Dissociative Identity Disorder

[Golden Shirohana]

Abbreviated to DID - also referred to as Multiple Personality Disorder, defined by one or more alter egos that can take over at any time.

It's thought by many people to be a hoax and a criminal scam to escape convictions, but psychologists have been diagnosing it for a while now...usually after incorrectly diagnosing the patient with things such as depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety disorder...

Very recently I was diagnosed with this. That bothers me greatly - I happen to know someone, and have known them for several years, who claims to also have it's symptoms...but calls himself schizophrenic. Given that they're two very different things, and this person is a renowned attention-seeker, I've guessed that this isn't the truth.

I'm looking for opinions - does DID exist, is it just an attention-seeking hoax used in mass media...and how should I tell my friends and family, when I myself am skeptical of others who claim to have it?

Any advice is appreciated.

[error-dot-tar]

DID isn't referred to as MPD. MPD was the original diagnosis, DID is a more specialized form of it.

It does exist, although in its true form instead of its misrepresented form, very rarely. Your friend doesn't understand his own head very much if he's confusing DID and schizophrenia. They are vastly different.

[Eri Luvs You]

It's not a hoax.
Its just people abuse it, alot like depression or bi-polar.
But I think psychologists can tell if someone is faking any kind of multiple personality disorder.
Its not like its ADD or something.
I think you should just...tell them.
Even then you can even say that you arent really sure if you have it.
"I think I have..."
or
"I was told that..."

[Captain Verd]

DID is real, but often misdiagnosed. My boyfriend was just diagnosed with it after thinking he'd just been a sleep deprived schizophrenic with memory problems :/

You don't have to tell anyone, really, and you don't have to make it common knowledge. However, letting your parents and maybe the rest of your close family know is a good idea.

[Lewa Greenleaf]

I have DID.

No s**t.

[Elrin_02]

Given the FBI investigation and the indictments of many shrinks who handed out MPD diagnoses... Given the absolutely absurd claims of Satanic torture made by many of the victims...
Given the way the brain *works*...

I simply cannot believe that people contain multiple personalities.


Now, DID may be somewhat different, as the name suggests. While I do not think that you could have two separate 'people' living in your brain, with separate memories, abilities, personalities, etc., who have no knowledge of each other, (the structure of the brain simply defies this,) I do think that it is possible that, under conditions of high stress, certain aspects of your brain might turn 'off' or 'on'.

To draw a benign example, let's say you smell strawberries, and suddenly remember picking strawberries as a child. Up until you smelled the berries, you had no recollection of picking berries as a child, but the scent awakened the memory.

Let's say that you are normally an outgoing, friendly person, but under stress, you become withdrawn and hostile. While under stress, you act differently than you would normally.

Later, when you are not under stress, you act the way you normally would. You might even actively try not to think about the things which happened while you were under stress.

Still later, things get stressful again, and your memories of the past resurface and come flooding back.

It's not that you have different personalities, but that your one personality has different coping strategies for different situations--thus, disassociation.

[faolan]

Elrin_02

It's not that you have different personalities, but that your one personality has different coping strategies for different situations--thus, disassociation.

Exactly -- that's how it works. With DID, the situation is generally that the "host" (that is, what we'd call the real person) is unaware of the "others." At most, the person registers that odd things seem to happen -- they'll "lose time" and realize that there's a new shirt in their closet they didn't remember buying or they don't remember traveling to wherever they are... the time lost might be minutes, hours, even days... "Sybil Dorsett," probably the most publicized case, in once instance lost two years. On the other hand, the other "personas" are more or less aware of one another, and of the host.

What essentially happens to bring it about is generally that some kind of traumatic event is too intense for the person -- usually a child -- to emotionally and mentally deal with, and their sense of self (and grasp on themselves and the world) pretty much shatters. It doesn't crack, mind you; it shatters, and the self fragments. So the pieces are all there, if you will, but... well, disassociated. ^_~

[Elrin_02]

faolan

Elrin_02

It's not that you have different personalities, but that your one personality has different coping strategies for different situations--thus, disassociation.

Exactly -- that's how it works. With DID, the situation is generally that the "host" (that is, what we'd call the real person) is unaware of the "others." At most, the person registers that odd things seem to happen -- they'll "lose time" and realize that there's a new shirt in their closet they didn't remember buying or they don't remember traveling to wherever they are... the time lost might be minutes, hours, even days... "Sybil Dorsett," probably the most publicized case, in once instance lost two years. On the other hand, the other "personas" are more or less aware of one another, and of the host.

What essentially happens to bring it about is generally that some kind of traumatic event is too intense for the person -- usually a child -- to emotionally and mentally deal with, and their sense of self (and grasp on themselves and the world) pretty much shatters. It doesn't crack, mind you; it shatters, and the self fragments. So the pieces are all there, if you will, but... well, disassociated. ^_~

No, this is precisely what I am saying does not happen.

The case of Sybil, by the way, was a fraud.

People do not possess totally different personalities. As far as I know, the brain does not work this way.

Any memory you have is *always* accessible, even if it is not currently active. Memories do not get shunted off into little parts of your brain, accessible only to separate personalities.

It is possible that under high stress, you may act differently, even though your personality remains the same. (For example, when under stress, I find it difficult to express myself verbally, even though I can still write. My personality is still the same, but my loquaciousness has been temporarily turned off.)

It is also possible that under high stress, your capacity to *form* or access memories shuts down. (Events such as electroshock therapy, for example, can cause massive memory loss.) A later 'trigger' might cause you to access some of those memories. But the memories are not specific to different personalities.

Perhaps this is not what you meant, in which case, forgive me.

[faolan]

Elrin_02

The case of Sybil, by the way, was a fraud.

Proof please.

Elrin_02

People do not possess totally different personalities. As far as I know, the brain does not work this way.

I never said they did. I described what are known as "personas." They are pieces of the person's self-identity.

Elrin_02

Any memory you have is *always* accessible, even if it is not currently active. Memories do not get shunted off into little parts of your brain, accessible only to separate personalities.

Again, I never said that was the case. What I said -- again -- is that certain personas (that is, certain states of mind) are fully aware, while others are not.

Elrin_02

It is possible that under high stress, you may act differently, even though your personality remains the same. (For example, when under stress, I find it difficult to express myself verbally, even though I can still write. My personality is still the same, but my loquaciousness has been temporarily turned off.)

Indeed. And wine has affected my normally verbose manner. But we lack the impetus of severe trauma at particularly vulnerable stages.

Elrin_02

It is also possible that under high stress, your capacity to *form* or access memories shuts down. (Events such as electroshock therapy, for example, can cause massive memory loss.) A later 'trigger' might cause you to access some of those memories. But the memories are not specific to different personalities.

I recently read a study conducted using piglets raised normally versus those raised under high stress conditions, and the consequences apparent in terms of memory. It was unbelievably absolute; the piglets that were weaned very early on and raised under highly stressful conditions practically didn't know up from down. In a developing brain, stress and trauma can absolutely make worlds and more of difference.

Elrin_02

Perhaps this is not what you meant, in which case, forgive me.

Indeed, a misunderstanding. 'Salright, I'm actually sure we're on the same page here. We're just neither of us expressing ourselves as well as we ought to be. o_O;

[Golden Shirohana]

Elrin_02 and faoloan:

Reading and re-reading your posts, I believe really you just differ of opinion...and both are very valid and well-expressed. Thank you for taking the time to write them, it's giving me a lot to think about.

One thing I would like to add, though, is that the 'multiple personalities' I posses are far from unaware of each other, or of me...I have been able to hold full conversations with myself for years without the knowledge of whether or not I was crazy or just possessed a very vivid imagination.

[the_true_iori]

I am hesitant to call DID a 'disease' and thus am not willing to agree with the term 'diagnosis'.

I believe that the mind is almost infinitely complex and as a result I am unsure as to whether or not the ideas of multiple personalities is plausible. To go back to a previous point is it not possible that the memories of what another 'personality' does are repressed by the brain or dismissed as a dream? Dreams themselves are forgotten rather quickly and I was under the impression this was because the brain dismisses them as not real and thus not worth remembering.

If the brain itself was in a sort of denial (forgive me for personifying a body part but I think this is the easiest phrasing) over the second personality existing would it be impossible to assume that they considered any activity carried out by this other personality a dream and consequently repressing the memory?

[Cassidy Peterson]

faolan

Elrin_02

The case of Sybil, by the way, was a fraud.

Proof please.

According to Wiki (only source I'm awake enough to use, sorry) she was a "highly suggestible hysteric" whose case wouldn't garner interest as such, so she was labeled with DID so the book about her could be published successfully. Sybil allegedly insisted that the book was entirely true, but her medical files are sealed and both she and her doctor (the author) are dead by now.

[Gothkitti]

Cassidy Peterson

faolan

Elrin_02

The case of Sybil, by the way, was a fraud.

Proof please.

According to Wiki (only source I'm awake enough to use, sorry) she was a "highly suggestible hysteric" whose case wouldn't garner interest as such, so she was labeled with DID so the book about her could be published successfully. Sybil allegedly insisted that the book was entirely true, but her medical files are sealed and both she and her doctor (the author) are dead by now.

That part of the wiki is a quote of one person suggesting that the case is a fraud. Right now, it is what we would call "unconfirmed" because, simply and well put by you, everybody who could know is dead. However, that is not evidence that DID does not exist and the brain does, one way or another, work that way. I would like some true evidence by you, other than your claim that the brain doesn't work that way, that DID doesn't exist because that's a pretty grand assertion and by saying it you're counteracting over a century of hard psychological research-based evidence, at this point. You have a rather large burden of proof, here, and I'd be very interesting in knowing where you formulate your assertion from, as everything I've ever read or seen from an official psychological source has said that the brain does, in fact, work that way. Those who have DPD/DID who I have met, also, have seemed pretty genuine to me. That last part, of course, is completely anecdotal and needs no rebuttal, as it is immaterial, but there is a mountain of evidence for you to overcome to support your statements and I'd personally rather see some citation of a credible source.

[error-dot-tar]

Elrin_02

Given the FBI investigation and the indictments of many shrinks who handed out MPD diagnoses...

Which was poorly understood at the time and was often given through the use of hypnotherapy, a controversial method of therapy that can plant "seeds" of memories into a person prone to dissociation (whether they have DID or not).

Quote:

Given the absolutely absurd claims of Satanic torture made by many of the victims...

Again, backed by the controversial use of hypnotherapy.

Quote:

Given the way the brain *works*...

Which we don't exactly fully know yet.

Dissociative disorders are still in the process of being understood. There is a significant amount of research being done in order to help further understand it. Especially since it can be found completely outside of the influences of hypnotherapy. We do not actually know enough about the brain or dissociation to make this claim.

Quote:

I simply cannot believe that people contain multiple personalities.

Got a degree?

Quote:

Now, DID may be somewhat different, as the name suggests. While I do not think that you could have two separate 'people' living in your brain, with separate memories, abilities, personalities, etc., who have no knowledge of each other, (the structure of the brain simply defies this,) I do think that it is possible that, under conditions of high stress, certain aspects of your brain might turn 'off' or 'on'.

You misunderstand what DID is.

As Faolan mentioned, DID is indeed the shutting off of the brain during certain times (not all are connected with high periods of stress), and a fragment of the mind takes over in order to better cope with the situation. Some have described this as "retreating" or "withdrawing". A particular system that I know that frequents the ED on the rare occasion calls it sleeping when the switches happen throughout daily life with no real trigger.

Quote:

Let's say that you are normally an outgoing, friendly person, but under stress, you become withdrawn and hostile. While under stress, you act differently than you would normally.

Later, when you are not under stress, you act the way you normally would. You might even actively try not to think about the things which happened while you were under stress.

Still later, things get stressful again, and your memories of the past resurface and come flooding back.

It's not that you have different personalities, but that your one personality has different coping strategies for different situations--thus, disassociation.

That is not DID. What you are describing is typical coping methods. Dissociation is actually incredibly common as a subconscious coping method. DID is just an extremely rare manifested form. It results because the mind cannot handle the amount of psychological stress put on it at the time. Enough stress over a period of time causes the person to withdraw and fragment, and those fragments start to develop in order to keep life going. The mind is still there, just pieces aren't quite "there" to experience it. The other pieces have to piece things together, sometimes from scratch (no pun intended there). What you are describing is a whole mind responding to various situations.

The Sybil case is highly controversial. Nor can she really speak for herself at the moment, considering she's sort of dead. I can, however, offer to speak with the open system here to help explain how life works for them, how they have to piece things together to keep it running. I can't make any guarantees though. It depends entirely on whether or not she's feeling up to being in the spotlight on that level again. As one would imagine, it's incredibly trying for her.

[Aruvil Lesernle]

It exists, someone very close to me has it, but DID doesn't always involve the personalities taking over. I know three people with it, and two out of the three of them have the personality take over. When I first heard that this person had it...I was okay with it, but after awhile I began to resent it, because some of the insiders had personalities I really do not like, but I eventually got over it. The person is also getting better.

I'm sorry that you have to deal with this, but there are ways to deal with it that are hard, but very effective. If you need any help let me know. PM, or you can e-mail me.
I'll be praying for you.