Dealing With Dissociative Disorders
You have gaps in your memory. Sometimes you will disappear from home for days at a time. You forget who you are. You could have dissociative identity disorder.
Dissociative identity disorder (formerly multiple personality disorder) is when a person has two or more separate personalities. These identities control the person’s behavior at different times. Dissociative identity disorder (DID) can cause gaps in memory and other problems. DID is a rare psychiatric disorder diagnosed in about 1.5 percent of the global population.
Host personalities create these alters or alternative personalities to protect themselves from childhood trauma. Many people with DID have been physically or sexually abused.
For example, the host personality could experience “time warps” where he is in a conversation with someone you have never met before or in a part of town you don’t recognize holding a shopping bag of things you don’t remember buying.
Film and television would have you believe that these alters are evil. That is far from true in that they help the host deal with painful memories of childhood trauma.
Usually there is an aggressive personality but it is not dangerous towards others in any way. This personality is more likely to hurt himself and let himself be hurt by other people. These personalities have seen so much suffering that the last thing they would want to do is to inflict suffering on others.
Suffering is such an integral part of DID because it is so closely intertwined with PTSD. Certain triggers can make someone dissociate, such as loud noises, raised voices, or the sight of a flannel shirt.
DID is frequently misdiagnosed or never diagnosed, and this is more confusing because many people with DID may also have other psychiatric illnesses, such as post-traumatic stress disorder or borderline personality disorder.
Depression, sometimes with suicidal behavior, is common in DID. However, again, media portrayals of a person with DID as being violent are incorrect and unfair. People with DID are not more likely to be violent than anyone else. But as with some other victims of abuse, people with DID also may have very low self esteem and self-worth.
The different personality states are often perceived by the person or by others as having different abilities and behaviors, and sometimes include perceived age, gender and sexual orientation differences. Still, the different personalities in a person with DID are better thought of as different facets of the person than as different people living in the same body. This differs from the common misconception that the patient is not 100 percent herself at any given time.
It is basically unheard of that a person with DID, not have significant attachment based trauma or psychological trauma such as abuse from an early caregiver like a parent.
DID is one of several dissociative disorders. These disorders affect a person's ability to connect with reality. Other dissociative disorders include:
· Depersonalized or derealization disorder, which causes a feeling of detachment from your actions.
· Dissociative amnesia, or problems remembering information about yourself.
Symptoms of DID show up in childhood between the ages of 5 and 10. Adults in the child’s life might miss the signs. DID might be confused with other behavioral or learning problems common in children such as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. Therefore, DID isn’t usually diagnosed until adulthood.
Psychotherapy is the standard treatment for DID. Although your doctor may prescribe medication for conditions associated with the illness such as depression or anxiety. Some of the goals of psychotherapy are identifying and working through past trauma, managing sudden behavioral changes and merging separate identities into a single identity.
Some therapists have even recommended hypnotherapy has a way to recover memories from childhood. Hypnotherapy is a form of guided meditation.
It is important for people with DID to have a good support system around them. One of the best things you can do to help yourself or someone with DID is to educate yourself about the disorder. Psychotherapy will help teach you to control personality switches.
Don’t be afraid to reach out to people regarding suicidal thoughts. If you are experiencing these thoughts, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline. Your therapist can aid you with the tools to help you cope with this condition.
