Me, Myself, and I - Dissociative Identity Disorder
There are many causes of dissociative identity disorder. The primary cause seems to be severe prolonged trauma during childhood. This trauma can be associated with emotional physical or sexual abuse or any combination thereof.
Causes - Dissociative Identity Disorder
In many cases, this is exacerbated by the lack of a supportive or comforting relative to counteract the abuse. In addition, if another relative also has dissociative symptoms or disorders it can contribute to the development of dissociative identity disorder as well.
The societal identity disorder is defined as a mental health condition where a patient shows at least two distinct personalities associated with memory loss as well. These personalities can be very different.
In fact, there's a woman in her 20s who has several different personalities one of them being that of a ten-year-old boy. All of the personalities can be very different showing different traits even having different handwriting in different voices all other personalities occur at different times.
One personality won't necessarily know what the other personalities got up to so it's important that they communicate. They're widely argued but it's mainly through the dissociative identity disorder is a reaction to trauma or stress.
The so sheet of identity disorder mainly presents itself in childhood and people who have the condition often report that they have experienced traumatic events in their childhood. It's argued that dissociative identity disorder is a form of PTSD that's found in children.
Instead of the typical flashbacks in the anxiety seen in PTSD, it's thought that due to increased imagination children will form different personalities to cope with a traumatic event. For example, one personality may be stronger and tougher and that personality may present itself when the patient needs to find a way of coping with a stressful event.
In terms of brain activity, several links between dissociative identity disorder and the orbitofrontal cortex have been made. This part of the brain plays a role in mediating behaviours regulating emotions and the development of sense itself.
Some think that by experiencing a traumatic event in your childhood this affects the developing orbitofrontal cortex. This could then lead to you having an effective sense of self.
There's some research to support the idea that dissociative identity disorder is the form of PTSD seen in children. Some of the neurology underlying dissociative identity disorder is similar to that seen in PTSD in adults.
We often see a small hippocampus and amygdala in patients with PTSD. This is also present in people with a dissociative identity disorder. The hippocampus is a brain region associated with memory and the amygdala is associated with memory and emotion regulation.
Dissociative Identity Disorder and Trauma
Dissociative identity disorder can be broken down into two types covert dissociative identity disorder and dissociative identity disorder. The most common type of covert dissociative identity disorder occurs when a person experiences sudden and dramatic shifts in the way they perceive think or feel.
As if they've taken on characteristics of a different person or people some people with covert may hear that person's voice and feel that it's speaking to them. Those with covert dissociative identity disorder are usually aware that their expiry is unusual and may feel disoriented and powerless to understand their moods and behaviour.
On the other hand, those with overt dissociative identity disorder outright assume two or more distinct identities sometimes called personalities or alters. The identities are distinct because they tend to talk and act differently than the original person they may have opposing tastes or political views be different ages genders or nationalities.
These alternate identities completely take a person's body in mind suppressing all other identities temporarily. Those are overt dissociative identity disorder aren't always aware that this is happening and may report forgetting whole portions of their day.
They may find groceries that they can't recall buying will discover injuries to their body that they can't recall getting. It's not unusual for some people to have a period of fugue and suddenly find themselves in a different town or city.
Having a vert dissociative identity disorder can potentially endanger the person especially if one identity engages in self-mutilation or risky behaviour. The prevalence of suicide among those as the condition is very high with almost 3/4 attempting suicide at least once in their life.
Diagnosing dissociative disorders can be tricky, and some of the symptoms can be seen in substance intoxication especially of Hallucigenia ste and dissociative drugs like PCP and ketamine.
Other causes include seizures of brain trauma as well as chronic conditions like dementia. Psychiatric conditions like anxiety disorder can cause an impaired sense of identity time and sensation, especially during a panic attack. These symptoms usually last minutes or hours whereas with dissociative disorders the symptoms can persist for years.
Finally, bipolar disorder and schizophrenia can also cause dramatic mood swings mimicking dissociative identity disorder. While these depressive or euphoric moods can last for a week, the change in personality in dissociative identity disorder only lasts four minutes two hours each time.
Treatment for dissociative disorders typically involves psychotherapy, people can process the trauma safely in the case of dissociative identity disorder. The goal of therapy is to facilitate fusion of identities where a person's personality states are integrated and the person feels more whole.
Dissociative disorders often develop as an attempt to adapt to severe or prolonged trauma. Falling on the least severe end of the spectrum, a depersonalization-derealization disorder is due to a disruption in the normal perception of events. Falling on the most severe end of the spectrum dissociative identity disorder is due to a problem with having a single complete identity.
