Dissociative

Identity

Disorder

(DID

)

By: Maya M

. - Fatima R. – Antonia B. – El Shanique F.

What Is It? A psychiatric diagnosis that describes a

condition in which a single person displays multiple distinct identities or personalities (known as alter egos or alters), each with its own pattern of perceiving and interacting with the environment. The diagnosis requires that at least two personalities routinely take control of the individual's behavior with an associated memory loss that goes beyond normal forgetfulness; in addition, symptoms cannot be due to drug use or medical condition. The person with DID may have as few as two alters, or as many as 100. The average number is about 10.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7iHJfIH20TY

Dis

socia

tive Id

en

tity

Dis

ord

er

Smaller Symptoms Bigger Symptoms

Panic Attacks Anxiety Depression Physical

Symptoms Posttraumatic

stress Sexual

Dysfunction Eating

Disorders

Memory loss Relation towards patient

experiencing time lapses Cannot account or

recognize certain things (ex: Handwriting)

Depersonalization: Derealization May refer to themselves

in 1st person Hallucinations

Signs and Symptoms

Child Abuse (physically and sexually) Childhood trauma Overwhelming stress Insufficient childhood nurturing

Causes of (DID)

The child is harmed by a trusted caregiver (often a parent or guardian) and splits off the awareness and memory of the traumatic event to survive in the relationship.

The memories and feelings go into the subconscious and are experienced later in the form of a separate personality.

The process happens repeatedly at different times so that different personalities develop, containing different memories and performing different functions that are helpful or destructive.

Dissociation becomes a coping mechanism for the individual when faced with further stressful situations

Develo

pm

en

tal

Th

eo

ry

It has been theorized that severe sexual, physical, or psychological trauma in childhood predisposes an individual to the development of DID. The steps in the development of a dissociative identity are theorized to be as follows:

Treatm

ent

Psychotherapy-Many patients with dissociative identity disorder choose an alternative to drugs called psychotherapyMedication-The use of medication for DID is NOT recommended, since DID is hard to control and it’s hard to diagnose just one medication that worksSelf-Help-Many DID patients are coming together to form networks of supportHypnosis-Hypnosis can often help the patients discover any repressed memories that could have led to DID

DID does not resolve spontaneously, and symptoms vary over time. Individuals with primarily dissociative symptoms and features of posttraumatic stress disorder normally recover with treatment. Those with comorbid addictions, personality, mood, or eating disorders face a longer, slower, and more complicated recovery process. Individuals still attached to abusers face the poorest prognosis; treatment may be long-term and consist solely of symptom relief rather than personality integration. Changes in identity, loss of memory, and awaking in unexplained locations and situations often leads to chaotic personal lives.

Individuals with the condition commonly attempt suicide.

Prognosis

Sta

tistic

sStudies in North America and Europe indicate that as many as 5% of patients in psychiatric wards have undiagnosed DID.

For every one man diagnosed with DID, there are eight or nine women.

Among children, boys and girls diagnosed with DID are pretty closely matched 1:1.

50% of all psychiatrists deny that it even exists

Research has shown that the average age for the initial development of alters is 5-9 years.

SOURCES   http://www.scienceclarified.com/Ma-Mu/Multiple-

Personality-Disorder.html http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/

Dissociative_identity_disorder www.merck.com/mmpe/sec15/ch197/ch197e.htm www.webmd.com/.../dissociative-identity-

disorder-multiple-personality-disorder www.mayoclinic.com/.../dissociative-

disorders/.../dsection=symptoms www.healthyplace.com/.../dissociative-identity-

disorder/signs-symptoms...dissociative-identity-disorder.../menu-id-57/