociative identity disorder is a disorder in which two or more identities or personality states are present in one individual. These identities alternatively take control of the individual. This causes frequent gaps in memory, which are believed to be caused by the other personality. When one personality takes control, the other one does not remember anything that took place. There has been continuing research about what causes the disorder. It is believed that the disorder is caused by intense physical or sexual trauma (Dissociative Disorders). The disorder was once called multiple personality disorder until 1994. This changed to reflect a better understanding of the

When a person has complaints about physical illnesses that cannot be explained medically and these claims lead to interference in their lives it is known as a somatoform disorder. Hypochondriacs fall into this category of disorders. People may also actually experience loss of motor or sensory functions that cannot be explained any damage or problems with their bodies. A dissociative disorder is involved more in the disturbance of identity or memory. People will sometimes forget traumatic events in their lives or forget who they are. Other cases involve the development of multiple personalities where a person assumes the identity of more than one person which are unaware of the other identities. This type of dissociative disorder is often