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John, Jay, Decca, Mac and Sanji are living as a happy family. They come
along well with each other, support and help each other, doing everything what needs
to be done for an everyday living. However, the house is not the only thing they share.
They share a body. John was diagnosed as having multiple personality disorder, or
dissociative identity disorder (DID), how it is called nowadays. All the other
personalities are John’s alters. Most people imagine from time to time that they would
like to be in somebody else’s shoes or to have a different life. Yet, we are single and
constant beings. On the other side, people who suffer from dissociative identity disorder
have two or more distinct personalities that co-exist within the same person.
There is a lot of debate and disagreement about the causes of dissociative identity
disorder among scientists. The causes of the disease are still unknown for sure, but the
most likely cause seems to be severe childhood sexual abuse. It is believed that children,
create a fantasy world in order to escape from the abusive memories. In this way, the
human mind begins to dissociate, imagining that the horrific abuse happened to
somebody else.
Dissociative identity disorder didn’t receive as much attention in the past as
today. It was first mentioned in the 19th century and in 1980 it was officially approved to
be a real psychiatric disorder. In the past only few cases were mentioned, because it was
considered to be a very rare disease. Nowadays the number of people with DID has
significantly increased to thousands of cases. That’s why some scientists doubt about its
existence, considering that many people feign the disease as an excuse for criminal or
illegal acts. Its name was changed from multiple personality disorder to dissociative
identity disorder, because in fact, the personality doesn’t multiply, but it splits or
dissociates.
Diagnosis of DID is based on certain guidelines, namely on four criteria.
First, two or more distinct identities that co-exist must be reported. Second, at least two
personalities must take control regularly of the person’s identity. Third, the person
must experience amnesia or loss of memory and fourth, it should not be caused by
direct physiological effect of substance abuse. An important research conducted by a
neurobiologist showed that changes in brain wave activities occurred as the different
personalities took control over persons suffering from DID. Namely, the hippocampus,
that is involved in memories, changed its pattern of activity with the appearance of a new
alter. This may demonstrate that people with DID have split cognitive faculties and their
selves are experienced disjointedly.
The treatment of DID involves three procedures. First, stabilization and
reduction of the symptoms is needed. Next, it is required to treat the traumatic memories
and then, integration of the personalities is conducted. Initially, the therapist tries to
stabilize the person, namely to prevent any behavior that could harm him/her and to
achieve cooperation among the alters. After that, the therapist tries to recall
the memories of abuse through hypnosis. However, these memories are often very
painful and can cause even more harm. The goal of the treatment is the integration
of the alternate personalities to a single unit. This has to be done slowly and carefully,
considering each distinct identity. Usually, the process is long lasting, namely up to
seven years and full recovery is not always achieved.
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