Exploring Dissociative Identity Disorder: Causes, Symptoms, and Treatments

Dissociative Identity Disorder, also known as Multiple Personality Disorder is a psychological disorder that can be caused by many things, but the most common cause is severe childhood trauma which is usually extreme, repetitive physical, sexual, or emotional abuse. A lot of people experience mild dissociation which includes daydreaming or getting momentarilly distracted while completing everyday tasks. Dissociative identity disorder is a severe form of dissociation. Seveer Dissociation causes a lack of connection in a person's thoughts, memories, feelings, actions, or sense of identity. Dissociative identity disorder is thought to stem from a combination of factors that may include trauma experienced by the person with the disorder. When a

The average number of alternate personalities a person with DID has is between eight and 13, but there have been cases reported of more than 100 personalities within one individual.

Another statistic about dissociative identity disorder is that dissociative disorders were seen in 17.2% of a large inpatient group seeking treatment for substance abuse. (Tracy, 2016) There is no "cure" for dissociative identity disorder but there is long-term treatment that can help the side effects of DID, but like most treatments, it is only effective if the patient sticks with it. Some examples of treatment include talk therapy or psychotherapy, hypnotherapy, and adjunctive therapies such as art or movement therapy. There are no medication treatments for DID, limiting the treatment to various forms of psychological therapy. If there are any other disorders the patient has such as depression or anxiety, it is important that the patient is being treated for the others disorders as well as DID. If other disorders are not being treated, then psychological therapy for DID may not be as effective or not effective at

Cognitive therapy, which involves changing dysfunctional thought patterns. Family therapy, which helps to educate the family about the disorder, recognize its presence as well as work through issues that have developed in the family because of dissociative identity disorder. And also Hypnotherapy which can be used in conjunction with psychotherapy and can help clients access repressed memories, control problematic behaviors, such as self-mutilation and eating disorders, and help fuse thier other personalities during the process. Some indications that therapy might be needed include sysmptoms like: memory loss, a sense of being detached from themselves and their emotions, distorted Perception, a blurred sense of identity, significant stress or problems in life, inability to cope well with emotional or professional stress, and mental health problems, such as depression, anxiety, and suicidal thoughts and behaviors. DID requires a medical diagnosis, and treatment should always be conducted by professionals that specialize in dissociative identity disorder as it is a rare and challenging condition to treat. There are also contraindications onvolving the treatment of DID. Caution needs to be taken while treating people with DID with medications because any effects they may experience, good or bad, may