Download Dissociative Identity Disorder

Dissociative Identity Disorder
Characteristics
Formerly known as: Multiple Personality Disorder
A disorder characterizes by two or more identities or
personalities that alternatively take over the person’s
behaviour.
♦ DID is closely correlated with severe trauma in childhood
(approx. 98%), most typically extreme, repeated physical,
sexual and/or emotional abuse.
♦ Dissociation is a mental process of disconnecting from
one’s surroundings – this exists on a continuum of
severity.
♦ DID is serious and chronic.
♦ There is a high level of suicide among people with DID
♦ DID is a COPING mechanism for children/people
experiencing abuse and for survivors of abuse.
♦ Chronic dissociation may result in a series of separate
entities or mental states which eventually take on
identities of their own.
♦ Certain personalities are created to cope with different life
experiences/responsibilities/roles and come in and out
when the issue at hand changes or is modified (switching).
Terms used to describe the ‘identities’;
- alternate personalities, alters, parts, ego states, identities,
states of consciousness. It is important to note that although
these alternate states may appear different, they are all
manifestations of the same person( often called the ‘system’).
Contributing Factors
Symptoms and Lived
Experience of DID.
♦ 98% of individuals with DID experienced severe and
repeated physical, mental and/or sexual as a child.
♦ Many have a secondary diagnosis of Post –Trauma Stress
Disorder.
♦ A coping strategy used during abuse and continued
through adulthood.
Symptoms of DID:
♦ Abrupt change in tone of voice, focus, characteristics of
personality.
♦ Fluctuating levels of function (effective to disabled)
♦ Experiencing time distortions.
♦ Time lapse
♦ Amnesia.
♦ Hallucinations (conversations between identities).
♦ May refer to themselves in plural (we) or 3rd person (s/he)
♦ Headaches
♦ Trances
Individuals with DID may experience symptoms of:
♦ Depression, anxiety, phobias, panic attack, sexual
dysfunction, eating disorders, PTSD.
In a Crisis…
The goal is to stabilize or ground the system.
♦ Ask for an adult part who can deal with situation to take
control.
♦ If a child alter is out, remind the system that children need
to be cared for inside by other parts.
♦ Orient and re-orient the person to time and place as
needed.
♦ Validate feelings by reminding her of the trigger for the
crisis (e.g. new memories etc.)
♦ Remind her that she’s safe and that the abuse is not
happening now.
♦ Ask the system to internally care for the parts in crisis (to
help the parts feel safe, to ask those parts to go to their
safe places, to give them support, etc.)
♦ When the system is stabilizes or grounded, review with
the system the strategies that were helpful and identify
future uses for these strategies.
♦ Trust that the system can handle the situation and leave
responsibility for this with the system.
Support
♦ Be patient with each alter as they appear.
♦ Reintroduce topics as system switches, recognizing the
possible lost memory that the former alter may have had.
♦ Validate feelings.
♦ Speak slowly and with an even tone.
♦ Highly responsive to individual psychotherapy.
♦ Involves reclaiming the dissociated traumatic experience.
♦ May involve working with separate entities and eventually
treating all identities as one unit.
♦ Treatment is long-term and intensive.
“The Dissociative Identity Disorder Sourcebook”, Deborah
Bray Haddock.
“ Amongst Ourselves: A Self-Help Guide to Living with
Dissociative Identity Disorder”, Tracy Alderman, PhD
Treatment
Resources