What is Dissociative Identity Disorder

by Owlet Collective

Dissociate identity disorder/cptsd

◦ Dissociative identity disorder (previously known as multiple personality disorder) is thought to be a complex psychological condition that is caused by many factors, including severe trauma during early childhood (usually extreme, repetitive physical, sexual, or emotional abuse). Dissociation to explain it easy it feels like an intense version of spacing out but for me it comes along with depersonalization and derealization which is what you get when you have did

dissociative disorder with a person splitting 139 alters

What Is Dissociative Identity Disorder?

Dissociative identity disorder is a severe form of dissociation, a mental process which produces a lack of connection in a person's thoughts, memories, feelings, actions, or sense of identity. Disruption of identity is characterized by two or more distinct personality states, affect, behavior, consciousness, memory, perception, cognition, and/or sensory-motor functioning. These signs and symptoms may be observed by others or reported by the individual. Recurrent gaps in the recall of everyday events, important personal information, and/or traumatic events that are inconsistent with ordinary forgetting. The symptoms cause clinically significant distress or impairment in social, occupational, or other important areas of functioning. The symptoms are not attributable to the physiological effects of a substance (e.g., blackouts or chaotic behavior during alcohol intoxication) or another medical condition (e.g., complex partial seizures)

Dissociative identity disorder is thought to stem from a combination of factors that may include trauma experienced by the person with the disorder. The dissociative aspect is thought to be a coping mechanism the person literally shuts off or dissociates herself or himself from a situation or experience that's too violent, traumatic, or painful to assimilate with her or his conscious self.

Who Is At Risk for DID?

Research indicates that the cause of DID is likely a psychological response to interpersonal and environmental stresses, particularly during early childhood years when emotional neglect or abuse may interfere with personality development. As many as 99% of individuals who develop dissociative disorders have recognized personal histories of recurring, overpowering, and often life-threatening disturbances or traumas at a sensitive developmental stage of childhood (usually before age 7-9.

Dissociation may also happen when there has been persistent neglect or emotional abuse, even when there has been no overt physical or sexual abuse. Findings show that in families where parents are frightening and unpredictable, the children may become dissociative. Studies indicate DID affects about 1% to 3% of the population.

How to Recognize Dissociative Identity Disorder and Its Associated Mental Disorders

Dissociative identity disorder is characterized by the presence of two or more distinct or split identities that continually have power over the person's behavior. With dissociative identity disorder, there's also an inability to recall key personal information that is too far-reaching to be explained as mere forgetfulness. With dissociative identity disorder, there are also highly distinct memory variations, which may fluctuate.

Although not everyone experiences DID the same way, for some the alters age, sex or race, sexuality lots of others. Each has his or her own postures, gestures, and distinct way of talking. Sometimes the alters are sometimes animals or fictives. As each alter reveals itself and controls the individuals' behavior and thoughts, it's called "switching." Switching can take seconds to minutes to days. Some seek treatment with hypnosis where the person's different alters may be very responsive to the therapist's requests.

Other symptoms of dissociative identity disorder may include fronting headaches, amnesia, time loss, dissociation and "out of body experiences. Some people with dissociative disorders have a tendency toward self-persecution, self-sabotage,

As an example, someone with dissociative identity disorder may find themselves doing things they wouldn't normally do, such as eating too much. Some describe this feeling as being a passenger in their body rather than the driver.

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There are several main ways in which the psychological processes of dissociative identity disorder change the way a person experiences living, including the following:

• Depersonalization. This is a sense of being detached from one's body and is often referred to as an "out-of-body" experience.

• Derealization. This is the feeling that the world is not real or looking foggy or far away.

• Amnesia. This is the failure to recall significant personal information that is so extensive it cannot be blamed on ordinary forgetfulness. There can also be micro-amnesias where the discussion engaged in is not remembered, or the content of a meaningful conversation is forgotten from one second to the next.

• Identity confusion or identity alteration. Both of these involve a sense of confusion about who a person is. An example of identity confusion is when a person has trouble defining the things that interest them in life, or their political or religious or social viewpoints, or their sexual orientation or their professional ambitions. In addition the person may experience distortions in time, place, and situation.

It is now acknowledged that these dissociated states are not fully mature personalities, but rather they represent a fragmented sense of identity. With the amnesia typically associated with dissociative identity disorder, different identity states (alters)remember different aspects of autobiographical information. There is usually a host personality within the individual, who identifies with the person's real name. Ironically, the host personality is usually unaware of the presence of other personalities.

How Is Dissociative Identity Disorder Diagnosed?

Making the diagnosis of dissociative identity disorder takes time. It's estimated that individuals with dissociative disorders have spent seven years in the mental health system prior to accurate diagnosis. This is common, because the list of symptoms that cause a person with a dissociative disorder to seek treatment is very similar to those of many other psychiatric diagnoses. In fact, many people who have dissociative disorders also have coexisting diagnoses of borderline or other personality disorders, depression, and anxiety.

The DSM-5 provides the following criteria to diagnose dissociative identity disorder:

1. Two or more distinct identities(alters) are present, each with its own relatively enduring pattern of perceiving, relating to, and thinking about the environment and self.

2. Amnesia must occur, defined as gaps in the recall of everyday events, important personal information, and or traumatic events.

3. The person must be distressed by the disorder or have trouble functioning in one or more major life areas because of the disorder.

4. The disturbance is not part of normal cultural or religious practices.

5. The symptoms cannot be due to the direct physiological effects of a substance (such as blackouts or chaotic behavior during alcohol intoxication) or a general medical condition (such as complex partial seizures).

6. They must dissociate to a high level

The distinct alters may serve diverse roles in helping the individual cope with life's dilemmas. For instance, there's an average of two to four alters present when the patient is initially diagnosed. Then there's an average of 10 to 15 personalities that can become known over the course of treatment. Environmental triggers or life events cause a sudden shift from one alter or another. The most that has been so far is 450 alters.

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What Other Psychiatric Illnesses Might Occur With DID?

Along with the dissociation and did. people with dissociative disorders may experience a number of other psychiatric problems, including symptoms:

• Depression

• Mood swings

• Suicidal tendencies

• Sleep disorders (insomnia, night terrors, and sleep walking)

• Anxiety, panic attacks, and phobias (flashbacks, reactions to stimuli or "triggers")

• Alcohol and drug abuse

• Compulsions and rituals

• Psychotic-like symptoms (including auditory

• Eating disorders

What's the Treatment Plan for Dissociative Identity Disorder?

While there's also no cure for dissociative identity disorder, long-term treatment can be helpful, if the patient stays committed. Effective treatment includes:

• Psychotherapy: Also called talk therapy, the therapy is designed to work through whatever triggered and triggers the DID.

• Adjunctive therapy . Therapies such as art or movement therapy have been shown to help people connect with parts of their mind that they have shut off to cope with trauma.

There are no established medication treatments for dissociative identity disorder, making psychologically-based approaches the mainstay of therapy. Treatment of co-occurring disorders, such as depression or anxiety is fundamental to overall improvement. Because the symptoms of dissociative disorders often occur with other disorders, such as anxiety and depression, medicines to treat those co-occurring problems, if present, are sometimes used in addition to psychotherapy.

Differential Diagnosis

The DSM 5 lists the following alternative diagnoses, which may be considered/ruled out during the Dissociative Identity Disorder diagnostic process. Any of these can be co-morbid with Dissociative Identity Disorder except for Other Specified Dissociative Disorder. Other Specified Dissociative Disorder (formerly Dissociative Disorder Not Otherwise Specified) This can't occur alongside DID because it is only diagnosed when someone does not quite meet the DID criteria. The two most common forms of Other Specified Dissociative Disorder involve having amnesia and dissociative parts of your personality which are not quite distinct/separate enough for DID, and having dissociative parts which are distinct enough to be alter personalities but without amnesia between them. Major Depressive Disorder (often just called "depression)

Dissociative Identity Disorder due to switching between alters (alters often have different mood states to each other).

Posttraumatic Stress Disorder There is now a dissociative subtype of PTSD and some overlapping features between DID and PTSD. PTSD is commonly comorbid with DID, but key differences exist as well. Complex PTSD is diagnosed as just PTSD in the DSM-5 (it is not considered a separate disorder). Differences between DID and Complex PTSD are described in the Dissociative Identity Disorder treatment guidelines for Adults; Complex PTSD is very common in people with Dissociative Identity Disorder, and dissociation is a symptom of both.

The presence of reoccurring periods of amnesia is the next most important characteristic, sometimes referred to as recurrent lapses in memory which go beyond ordinary forgetting. The remaining diagnostic criteria require symptoms to cause distress and/or impaired functioning in at least one area of life, and state that DID can only be diagnosed if no other condition provides a better explanation for symptoms. A mix of secondary symptoms are found in DID, particularly those caused by the passive influence of alters intruding into awareness, but no single secondary symptom is present in everyone with Dissociative Identity Disorder, and these do not form part of the diagnostic criteria.

Distinct Personality States (alters)A person with Dissociative Identity Disorder has "distinct personality states(alters)", this phrase refers to distinct (different, separate) alters Other terms sometimes used as well are headmates anyway to say alter.

Normal Part of the personality (ANP), and Emotional Part of the personality (EP).Alters are only overt (obvious) in a small minority of people with DID in clinical situations. Some people also can be covert very hidden alters that can act like the host in did.

A change introduced in the DSM-5 makes it possible to diagnose DID without the diagnosing clinician directly observing a switch between alters: instead DID can be diagnosed if the person self-reports their presence and effects, or if another person describes observing a switch between alters. Two clusters of symptoms indicate the presence of alters if they are not observed, these are described in the DSM-5's extended description of Dissociative Identity Disorder.

CPTSD stands for Complex Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. It is a mental health condition in which a person might experience intense PTSD symptoms that coincide with other mental issues. CPTSD occurs in people who have been subjected to ongoing traumatizing experiences.

Which as you read in my triggers and trauma I have exactly just that. You have flashbacks could be smells, colors, places, people, objects, anything really.

Complex post-traumatic stress disorder (complex PTSD, sometimes abbreviated to c-PTSD or CPTSD) is a condition where you experience some symptoms of PTSD along with some additional symptoms, such as: difficulty controlling your emotions. feeling very hostile or distrustful towards the world. I’m not hostile but I do distrust and have a very hard time trusting anyone I always tell people it’s a miracle if I trust you. The symptoms of complex PTSD are similar to symptoms of PTSD, but may include: feelings of shame or guilt. difficulty controlling your emotions. periods of losing attention and concentration (dissociate)

CPTSD often stems from ongoing childhood neglect, domestic abuse, human trafficking, and living in a war-torn region for more than one year. Both PTSD and CPTSD require professional treatments. Due to its complex nature, CPTSD therapy might be more intense, frequent, and extensive than PTSD treatment.