Multiple Personality Disorder

Multiple personality disorder (presently termed dissociative identity disorder) is a rather rife consequence of acute traumas in early infancy, generally intense, repeated abuse (physically, sexually, &/or emotionally).

Experiencing mild-ranging dissociations like when one daydreams or goes astray when doing some task happens to a large majority of people. But, multiple personality disorder is an acute type of dissociation, a mental process producing a dearth of correlation in an individual’s thought process, recollections, emotions, deeds or sense of self. It is believed to arise from a traumatic experience that the individual underwent. The disconnect factor is believed to be a means to cope – the individual plainly disconnects himself/herself from a scenario or experiences which are rife with violence, trauma or pains for assimilating with his/her cognisant self.

Multiple personality disorder does exist and typified by the subsistence of duo or more diverse or split personalities which continuously control the individual’s behaviours. A person with this disorder would even be incapable of recalling most important personal info which is quite extensive to be explicated as just absent-mindedness. Moreover, there are exceedingly distinctive memory differences that vacillate in accordance with the individual’s split personalities.

The diverse personalities (alters) possess their own gender, ethnicity and age – with every identity having own posturing, gesturing & distinctive manner of speaking. At times the diverse personalities are make-believe individuals; at times they’re some animal form. With every identity revealing itself & controlling the person’s behaviours & thought process, which is known ‘switching’ lasts some seconds, minutes long to many days on end. Once such an individual is hypnotized, his/her diverse personalities might be highly receptive to what the therapy provider would request.

Alongside dissociating & split personality, individuals having multiple personality disorder might be experiencing:

• Mood variations.
• Suicide tendency.
• Depression.
• Sleep conditions like sleep walks, becomes an insomniac & pavor nocturnus.
• Phobia types & Anxiety attack/s (flashback, reacting to stimulus or triggering factors).
• Abusing alcohols and drugs.
• Urges & habits.
• Psychotic-similar signs like aural & optical deliriums.
• Eating disorders.
• Headaches.
• Loss of memory.
• Time-loss.
• Dazes.
• Out-of-the-body incidents.
• Tends to self-persecute, self-harm & also violence –inflicting himself or herself & externally aimed.

For instance, a person with multiple personality disorder might be finding himself or herself doing things that his/her usual self would never do like – recklessly drives, speeds or steals valuables or cash from their boss or buddy, still feeling he/she is being forced to do so. Several people illustrate such feelings as being a commuter in one’s body instead of being at the steering wheel. Stated otherwise, these people actually think they’re left with no option.

There are many key ways wherein multiple personality disorder alters the manner in which an individual would experience living like:

• Feeling disconnected from their bodies & most termed as OBE (out of body experiences).
• Sense that the world is unreal or looks smoggy or distant.
• The person fails in recalling important personal info which is that far-reaching that regular absent-mindedness can’t be held accountable. Micro amnesia could also be the case wherein discussions that the person was part of were not recollected or contents of consequential conversations are not recollected.
• A feeling of bafflement about who the individual is.

Presently, it is recognized that such disconnected states aren’t totally mature personas; however, instead they symbolize an incoherent sense of self. With amnesias classically linked to multiple personality disorder, diverse identity states recollect diverse facets of first-person info. There’s generally a host persona inside the person that recognizes the individual’s true name. Paradoxically, the host character is generally not aware of the existence of other characters.

What parts do the diverse characters don?

The diverse identities might serve miscellaneous parts in assisting the person deal with life’s predicaments. For example, typically 2-4 characters are existent when initial diagnosis of the patient is done. With the therapy course progressing, thirteen to fifteen different characters could become identified and unusually, there are cases of multiple personality disorder patients playing over a hundred characters. Environmental elicitors or life episodes are causal to an abrupt budge from 1 alter/ character to the other.

Who develops multiple personality disorder?

Although the reasons for multiple personality disorder are yet nebulous, studies suggest that merger of biologically & environmentally related aspects are working in concert for causing it. Nearly ninety-eight to ninety-nine percent of people developing multiple personality disorders have identified individual pasts of recurrent, overriding & mostly life-menacing disturbances at a delicate development phase of infancy (generally prior to nine years of age). Dissociative disorders might even transpire when there’s been persistent abandonment or being abused emotionally, even when there’s been no obvious abuse (physically or sexually). Outcomes reveal that in kin wherein parents are fear-provoking & fickle, the kids might develop dissociation.

Multiple Personality Disorder Diagnosis

Diagnosing this condition is time-consuming and it is approximated that people with multiple personality disorder have been several years in mental-health organizations before a precise identification. This is prevalent since the symptom listing causing an individual with dissociative condition to get therapy is quite analogous to those of several psychiatrical diagnoses. Factually, several individuals having dissociative conditions even have derived diagnoses pertinent to nervousness, depression or fear disorders.

Here are the conditions for diagnosing multiple personality disorder.

• Duo or above characters or persona states exist, each having its comparatively lasting pattern of noticing, dealing with & pondering about the surroundings & himself/herself.
• A minimum of 2 of such characters or persona states repeatedly taking control of the individual’s conduct.
• The individual is unable to remember crucial personal info which is quite far-reaching to be explicated by regular lack of memory.

Suggested Therapy Approach for Multiple Personality Disorder

Even though cure for this condition doesn’t exist, long-standing therapy religiously followed by patients does meet with notable success. Effectual therapy involves psychotherapies, talk therapy, drugs, hypnotherapy & auxiliary therapy like music therapy/ art therapy.

As mostly multiple personality disorder symptoms arise alongside conditions like depression, nervousness hence treatment for multiple personality disorder is done deploying the analogous medications prescriptions as that of these conditions. Antidepressant drugs or anti anxiety medications are found to be beneficial to multiple personality disorder patients.