Dissociative identity disorder (DID) is a rare and complex psychological condition where a person experiences two or more distinct identities called ‘alters’. It is usually a long-term condition that occurs in response to extreme trauma.
Partial dissociative identity disorder is characterized by disruption of identity in which there are two or more distinct personality states (dissociative identities) associated with marked discontinuities in the sense of self and agency.
Schizophrenia is more likely to be marked by disorganized thoughts and behaviors, whereas dissociative disorders are more likely to cause feelings of detachment from the self and reality. Getting a proper diagnosis is important because the treatments for schizophrenia and dissociative disorders can vary.
Stress-related dissociative symptoms are common in people with BPD, but there can be a spectrum of severity. Some people with BPD experience minimal or mild symptoms of dissociation whereas others experience severe symptoms.
BPD features are highly represented in subjects with psychopathy as well as psychopathic traits are highly prevalent in patients with BPD.
Characteristics of Alters
different ages, for instance much younger or older;a different gender to the physical body;different names, or no name;different roles or functions, either related to daily life or to trauma;different attitudes, and preferences, e.g, in food, or dress.
Symptoms
Memory loss (amnesia) of certain time periods, events, people and personal information.A sense of being detached from yourself and your emotions.A perception of the people and things around you as distorted and unreal.A blurred sense of identity.
Research has shown that the average age for the initial development of alters is 5.9 years old.
Mental health professionals recognise four main types of dissociative disorder, including:
Dissociative amnesia.Dissociative fugue.Depersonalisation disorder.Dissociative identity disorder.
Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
Some mental health experts think DID could be an extreme version of either PTSD or complex-post-traumatic stress disorder (C-PTSD), the latter of which may develop in those who’ve been subjected to severe, long-term abuse.
Shutdown dissociation includes partial or complete functional sensory deafferentiation, classified as negative dissociative symptoms (see Nijenhuis, 2014; Van Der Hart et al., 2004). The Shut-D focuses exclusively on symptoms according to the evolutionary-based concept of shutdown dissociative responding.
Bipolar disorders tend to run in families, suggesting a genetic link. Chemical imbalances of neurotransmitters in the brain have also been linked to bipolar disorders. DID, on the other hand, is a dissociative disorder that is attributed to environmental causes.
A number of people may confuse bipolar disorder (this is also referred to as manic-depression), schizophrenia and dissociative personality disorder (DID). This confusion stems from the media commonly using these terms.
DID and schizophrenia are two mental health conditions that may be confused for each other, but they aren’t the same. It’s also possible to have both conditions at once or other overlapping conditions that make diagnosis difficult.
