We all daydreamed, gotten lost inside a movie, has even had an out of body experiences; don’t worry it’s all common, but it is also a mild form of dissociation. Dissociation is a separation within an individual’s actions, memories, thoughts feelings, or has a sense of being unreal. Among the most incomprehensible or mystifying and controversial is the rare dissociative identity disorder. It’s the most severe and chronic manifestation of the dissociative disorders.
This colossal dissociation of identity from a conventional cognizance embodies those with dissociative identity disorder, (DID; previously known as multiple personality disorder) in which two more diverse characteristics are said to interchangeably switch the person’s demeanor. Dissociative identity disorder is thought to stem from severe trauma mostly in the person’s early childhood (usually around the age 9), due to extreme cyclical sexual, physical and/or emotional abuse. The dissociative aspect is assumed to be a managing method, because literally each personality has its own mannerisms, voice, age, sex, and even race; by dissociating their selves from a situation or experience that are too painful violent to assimilate with their conscious self. Typically, the original personality denies any awareness of the other identities.
Understanding the development of multiple personalities is difficult, even for highly trained experts; making a diagnosis of DID take time. It’s estimated that individuals with dissociative identity disorder has spent seven years in the mental health system prior to diagnosis. This is because of the similarities of symptoms of many psychiatric diagnosis of treatment that they seek. The DSM-IV provides the following criteria to diagnose dis...
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...her than the driver, they truly believe that they have no choice.
A person in treatment for a dissociative disorder might benefit from antidepressants or anti-anxiety medication, but is still no "cure" for dissociative identity disorder; it has been proven for effective treatment which includes medications, psychotherapy or talk therapy, hypnotherapy, and adjunctive therapies long-term treatment is very successful, only if the patient stays committed.
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According to Barlow, Durand & Stewart (2012), Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID) is one of several dissociative disorders in which a person experiences involve detachment or depersonalization. They go on to explain that people with DID ha...
middle of paper ... ... Retrieved June 16, 2002, from http://nimh.nih.gov/publicat/numbers.cfm. National Mental Health Association. 2000 May 15.
When a person is being dissociative, it is thought that they are using it as a coping mechanism and that the person is dissociating him or herself from a violent, traumatic, painful or uncomfortable situation they do not want to be put in or be of conscious awareness of. Another statistic about dissociative identity disorder is that dissociative disorders were seen in 17.2% of a large inpatient group seeking treatment for substance abuse. (Tracy, 2016) There is no "cure" for dissociative identity disorder but there is long-term treatment that can help the side effects of DID, but like most treatments, it is only effective if the patient sticks with it.
For my research paper, I chose to utilize a disorder known as “Dissociative Identity Disorder” (DID). This disorder is also coined as Multiple Personality Disorder. When defining the actual meaning of this disorder, it is defined as “a severe condition in which two or more distinct identities, or personality states, are present in—and alternately take control of—an individual” (1). Specifically, “DID is a disorder characterized by identity fragmentation rather than a proliferation of separate personalities. In addition, the disturbance is not due to the direct psychological effects of a substance or of a general medical condition” (1). Based off of this knowledge, I chose to look at two individuals who have obtained this disorder
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Dissociative Identity Disorder Treatment & Management. (n.d.). Dissociative Identity Disorder Treatment & Management. Retrieved November 11, 2013, from http://emedicine.medscape.com/article/916186-treatment
More than two million cases can be found in psychological and psychiatric records of multiple personality disorders also called dissociative identity disorders. Dissociative Identity, formerly known as multiple personality disorder, is a condition in which, an individual has a host personality along with at least two or more personalities with each identity having his or her own ideas, memories, thoughts and way of doing things (Bennick). Personality disorders are a group of mental illnesses. They involve thoughts and behaviors that are unhealthy and inflexible. A person with a personality disorder has trouble perceiving and relating to situations and people. This causes significant problems and limitations in relationships, social activities,
Multiple Personality Disorder is a mental illness which most commonly has been referred to as Dissociative disorder or DID in recent years[1]. The illness commonly disassociated with schizophrenia finds a person experiencing two or more clearly differing personalities which will in habit assume control at some stage. Changing from one personality to another in a matter of seconds, the person will actually believe that they have more than one personality. DID can co-occur with other illnesses which include a range of anxiety disorders. The causes of DID are still not proven but it is thought to have occurred in response to a traumatic childhood experience[1]. The diagnosis is not constructed as a set test and so the mental health professional is required to test a patient using a mental status exam. The various symptoms of the illness can be treated through a range of treatments ranging from talk therapy to medications, but this does not always smooth out the outcomes resulting in a chaotic, imbalanced life. A great amount of controversy surrounds DID and is disputed by mental health professionals, some even believing that it does not exist[1]. Whatever the case, DID is displayed powerfully throughout the miniseries ‘Sybil’ in which a young emergency teacher finds herself with DID in response to horrific childhood memories[4].
My topic of choice for this research paper is Dissociative Identity Disorder or DID. This appellation is rather new; therefore, most are more familiar with the disorder's older, less technical name: Multiple Personality Disorder or MPD. When first presented with the task of selecting a topic on which to center this paper, I immediately dismissed Dissociative Identity Disorder (which for the sake of brevity will be referred to as DID for the remainder of this paper) as a viable topic due to the sheer scope of the disorder. However after an exhaustive examination of other prospective topics, I found myself back at my original choice. There are several reasons why I chose DID. The foremost of which is the widespread fascination of this disorder by many different types of people; most of whom otherwise have no interest in psychology or its associated fields. One would be hard pressed to find someone who hasn’t been captivated at one time or another by the extraordinary, all too well known symptoms of this disorder. This fascination… dare I say ‘allure’ to this disorder is exemplified by the myriad of motion pictures that have been produced based on cases, real or fictitious, of DID. Another reason for my choice is what I feel is the insufficiency of effective treatments for DID. Despite what is known about this disorder, (which is relatively a lot) there are only two chief treatments for DID; the first and most prevalent is psychotherapy; also known as ”talk therapy”, the second is medication. The third and final reason for my choice is my own enchantment with DID. I must admit that ever since I read about Sue Tinker, a woman who was diagnosed with over 200 different personalities. In writing this paper I hope to discover more about this disorder and perhaps be able to identify a few areas that I feel might require more research on the part of psychologists specializing in DID.
...chiatric Association. (2012). “Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders” (4th Ed.). Washington, DC: Author.
The unusual memoir, A Fractured Mind: My Life with Multiple Personality Disorder, is a powerful and inspiring story of Robert B. Oxnam’s struggle with a rare and terrifying illness. According to the 5th edition of The Diagnostic and Statistical Manuel, multiple personality disorder, also known as dissociative identity disorder is when two or more distinct personality states, or “alters” are present. Each of these “alters” can cause disabling or distressing disruptions of normal functioning and include unique memories and behavior patterns. This illness is the result of developing coping mechanisms for overwhelming experiences and traumatic events occurring early in the lifespan such as child abuse.