Honors Project: Understanding Dissociative Identity Disorder
You would have probably watched films or read books involving characters with multiple personalities. Famous characters like Bruce Banner from The Hulk, who faces a case of split personality disorder, where he becomes someone (or something, rather) else to act as a conduit for all his repressed feelings. It can be fun watching these characters switching from one personality to another in their stories, but outside of the fantasy world, there is indeed the clinical condition called Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID).
How much do you know about it ?
What exactly is DID?
Dissociative Identity Disorder is when an individual separates from the world by turning into someone other than their true self. Simply speaking, it is when a person has at least two distinct different personalities. Often the alters do not know the existence of one another as each personality are in control of the individual at different times. Each personality has its own self image, name, identity, and experiences separately. Each alter will have its own voice, posture, way of speaking, acting, and relating to others. DID is caused by experiences of repeated severe sexual and/or physical abuse. It is a way to defend oneself from extreme stress, protecting the person from severe physical and emotional trauma impacted on the person, usually as a child.
Living with DID is nothing like whats portrayed in movies...
Fact #1 People with DID are not dangerous
This is a common misconception which comes from media portrayals of split personalities Those with DID are more likely to be a danger to themselves, rather than other people. There are no evil alters. There can be destructive alters, but they need the same amount of love as any people in the world.
Fact #2 People with DID can function and lead a normal life
There are many with DID having successful families and careers. Recovery requires time, which may include a number of treatment options and is an ongoing process.
The challenge of being more than one person
There are many challenges, but one of the most difficult challenges may be Memory Loss. Each alter has real memories of things actually experienced when they were in control. Memory lost can be confusing and frustrating for others, and can sometimes be misinterpreted as being rude.
What do they want you to know?
Shows and books have wrongly portrayed people with DID as evil. In fact, most people with DID are the victims of abuse. It is a survival tool rather than something dangerous and fearful. Unfortunately, as a way to cope with trauma, people with DID have carried it past childhood. They are human, just a little different.
How to support people with DID?
Embrace by giving them the unconditional love they need
Accept them with an open mind
Relate, to your best ability, to whoever is with you at that time
Great stories from people with DID
https://dissociativejess.wordpress.com
https://www.time-to-change.org.uk/category/blog/dissociative-disorders
https://diddispatches.wordpress.com
References
Dodgson, L. (2017, February 16). Dissociative Identity Disorder is nothing like the movie 'Split,' according to people who have it. Retrieved February 23, 2018, from http://uk.businessinsider.com/living-with-split-personality-disorder-2017-2/?IR=T
Jaide, A. (n.d.). How to Support Someone With Dissociative Identity Disorder. Retrieved February 22, 2018, from https://themighty.com/2017/08/how-to-support-someone-with-dissociative-identity-disorder/
About Dissociative Jess. (2017, October 28). Retrieved February 22, 2018, from https://dissociativejess.wordpress.com/about/
Discussion questions:
1) Have you heard of DID before? If yes, what are some of your initial thoughts on it?
2) Now that you have learnt about DID, what do you think you can do to support the DID community?
3) If you have DID, what are some of the ways you are coping with it and what do you wish people will do to support you?
Wonderful & informative - and I'm so happy that you touched upon the stigma that is related to DID. That is crucial. Thanks for taking the time to write this!
1) Have you heard of DID before? If yes, what are some of your initial thoughts on it?
I know a little bit of DID because I have DID.
2) Now that you have learnt about DID, what do you think you can do to support the DID community?
Raise awareness because it has a bad rep.
3) If you have DID, what are some of the ways you are coping with it and what do you wish people will do to support you?
I cope with it by letting it happen and people have to accept it. I would like to have people roll with it and then try to fill in the blanks.
@comfortableHorizon21
Yes, I read about DID, I think we should deal with open mind and more patience with who experience this disorder, , and I totally agree about who have it have been experience a kind of abuse, so it's close way to change reality by simply escaping from it, denial it, and this by using the other personalities faces, or maybe the person don't accept the current personality traits so the choice would be "unconscious" choosing another preferred personality , any way it would be more appeared in stress situations which the current personality couldn't handle or deal with it..
@SandInMyS0ul
Hi Soul,
I am happy you brought this up as the perspective of it being a choice, a simple means of denial or simply not liking oneself as they are seem to be common misperceptions.
I believe Rain45 provided everyone with a well researched, widely accepted clinical definition. It is a survival mechanism to extreme cases of ongoing trauma usually beginning around the age of 5 +\-. People with DID generally work with well trained specialists for a number of years. As Rain45 mentioned, many are highly intelligent and functional quite well during much of there treatment. As with any trauma, working with the most painful experiences, feelings may require a period of fully focusing on healing with a professional. It is important for individuals to feel heard, treated with compassion, respected as well as showing unconditional positive regard as many of the experiences are quite difficult to share.
Another point about the media is you must remember that the actual changes in parts of the conscious self are often very subtle. I am sorry but no hulk like dramatic representations. Media would simply leave the viewer without a point of reference if they used quite subtle changes. They also are not violent as the long term abuse turns most of the negative feelings inward, unfortunately. It represents years of negative perceptions being reinforced often to manipulate a child into remaining silent, fearful etc.
@Compassionatelistener108
As you may have noticed in my post above, their needs and desires are essentially the same as that of most people. We all want compassion, to be heard, to be treated with respect and work with a professional who is well trained. It should not be a controversial diagnosis as it is clearly defined in the DSM 5. That being said there is still a great deal of unnecessary debate surrounding the topic. It creates pain, feeling stigmatized and ultimately creates a shortage of specialists who can treat the complexities of the diagnosis. Poorly trained individuals can do a great deal of harm causing years of additional recovery time.
I hope this helps you understand the very human side of the issue. Again, I am pleased you asked. So turn of your televisions or realize it is simply a directors only choice to make the changes clear to the viewer. Also, you may very well be interacting with someone with this diagnosis on a daily basis and not be aware. Given this, it is always best to be kind, compassionate and treat them as any other individual or as you yourself would like to be treated.
I hope this is helpful and clears up some of the remaining questions.
I honestly believe that Rain45 provided excellent, accurate information so I dont feel the need to restate or alter it in any way.
She is quite well versed in every aspect of traumatic experiences and the healing process.
Have a wonderful evening everyone.
@comfortableHorizon21 Ooh, great work! This was one of the topics I was considering in doing when I did my project
@MarshmaIIows
Ohh, no problem :) What topic did you decide on then?
@comfortableHorizon21 I did ASPD (Antisocial Personality Disorder)
@comfortableHorizon21
1) Have you heard of DID before? If yes, what are some of your initial thoughts on it?
Yes; I have heard of DID before from my mother. She read an article about Louis Vivet. He was mistreated by his mother and paralyzed at 17. I guess that his personality split in order for him to protect himself. I thought that it was strongly influenced by his mothers mistreating and I realized that people with DID just need a place to hide - so their original personality hides while the others cover for it.
2) Now that you have learned about DID, what do you think you can do to support the DID community?
I think the first step would be getting people more aware of DID. Like the original post said, DID is not as dangerous as movies and media put it. In fact, staying away from people with DID and isolating them can actually cause more harm to them and more personality splits.
3) If you have DID, what are some of the ways you are coping with it and what do you wish people will do to support you?
I do not have DID, but I figure that if I had it, I would want people to show me love and respect. Not run away from me calling me scary and even a freak.
@comfortableHorizon21
Yes, I had heard of split personality disorder before, but I didn't know any of this! That's good to know about the memory loss switching between personalities. I had just thought...I don't think I even knew anything about this disorder other than the name and that there were two personalities in one person. I would like to know how often someone with DID switches between personalities. Can they go for months on end with one personality and then lose those months of memory when they suddenly switch to the other? What causes the switching?
@Kryokina
At least when it comes to my friend, they switched multiple times per day. Because her alters had triggers... and depending on the situation or what was currently going on around her, an alter would feel the need to "hide" and another one would move forward. So her whole day was split up between her various alters and she'd always end up having blackouts every day, whenever those alters took over that wouldn't allow her to "watch".
SoI guess for her each day was kind of like a puzzle, and each alter had some of its pieces. So for the whole thing to make sense, it was her job to figure out how all those pieces would fit together so the result would be one overall picture... yet some pieces were always missing (the blackout ones), so no day was really "completely there" when she looked back.
@suBSea Oh wow, that's terrible! I'm so glad you're able to support your friend as she goes through this. Thank you for the information. Are you able to tell when she has been triggered into hiding so one of her alters can come out? What happens to her while she's switching personalities? How many alters does she have? I thought you could just have two.
@Kryokina
Well I guess I actually answered some of those questions in my first post I wrote in this thread, so... if you scroll up there, you'll find out about how many alters she had and a bit of our back story. In that post I also talked about how I noticed when she switched.
But I don't know what exactly her triggers were so she'd switch from on alter to another. But one of them, the oldest, was like the one who protected everyone else, especially the kids. So he'd take over whenever she'd get into an argument or when it had been one of the younger ones' turn and he felt like things were getting "too dangerous" for them.
But as I said in my very first post, my friend and me aren't in touch anymore, so all this stuff is quite some years ago now, and I'm afraid I can't recall all those details anymore.
@suBSea Ah, I see now! Just read your post about it. Thank you for sharing your experience with DID as a first-hand observer. It was really helpful! If I ever meet someone with DID, I want to be their friend and let them know I accept all of their selves just as you did with your friend. :)
@Kryokina
PS: And I think it's almost never just two "personalities". As far as I remember, I think it's most common to have 7 or 8 alters. Sometimes they reveal themselves one by one as time goes by. My friend slowly got to know her various alters. Cause some of them were too ashamed at the beginning and wouldn't dare take over or ask for attention. But anyway, my actual point was, I think the thing with the TWO personalities is just as much nonsense as the whole "Hulk" comparison. Or at least from what my friend told me about it, it has nothing to do with Hulk, and it's pretty rare that you'd split off only ONE alter.
@comfortableHorizon21
I actually wrote a research paper on DID about a year ago. What lead me to wanting to do a paper on DID was because I watched 2 Korean Dramas. One drama portrayed a person who had DID due to witnessing physical abuse to a younger sibling, but was not able to do anything. So, to rescue his sister, another personality was created. In total, there were 7 personalities. In the second drama, it was about one person with 2 personalities. One was like a savior and the other is very cold-blooded. Upon watching both dramas, I was interested to wanting to know more about DID for real. So, I did a paper for my class and knowing that it's not commonly spoken of, many classmates had not heard of DID before, and very little knew of the similar term of Multiple Personality Disorder.
My paper included symptoms, prognosis and treatment methods~
@Jaeteuk
Wow, a research paper on DID! Yea, I heard of DID from Kdrama too~ Thank you for sharing :)
PS is the research paper available for sharing?
@comfortableHorizon21
I'm not sure if I'm allowed to share my paper on 7 Cups. Hm, and I'm not quite sure how to post it either!~
i dont know if i have this cause we know of each other and i think we also know each others memories for the most part. also the person who was originaly in the body does not exist anymore. and we were never part of that person. we dont want to "recover" because that would essentially cause us to stop existing. which is kinda like death. the person who was originally in this body left when the first one of us appeared. so we were never one person. it is hard kinda living like this cause we dont agree on what profile pictures to use and stuff but generally we let the youngest one decide cause even if we put the pictures we want he just changes them when it's his turn controlling the body. it's also hard cause the youngest one is a lot younger than the age of the body so he had a difficult time with people treating him like an adult. and the oldest one is a lot older than the age of the body and feels no one takes him seriously. i can't remember ever being abused but i developed a severe phobia of death around fifth grade which was (and still is) pretty traumatizing. but we didn't appear until a long time after that, so i doubt it would be the cause.
@tinfoil Yes, you probably have DID, since it affects each person differently. That's kinda crazy how to host person virtually died within your body! I don't know much about DID, but I certainly never considered that to be a possibility. Thank you for sharing your story with us!
@comfortableHorizon21
IF YOU HAVE ADVICE FOR A SUPPORTER PLEASE HELP
I am in high school and found out in November one of my friend has DID. He is undiagnosed and does not go to a counsilor or therapist, as I am one of two people that know. Both of us that know are classmates, and we don't know really what to do because his parents are the source of his dissociation (from what we've been told) so he hasn't told them and he put trust in us to keep it a secret, so I don't feel comfortable telling a councilor. Back then he had 4 others, now he has over 12. Sometimes, his others really scare me. The second day of knowing, I met a personality that was so depressed, I was sitting in a ball crying in hopelessness as he asked us to chose a number before getting very sad and I thought he was typing a suide note and we had just chosen a way for him to commit suicide (the personality clarified a few days later that they would never do that, but I didn't know). Other have performed 'experiments' on my friend that have hurt him psycologically, from making him hate his favorite places to making him experience emotions that don't fit the senario and even threatening to make him hate us. Sometimes, we get texts like "just punched the wall now his hand really hurts, oops at least I don't feel the pain" or "just a warning, he may have a limp at school tomorrow, I hurt his leg somehow", nothing very serious yet and they say they wouldn't seriously hurt him, but sometimes I have to wonder. One of the personalities who is especially violent (a bipolar identity) apparently is there to protect him and particularly doesn't like girls more than guys (I'm a girl) as well as loving knives. He's threatened to actually hurt others of they make him angry when he's already out...and I don't doubt that he would, my friend just tries to stop him from coming out at school. I got a text today saying that personality did something bad that any of them would have done if they were in the same situation, but that my friend is alright now only nauseous. They're telling me tomorrow what it was...but it can't be good.
What I'm trying to ask is, as a high school student who is just a supporter, how can I make sure that my friend is still ok going through all this when he is getting no professional help and I don't think I can get him any?? What should I do if things do get violent (saying that not because of movies etc, but because that personality has threatened it to others and it has occurred mildly in the past)? How do I help my friend when the one time I tried ("How about you try and focus on the small little things that make you happy in the day, like someone smiling or a sunrise?") it lead to the creation of a personality that wrecked havok on the system, locking away two personalities for two months against their will? He said at first he was triggered by stress, but he changes so often I don't know anymore. It's very difficult to know when he's changed in person as all the personalities pretend to be him at school unless someone gets them mad other than one being abnormally happy and another being abnormally quiet, over text it's a bit easier since two of them call me be different names and they try to sign off, but even then it can be confusing. I'm just lost...and I don't want to hurt or lose my friend, and it really hurts me that he is so hurt and I keep messing it up more and can't help and some of them hurt him more...I don't know what to do. And I don't know what to do if his mind is hurting him...just please if you have DID and/ or have had friends with DID and could give any advice, I'd really appreciate it. I'm very sorry if this offended anyone.
@RoseThorney
I can see how you truly care and want to support your friend. It's not easy especially when you have no professional knowledge of DID. Not to worry, read up more on DID and the responses provided by others in this thread. They are either ppl with DID, or supporters of ppl with DID or professionals with knowledge on DID. Do respond to their replies or tag them if you need to chat them up. I'm sure they are very willing to help you along
@comfortableHorizon21
@RoseThorney
Sorry about the blank...Thank you.