Understanding Multiple Personality Disorder: Causes and Treatments

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Why Is There So Much Stigma Around Multiple Personality Disorder? What is Multiple Personality Disorder? Why do people get it? How is it treated? Multiple Personality Disorder, also known as Dissociative Identity Disorder, is the state of someone having more than 2 “personalities”. In most diagnosed cases, it’s often found that patients with MPD have had childhood trauma. MPD is treated with therapy, because there really is no treatment for it as of yet. It’s often said that hypnosis is the only treatment for MPD, but that’s not the case. In an article that identifies 12 cognitive errors people make about MPD, it says that “Ross, Norton, and Wozney, reported that 17.8 percent of 214 patients with MPD had never been Hypnotized. Hypnosis is …show more content…

It’s very hard to come out about MPD, since it is such a stigmatized disorder. Patients often feel very disconnected, fearful, discouraged, etc. which leads to them hiding what’s happening to them. You have to build a relationship with the patient, or you’ll scare them away. Going back to the 2017 CNN article, Amelia Joubert goings into how she believed some of her doctors did not understand or believe in MPD. How do you expect someone to come out about it If doctors can’t or won’t understand what’s happening? Also going back to the 2016 working with MPD patient’s article, the doctor goes into detail about the connection needed with an MPD patient. Patients need to feel comfortable with who they’re confiding in, or they’ll never get to the mental state they need to be …show more content…

You can’t see what goes on in people’s minds, you have their word and sometimes that’s what you have to go off of. It’s a good idea to explore other diagnoses, but don’t automatically cross MPD off the list if the symptoms are there. There is a lack of education when it comes to MPD, it is hardly taught. Any psychologist should have a good understanding about MPD, but in this day and age it’s hard to get one. Doctors are scared to make the diagnosis because they could be wrong or don’t want to give the patient a cover to act however they want. Just because there aren’t brain scans or test to prove MPD, does not make it any less of a

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