Dissociative Identity Disorder

In Multiple Personalities Disorder, recently named Dissociative Identity

Disorder (DID), up to 13 personalities alternate in a person. The person with DID

may feel the presence of other identities talking or living inside their head. Each

personality is unique and has its own name, personal history, and sets of

memories, ideas, thoughts, ways of thinking and purposes. One identity may be

the protector while another can be a child. This mental disorder appears to be

common and it can be found in 4% of people hospitalized in mental facilities.

People with DID chronically escape their reality in involuntary and unhealthy

ways, it usually develops as a reaction to trauma and functions to keep difficult

memories at bay. This disorder is not inherited, it usually develops during an

abusive childhood, the person's defense mechanism separates different aspects of

his/her personality in order to deal with the physical and emotional pain. In fact,

95% of adults with DID admit to having been abused during childhood or having

a severe traumatic experience during the childhood years.

Some symptoms that might warn a person of DID are memory loss (amnesia)

of certain time periods, events and people, mental health problems like

depression and/or anxiety, a sense of being detached by oneself (depersonalization),

a perception of the people and things around you as distorted and unreal

(derealization), and a blurred sense of identity. However, to be clinically diagnosed

with DID the person must exhibit the following symptoms:

*The presence of at least two distinct personalities with their own

relatively enduring pattern of sensing, thinking about, & relating to

self and environment.

*At least two of these personalities assume control of behavior

repeatedly.