What Is Dissociative Identity Disorder

Diagnosis of dissociative identity disorder (DID) accounts for an estimated 1% of the general population and up to 20% of inpatient and outpatient psychiatric populations (Brand & Loewenstein, 2010). DID can also be triggered and manifested in individuals which is why trauma is especially prevalent in individuals diagnosed with DID; about 71% have experienced childhood physical abuse and 74% sexual abuse (Foote, Smolin, Kaplan, Legatt, & Lipschitz, 2006). Due to trauma being so prevalent in DID many individuals with dissociative disorders suffer from a multitude of psychiatric issues that may include

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 (DID) is a condition where there are two or more distinct identities that are and will become present in an individual. These personalities can and will eventually take control of the individual, many people consider having dissociative identity disorder an experience of being possessed. The individual can and most likely will experience memory loss that is more extensive than ordinary everyday forgetfulness (Dissociative Identity Disorder (Multiple Personality Disorder). Around two percent of people will experience dissociative disorder, women are more likely than men are to be diagnosed with DID. "Almost half of adults in the United States experience at least one depersonalization/derealization episode in their lives, with only 2% meeting the full criteria for chronic episodes” (Dissociative Disorders).

Each of the four major dissociative disorders is characterized by a distinct mode of dissociation. Signs and symptoms

Psychology plays an enormous role in Dissociative Identity Disorder it is the way of explaining the disorder and the troubles the victims got through. In “Dissociative Identity Disorder: A Literature Review” by Mcallister, Mcallister states ways in which psychology connects with DID. Phycologists have and continue to study this disorder closely. They explain how this disorder is developed by many abused children. These children

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 trauma associated with DID is severe and graphic. While it can stem out of physical abuse, it is more likely a combination of physical, sexual, and cognitive abuse. Reed-Gavish describes her personal experiences of extreme sexual abuse, cruel mind games, and abandonment that led to her issues with DID (2013). These examples are not rare for DID. Most known cases have resulted from similar extreme trauma before the age of six that continued later into the childhood years. To survive, the young brain has to create an alter that is able

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’”

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, popularly known as multiple personality disorder, is the most talked about disorder and also the most controversial diagnosis that evokes myriads of responses. It is a very severe mental health condition that originates in early childhood because of severe trauma that a child experiences. This eventually creates two or more distinct personas used as a defense mechanism against that trauma (Barreda-Hanson, n.d.). Some people characterize it as someone being possessed because it is unwanted and involuntary (APA, 2013). The involuntary personalities develop separately and later on in adulthood help deal with stress by calming the main personality (Cherry, 2005). People with

DID is not completely understood but within the psychological community it is well accepted that it often stems from extreme, recurring abuse during childhood developmental periods. Studies, such as “Prevalence of dissociative disorders in psychiatric outpatients” in the American Journal of Psychiatry, have shown that “About 71% of clients with DID have experienced childhood physical abuse and 74% sexual abuse” (qtd. in Jacobson et al. 308). Although this phenomenon isn’t responsible for all of the occurrences of DID in the human population the fact that it plays a part in a majority of cases offers much insight about the illness. This disorder is essentially a coping mechanism for the sufferer because the alter(s) allow the person to separate their thoughts, feelings, and memories relating to traumatic experiences from their normal conscious awareness. Through this information it can be determined that the alter(s) serve the purpose of filling an emptiness in a person.

Comorbidity is also another major feature of DID. Many individuals with DID often present a comorbid disorder, which could lead to other issues in treatment because the comorbid disorder is often the only one that is treated (DSM-V, 2013). The most common disorder that is diagnosed with DID is PTSD. Depressive disorders, personality disorders, substance-related disorders are just a few other disorders that are often present in an individual with DID (DSM-V, 2013). According to Durand and Barlow (2012), most of the symptoms of DID are also related to the characteristics of borderline

Dissociative identity disorder (DID), also known as multiple personality disorder (MPD), is still known today as one of the most controversial psychiatric diagnoses (Priya & Siva, 2013). It indicates the existence of two or more identities or different personalities that repeatedly assumes control over the behavior of the person affected. In the majority of cases, dissociative identity disorder appears along with other symptoms, in which many times has been misdiagnosed (Ringrose, 2011). Repetitive childhood abuses are considered as the main cause of dissociative identity disorder (Fraser, 2014). The division of two or more identities can be understood as

Dissociative Identity Disorder or also commonly known as Multiple Identity Disorder in which a person has a variety of personalities within him. DID is a very rare disorder as there is less than two hundred thousand cases reported throughout the United States. It is also likely that people with Dissociative Identity Disorder develop this throughout their childhood after facing a series of traumatic events. This

The definite cause of DID is unknown, but one main cause of the disorder is believed to be severe and prolonged trauma experienced during childhood, including emotional, physical, or sexual abuse. Symptoms of DID can include: an inability to remember large parts of childhood, sudden return of memories, as in a flashback and/or flashback to traumatic events, episodes of feeling disconnected or detached from one's body and thoughts, hallucinations, changing levels of functioning, from highly effective to nearly disabled, depression, anxiety, alcohol and/or drug abuse, headaches, and eating disorders. DID is a serious mental illness that occurs across all ethnic groups and all income levels, but has been proven to affect women nine times more than men. Research has shown that the average age for the initial development of alters is 5.9 years old. Statistics show that DID occurs in 0.01 to 1 percent of the general population (Mayo, 2014).