What Is Dissociative Identity Disorder?

Dissociative identity disorder is defined as, “...condition wherein a person's identity is fragmented into two or more distinct personalities.” (Handbook of Psychology) Dissociative identity disorder, or DID, is considered rare amongst the psychological community and patients are often victims are various forms of abuse or extreme trauma. DID has several aspects of other dissociative disorders, but will vary from patient to patient due to the intricacies of the human mind. One common aspect in DID is depersonalization disorder, which is a feeling of watching oneself or that one’s body is not your own. A common comparison is watching oneself on a movie screen without actually doing these actions. Other less common aspect are dissociative amnesia
The exclusionary process involves eliminating a few key illnesses before diagnosing DID. One of the first tests they will conduct will be for malingering, in which the patient will make up or inflate symptoms in order for secondary gain. They will account for temporal lobe epilepsy, which would account for when the patient dissociates. Then they will test for schizophrenia, which would explain auditory hallucinations. They key difference between the two is that schizophrenics report the voices being from outside their mind whereas DID patients say the voices come from within. Once any other cause that may result in DID-like symptoms, then the psychologist will follow through with specially designed interview and personality assessment. They will then diagnose and treat the patient. There are a few methods for treating
Typically there will be long term psychotherapy to reach “the goal of deconstructing the different personalities and uniting them into one.” (Psychology Today) Other therapies are often used in conjunction with this. Such therapies include creative therapy and cognitive therapy. Creative therapy will often be about expressing oneself through an art such as painting or music. Cognitive therapy is focused on taking unhealthy and negative thought patterns and alter to be more healthy. However this approach or “uniting” the personalities has often left patients feeling as though the psychologist is trying to get rid of or “kill” a part of them. This may cause anxiety in the client and further worsen their symptoms, therefore another approach will be taken. Hypnosis is an alternative approach being used. This method can be used to extract more information from the patient that they may not have access to. Another alternative method is finding healthy ways to cope with lapses in memory and achieve a better coexistence with the patients alters. Along with these processes it is not uncommon for the patient to be taking medication to assist with their other symptoms. These may include antidepressants and anti-anxiety medication. Despite all of the advances in current medicine, there is currently no cure for DID. However even with this a person’s life is still