Image Source: Flickr

Hello Steemians, I trust you’ve been having some great time with yourselves and loved ones. Well, like I promised some days back, here is another episode on the Mental Disorders, Their Symptoms and Their Treatment series I began with the first addressing Schizophrenia disorder, explicitly. This episode shall be looking at Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID) otherwise known as Split disorder. I hope you find this write-up informative and enlightening.

I have particularly chosen the picture of James McAvoy, a cast of the movie Split as my thumbnail picture. For the benefit of those who do not know, Split is a 2016 psychological horror movie that largely exploited the features of the mental disorder we are discussing today as the horrific element of the movie. The movie was a screen blast when it was released earning about $278.5 million in the box office with only $9 million as the budget. Majority of us who'd seen the movie will readily agree that the disorder (as depicted by the movie) was truly horrifying. But what is even more gruesome, according to my view, is the scene when Kelvin (James McAvoy) came to his senses, shortly after "the beast" personality appeared, realising that he has not been in charge of his body for two years! That's truly how terrifying the mental disorder might sometimes be.

Sit back and enjoy (while you learn) this article about DIssociative Identity Disorder(DID).

Image Credit: WikiMedia Commons

What is Dissociative Identity Disorder?

Majority of us have witnessed, at one point time, some mild form of dissociation in ourselves, such as a state when we suddenly caught ourselves daydreaming or catching ourselves acting, talking and even walking like a completely different character which we can easily identify with in our lives such as a friend, uncle or even ones mentor. Like I’ve said, those are the mild forms of dissociation. To dissociate simply means to loose connection between one’s reality, thoughts, perception and even memories; when these does not register in one’s mind and you began to view yourself from outside your own body, then you’ve dissociated.

Dissociative Identity Disorder is a very severe type of dissociation, a mental disorder that produces two or more separate personality in an individual, with each personality having its own distinct perception of the surrounding and self; including its own distinct memories, tastes, likes and dislikes, and even sometimes state of health. The crucial aspect of this disorder is that each personality becomes dominant whenever they surface, and takes complete control of the body with the original personality completely oblivious of the secondary personality/ies and with what has been done with his body during those times the secondary personality are dominant. More so, the original self is usually not aware of the secondary personalities, while they (the other personalities) may have varying awareness of one another (when they are two or more).

Features of Dissociative Identity Disoder

Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID) is a mental disorder typified by identity shattering instead of multiplication of identities. The identity splits into two or several other distinct identities with each manifesting itself at different time, having total control of the body at the time of possession. Each personality has its own distinct autobiographic memories, manners, capabilities, and even social relationships. The original personality, though aware of the existence of other personalities, is oblivious of their descriptions and even their capabilities. In other words, it is a disorder whereby more than one minds or personality exist in a single human body, each unaware of the history, capability and memories of the other.

A person sufering from Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID) usually experiences himself possessing more than one personality, a phenomenon which he catches himself upon suddenly. The other personalities are usually reffered to as alternative identities, or simply "alters". Actually, the personality of this individual splits in such manner that of all the identities, one would assume that of anger, i.e an ever angry personality, while the other will assume that of love or care, and so on. In other words, the total sum of all the personalities makes up the whole personality of the original individual. It is suggested that alternatgive identities usually developed from dissociations caused by childhood trauma or therapist-induced. However, alternative identities are known to have the following features:-

1. They may be of another gender, i.e male alternative identity in a female body.
2. They may have different or no name, and may be of different age (younger or older)
3. They possess different memories altogether (which is unknown to other identites and even the original personality), thus they have different perception of various topics, or their environment, and even have different taste as regard color, food and dress.
4. They also possess different medical need and responses. A case is that of a woman who was blind, but which one of her alternative identities can see, very well in fact.

Image Credit: Flickr

History of Dissociative Identity Disoder

The first known case of Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID) was reported in 1584 as recorded by a Jeanne Fery when she recorded her detailed case of exorcism. Although it wasn't known as DID at that period of her recording, it is presently observed that it matched, lin exact, the description of DID today. She documented her observation that she has various alternative identities, each with their own features. In 1623, A case about one Sister Benedetta was reported where she was reportedly possessed by three angels (boys in this case), each with different dialect, tone of voice.

In 1791, a written record reports the case of a 20-year-old German woman who suddenly begand speaking perfect French, and would even behave like an French aristocrat - like a "French woman". However, when ever this phase passes, she would not remember anything she did as a "French Woman" and could not even speak french as her original self.

DID was first termed as Hysteria Neurosis in 1968 and was further defined as an shift in identity and consciousness. While in 1980, the third edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) was published introducing the term "dissociative" for the first time to describe a form a mental disorder which will later be known as DID as finally dubbed by the fifth edition of the manual. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) is a manual published by the American Psychiatric Association (APA) largely depended upon by researchers and even government agencies to provide guide upon mental disorders.

Causes of Dissociative Identity Disoder

The cause of DID has often been associated with trauma and abuse, particularly during the childhood stage. The tension and anxiety during war time or natural disasters also has the potential of causing dissociative identity disorder in the victims. It is known that childhood (2-6 years) is a period of personality formation, thus child is more capable to dissociate or step out of his own self and observe the trauma or the event causing the trauma as if it is occurring to a different person entirely. Sufferers of dissociative identity disorder (DID) are more inclined to possess personal histories of frequent, intense, harsh and often overwhelming traumas such as physical or sexual abuse before the age of nine; an age which is thought to be a vital developmental age. While answering the question “Why Does Trauma Cause DID in Some and Not Others?”, Health Place, a mental health website has this to disclose

Research indicates that dissociative symptoms are a psychological response to extreme environmental and interpersonal stressors. In order to survive this stress, the person separates his or her thoughts, feelings, actions and memories associated with the traumatic experience from his or her usual level of consciousness. Because everyone is different, some people who have experienced extreme trauma will experience this type of response while others will not. Some studies indicate that males are more likely to experience dissociation due to early-age trauma than females.
Other causes of Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID) include war, accident, loss of loved ones, Emotional, Physical, or Sexual Abuse, natural disaster or Therapist-Induced.

Treatment of Dissociative Identity Disorder

Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID) treatment differs from one person to another, depending on their need. Psychotherapy is usually considered as the most effective and the major element of the treatment for DID.

Psychotherapists often try to help the sufferers with the disorder by trying to help them get in touch with feelings usually ‘locked away’ in the past. This technique often helps bring forth more than one personality at a time to cohabit in the host body and work together - a process which helps to reintegrate the other personalities into a single one.

Hypnosis may also help the sufferer with have more control over which personality emerge at which time by providing the sufferer with information of each personality. Hypnosis enables the communication phase to be frequent between the personalities.

Medications are also used to tackle other various mental health condition the sufferer may develop during the DID episodes, such as severe anxiety, anger issues, paranoia e.t.c

Thank you very much for taking your time to read through this episode of Mental Disorders, Their Symptoms and Their Treatments. I hope you find this educative and informative. Do not forget to drop your comment to let me know what you think of it.

References: Health Place
Mayo Clinic
WebMD
Sunrise House
DID Research
Mighty
Psychology Today
National Alliance on Mental Illness
Mental Health
Wikipedia