Essay on Furthering Knowlege of Dissociative Identity Disorder

Dissociative Identity Disorder is a very mysterious disorder as it comes to confuse even people in the medical field. Although it is nothing new its history and rarity leave many misconceptions on to how this disorder is developed and how it should be treated that it even leaves a handful of psychiatrists are unaware of its problems.

In chapter 15 of Exploring Psychology, the author discuss the basics of psychological disorders. Within this assignment, the psychological disorder of my choosing is Dissociative Identity Disorder. The commonality of the disorder is rare. Although we’ve disassociated ourselves in some form or the other with our ability to daydream, Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID) is more severe and is usually linked to trauma. Formerly the disorder was known as Multiple Personality Disorder (MPD). Individuals who suffer from this disorder usually have more than one aspect of themselves or personalities, whom he or she is completely unaware of. Sufferers of the disorder have to deal with a variety of symptoms such as memory loss, depression, anxiety, hallucinations, black-outs, impulsiveness, and perception of being detached from the self. The severity of the trauma is usually extreme, repetitive, and long-term. The individual may have an extensive history of physical, emotional, and/or sexual abuse.

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.

Most of the time, Dissociative Identity Disorder is brought upon a person due to him or her experiencing traumatic events, mostly in their childhood. Although, not everyone who goes through distressing and emotionally disturbing events and dissociation, develops DID (Aldridge-Morrison 53). Defense mechanisms contribute to why someone develops, because they can not cope with their behaviors. Defense mechanisms are mental processes where their mind unconsciously avoids conscious anxiety of conflicts (Bray Haddock 147). That results in the patient constructing a victim, “splitting,” or protective identity. Victim identity is the identity that experiences the traumatic events so that the main person and other identities do not have memory of it or have to go through it. The “splitting” identity is the one identity who acts childish, so that it keeps the protective and victim identities away from gaining control over the host’s body and mind. The identity that shields and defends against awareness of disturbing events and environmental threats as its role is the protective identity (Aldridge-Morrison 56). The most effective defense mechanism that contributes to the development of DID is dissociation, being in a state of disconnection or feeling disconnection towards something. As well as trying to position pain, anger, sadness somewhere else or blocking the painful memories, like denial, repression, sublimation etc, which are defense mechanism (

The mental illness called dissociative identity disorder or DID brings up many controversies in the world of psychology. Many psychologists have their doubts as to whether it is a "real" diagnosis or not. In the article "Dissociative Identity Disorder: A Controversial Diagnosis" the author goes into detail, providing facts that have been collected from many sources and gives information as to why it is such a controversial topic. The article answers many questions regarding the topic, providing the reader with enough information to understand why there is such a controversy surrounding this topic.

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

Diagnosing this disorder is difficult because it is so closely related to PTSD (Frey et al., 2012). The DSM-V is used to diagnose the condition. Many of the individuals diagnosed with the condition have a history of being sexually or physically abused as children. These individuals begin developing personalities as early as the age of three because this is when the majority of individuals start forming memories. A combination of treatments is what is most effective for DID; the most common being a combination of psychotherapy with the use of an antidepressant such as SSRI (Haddock, 2001). The prognosis of DID is not clear and this is primarily because the diagnosis of and treatment varies by

Dissociative Identity Disorder, commonly known as Multiple Personality Disorder, is characterized by an involuntary escape from reality characterized by a disconnection between thoughts, identity, consciousness, and memory (Dissociative). An example of mild everyday dissociation is when you are given a list to accomplish throughout the day, but forget some along the way. The dissociation experienced in MPD is more involved in the long-term memory. Symptoms are the reaction of enduring a traumatic event, commonly expressed in abuse and military combat. DID has a vast variety of symptoms including mood swings, dissociative amnesia, distress, and sleep loss. Dissociative amnesia is also tied to what most patients refer to as “blackouts”. Even

Dissociative Identity Disorder formerly known as multiple personality disorder is a disorder that researchers and doctors have shown immense interest in over the past century. Even though DID has evident symptoms and causes, some professionals in the healthcare system doubt that this disorder is real or it even exist. Dissociation is something that happens to every one of us; most of the time this is like day dreaming or being lost in thought while doing something like a project. However, DID is a more complicated form of dissociation. In this state, there is a disruption in the usually integrated functions of consciousness, memory, identity or perception of the environment (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders IV). When this

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

This paper explores 3 references. A website about Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID), a book about this disorder and a couple of people who suffer from it, and a magazine article about one person that has experienced DID. This research discusses what DID is, it symptoms, what cause it, and two people that had/have this disorder.

It sometimes may surround a particular event, “such as combat or abuse, or more rarely, information about identity and life history” (NAMI). In addition, depersonalization disorder is characterized by ongoing feelings of detachment from actions, feelings thoughts, and sensations (NAMI). The last type of dissociative disorder, dissociative identity disorder (DID), formerly known as multiple personality disorder (MPD), is a complex, chronic, posttraumatic dissociative psychopathology characterized by disturbances of memory and identity; emerging from severe, overwhelming childhood experiences (Kluft 337). Dissociative identity disorder is a complex disease that has multiple symptoms, causes, and diagnostic processes which can be treated correctly given

This research paper aims to explore the mental disease known as Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID), previously known as multiple personality disorder. I explore the meaning, symptoms, and effects of DID. My research describes those diagnosed with DID and the probable reasons of why they have the disorder. This study also explains the many different treatments and the effects those treatments might have on a person that has the disorder. I include a research study done on someone diagnosed with DID, the method used to help treat her, and the results of her treatment. Lastly, I state my opinion on DID and the methods I believe with help people prevent, treat, and cope with

Imagine waking up in a new house, town, city, even state and not knowing how you got there. Now add onto that thought of forgetting almost a year of your life because someone else, or something, has taken over your body. That is just a look into dissociative disorders in general. Dissociative Disorders are ‘extreme distortions in perception and memory” (Terwilliger 2013). Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID), or previously known as Multiple Personality Disorder, is often the most misunderstood dissociative disorder of them all. It has always been somewhat of a mystery. Seeing videos of the disorder can really give you an insight on what happens with the person who suffer from it. Almost everyone in the

Essentially the self is believed to dissociate or split into separate and distinct personalities in an effort to repress the pain and suffering from some traumatic event. The diagnosis of DID is often associated with a history of significant traumatization, usually in childhood. DID clients have a higher rate of early childhood trauma than any other clinical group (Putnam et al., 1986). Severe, repetitive trauma can produce extreme states of experiences in children and can result in the development of discrete personified behavioral states (Putnam et al., 1986). Despite skepticism there has been considerable clinical recognition of dissociative conditions in the last several years resulting in significant progress in the diagnosis, assessment, and treatment of dissociative disorders and DID. DID and dissociative disorders are not rare conditions. Clinical literature including case reports, treatment outcome studies, as well as studies of psychophysiology, neurobiology, and neuroimaging have been collected from numerous countries such as Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, Israel, Japan, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Puerto Rico, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Spain, Turkey, and the United States (International Society for Study of Dissociation, 2005). The main difficulties in diagnosing DID