What Is Dissociative Identity Disorder?

Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID) is the disorder when someone has a ''disruption of identity''. Originally called Multiple Personality Disorder (MPD), this disorder means an individual has two or more personalities, with one active while the others lie dormant. This results in chunks of time being lost, for the main personality. The additional personalities can be any age or gender and tend to have unique behaviors, speech patterns, and actions. Doctors diagnose dissociative disorders based on a review of symptoms and personal history. A doctor may perform tests to rule out physical conditions that can cause symptoms such as memory loss and a sense of unreality (for example, head injury, brain lesions or tumors, sleep deprivation or intoxication).
If physical causes are ruled out, a mental health specialist is often consulted to make an evaluation.
Many features of dissociative disorders can be influenced by a person’s cultural background. In the case of dissociative identity disorder and dissociative amnesia, patients may present with unexplained, non-epileptic seizures, paralyzes or sensory loss. In settings where possession is part of cultural beliefs, the fragmented identities of a person who has (DID) may take the form of spirits, deities, demons or animals. Intercultural contact may also influence the characteristics of other identities. For example, during the Milligan was ruled to be entitled to be tried under the law as it existed at the time the crimes were committed. A new law that went into effect on Nov. 1 has since changed some of the procedures for competency hearings, defenses, and commitments in cases that involve insanity. Under the new law, the defense must prove insanity by a preponderance of the evidence. Under the old law, a greater burden was put on the prosecution to prove a defendant was not insane.

Although at the time of Milligan's prosecution there was considered to be no "cure" for dissociative identity disorder, long-term treatment is very successful, if the patient stays committed. Effective treatment includes talk therapy or psychotherapy, medications, hypnotherapy, and adjunctive therapies such as art or movement therapy. However, treatment for (DID) has now come along with treatment managed through various therapies including such as-as cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) and dialectical behavioral therapy (DBT), Eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR), Medications such as antidepressants can treat symptoms of related conditions
Billy Milligan is perhaps the most famous multiple charged with major crimes.
Milligan, who claimed to have at least 10 or more different personalities, committed several felonies including armed robbery, he was arrested for three rapes on the Ohio State University campus in Athens, Ohio and whose defense was that he wasn’t the perpetrator; rather it was one of his alters. His lawyers pleaded insanity. Incredibly, he became the first person acquitted of major crimes for this reason, instead of spending a decade in mental hospitals. Many people such as doctors and psychiatrists wondered what caused Billy Milligan's condition. After doing careful and precise research they found out that Bill Milligan’s former stepfather Chalmer Milligan had physically and sexually abused Bill when he was young. It was his abuse which psychiatrists see as the key to Bill’s later behavior; it, therefore, plays a pivotal role in the story of Billy Milligan and his insanity plea. For Milligan’s defense, testimony from his brother, his mother and his sister backed up claims of physical and mental abuse by his
stepfather.
According to most authorities, multiple personalities are developed as an extreme defense mechanism by a subject unable to cope with his or her life-in Bill Milligan’s case, psychiatrists believe his inability to cope with or escape from the alleged abuse at the hands of his stepfather caused a development of nine additional personalities, making a total of eight male and two females, ranging in age from three to 23.
These personalities were each developed as a defense mechanism due to Billy's hard upbringing. For example, when he was young he would often get not only abused by his stepfather but also bullied by the neighborhood kids, and they would throw rocks and etc at him to tease him. Therefore each personality was used as a defense to protect himself from the things he couldn't quite handle alone.
For instance, in the movie SPLIT It was about a young man named Dennis who like billy also had a (DID) multi-personality disorder which causes him to kidnap three innocent teenage girls in his basement for quite some time. This movie can show great insight into how this mental illness is displayed in the human mind by giving us a visual aid of how one perceives or takes on the roles of these different
personalities.
Now to our knowledge and understanding Dissociation is a common defense/reaction to stressful or traumatic situations. Severe isolated traumas or repeated traumas may result in a person developing a dissociative disorder. A dissociative disorder impairs the normal state of awareness and limits or alters one’s sense of identity, memory or consciousness.
In conclusion my reflection on this case it has taught me to always look into the underlying cause of a disorder before an official diagnostic, many of today's dissociative disorders start of with tragic events such as abuse, neglect, or bullying that triggers different symptoms. In Billy Milligan's case, it was sexual abuse and trauma that affected his ability to cope with the very world he lived in.