Dissociative identity disorder (DID) is a mental health condition characterized by two or more distinct personalities.
It was once known as multiple personality disorder.
What Is DID?
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They should also have symptoms that significantly impair social functioning at work and in other environments.
The disturbance should not be related to cultural or religious practices or to substance abuse or other mental disorders.
What is the history of dissociative disorder?
The symptoms of dissociative identity disorder can vary enormously from one person to the next.
Even skilled mental health professionals have difficulty diagnosing DID.
Use this test to better understand symptoms and experiences.
What are the symptoms of DID?
Do you have marked gaps in thoughts, actions, or awareness of what you were doing?
People with DID experience something called marked discontinuity of sense of agency.
People with marked discontinuity can experience the sense of two separate identities, neither of which feel whole.
This makes it hard to maintain a streamlined understanding of ones awareness throughout the day.
A personality defines a persons unique way of thinking about and relating to the world.
It is important for defining ones values and understanding who they are.
People with DID struggle with a sense of self because they have fragmentation of their personality.
They may go back and forth between different personality states, which can vary between extremes.
However, its possible to have up to 100.
Have you had moments when youve completely forgotten an important event in your life?
Dissociativeamnesiais when a person is unable to remember the details of important events.
Often, the memory loss occurs around events that are stressful, traumatic, or meaningful.
OSDD (other specified dissociative disorder) is the more common punch in of dissociative disorder.
People with dissociative identity disorder have different identities, but they usually arent experienced in equal measure.
The additional, alternate personalities are referred to as alters.
The host is often passive, dependent, or depressed.
In contrast, an alter may suddenly appear bubbly, loud, or aggressive.
Like borderline personality disorder and bipolar disorder, DID is characterized by changes in mental state.
Dissociative identity disorder is different because a person experiences periods of memory loss related to distinct personality states.
The memory gaps between personality states are often asymmetrical and may not occur for a specific reason.
This means that you may forget small things, like purchases youve made.
The memory gaps can sometimes be viewed by others as deceptions or dishonesty.
Why is the DID diagnosis so controversial?
Historically, there have also been many instances of fabricated case studies.
Has someone close to you ever remarked that you forgot who they were or didnt recognize them?
Dissociative identity disorder is often mistaken for other conditions, including substance abuse.
This is especially true in teenagers or young adults.
Are there times when experiences seem unreal or too real?
People with DID have difficulty remembering events as they occurred.
Or it may be derealization, in which a person feels detached from the present reality.
Derealization makes a person feel detached from their current experiences and the feelings they create.
It can make a person disconnect in real time from objects, people, and surroundings.
This is different from catatonia, where a person experiences psychomotor disturbances that can cause slow or hyper reactions.
Catatonia can spur a more extreme response, and is more often associated with schizophrenia.
Do you find yourself suddenly and inexplicably talking to yourself loudly when you are alone?
DID is sometimes mistaken for schizophrenia since both can cause a person to talk out loud to themselves.
People with schizophrenia dont have multiple personality states; rather, they have altered perceptions of reality.
In DID, loudly talking to oneself is more an externalization of thought within the context of multiple personalities.
DID is different from schizophrenia because it doesnt involve a person thinking and acting upon things that arent real.
Are there times when you are unable to ignore pain or appear resistant to pain?
Pain-determined dissociative episodes occur when a person develops a personality to help cope with the symptoms of discomfort.
Researchers believe that people withchronic painor anticipated pain may develop dissociative states as a coping mechanism.
The EP is what allows a person to ignore pain.
When this alternate coping state isnt accessible, its hard to cope with pain.
Rather, it is associated with the loss of memory that occurs with dissociative amnesia.
When a skill is approached with ease, its because it is remembered.
When a skill is difficult, it is because its been forgotten.
People with dissociative identity disorder have a high rate of suicide.
Research shows that 70% of people with DID have attempted suicide at least once.
Are there times when you feel as if you are two different people?
People with DID may have no idea about their split personality states.
How is DID treated?
Hypnosis has also been found to be useful.
American Psychiatric Association.What are dissociative disorders?
Foote B, Van Orden K.Adapting dialectical behavior therapy for the treatment of dissociative identity disorder.Am J Psychother.
2021;10:77-86. doi:10.31080/ecpp.2021.10.00900
National Alliance on Mental Illnesses.Dissociative disorders.
National Alliance on Mental Illness (Michigan).DID fact sheet.
2016;16: 203. doi:10.1186/s12888-016-0908-4
McCutcheon RA, Reis Marques T, Howes OD.Schizophrenia-an overview.JAMA Psychiatry.
2016;17(1):67-80. doi:10.1080/15299732.2015.1067941
