Dissociative Identity Disorder Symptoms Essay

Dissociative identity disorder, also known as split personality, is defined as the state or condition in which one displays different personalities. It is normally diagnosed by psychiatrists and conveys a mental illness in which the victim may experience even more than two identities. Interestingly, each state has a distinct way of relating to life normally, this includes both physical and emotional behaviors (Carrion & Steiner, 2000, p. 353-359). They are normally found to have different personalities in terms of blood flow and pressure; a shift in their blood pressure and the flow of blood to the brain causes an instant change in personality. In some cases, the experience can be more frequent causing multiple identities, and such persons can be seen to depict more than two personalities depending on the kind of environment or setting he/she finds. The disease is said to occur about 9 times in females as it does in males and has a low rate of just 3% in patients put in Psychiatric health care institutions. However, there has been skepticism over its existence and why it is found on other people and not others under the same conditions. The frequency of its occurrence is also unclear due to the controversies by the professionals on its symptoms, existence, and best treatment methods (WebMD, LLC., 2010, p. 1-4).

Causes

Even though the causes of this disease has not been proven, thanks to the controversies surrounding it, there have been psychological theories that have been put across to predict its development and are mostly linked with babyhood trauma; this is a stage in a life of a child when he/she is frightened of something he/she had loved earlier; an example is a parent the child had trusted so much, then all of a sudden, the parent abuses him/her intensely, this will cause dissociation. They believe that when a child undergoes trauma, it de-links the memories and this may result in DID if the dissociation is extreme. Such extreme extent is accompanied by the lapse in memory since there is a de-link in the brain (Edwards, 2010, p. 1-6). It is quite possible to develop the disease if one of the family members suffers from it but does not necessarily mean that it is hereditary. Researches show that a recipe of biological and ecological factors can cause DID. It is also quite clear that those who experience a recurrence of past history like life-menacing experiences tend to develop DID; this may include instabilities during vital development stages of babyhood. Other causes associated with DID are abuse which can be physical or emotional as well as neglect by parents who can have the responsibility of taking full care of their children. Moreover, unpredictable, violent, and frightening families may also cause the disease. Its depiction is always rampant in childhood, especially on those with crushing antecedents, or stress. Children tend to trust their guardians; this trust can change into the development of DID in any event of incapacitation by the one he/she trusts (Sadock B. & J., 2002, p. 34).

Signs and symptoms

Dissociative Identity Disorder portrays numerous symptoms although medics still debate over them to have a clear way forward on the correct signs. This may include, a lapse in remembering important events like the centennials of the patient accompanied by blackouts, for instance, the patient may go somewhere without remembering how it happened (Escobar, 2004, p. 5). Other symptoms include forgetting what they had previously said on a regular basis, multiple personalities, possessing things that they cannot ascertain how it got into their custody, always seeming unfamiliar with people who know them well, writing in different handwritings, disorders in sleep, failure to recognize oneself, tendencies to attempt committing suicide, panic which arises from trauma and unswerving anxiety. Feeling that you are many or tendencies to hearing voices speaking to you; some victims keeps hearing voices that they don’t even recognize. In addition, victims may suffer depression and sudden shifts in moods (Edwards, 2010, p.1-6).

Why some have it and others don’t

It has been noted with relief that most of the children who undergo difficult situations in early life seldom get DID. These children, in most cases, have undergone stress throughout their lives, some have encountered abuses from their elders while still others have had a rigorous history of trauma but escapes DID (Escobar, 2004, p. 5). Various reasons have been raised on this unique happening although very little has been established. One possible reason for this is proposed to be associated with the complexity of the brain. Since the brain is not fully understood, it is quite difficult to ascertain its response to the adverse conditions that can cause DID (Carrion & Steiner, 2000, p. 353-359). It is therefore thought that most of those who actually endure severe conditions develop resilience to the disease and are spared. This theory can also be supported by the fact that people tend to get used to things they experience overtime; some children who incur several bad experiences have a propensity to get used to it and therefore escapes from an attack, while those who do not frequently experience the causes of DID are vulnerable because their emotional status gets an instant shift with a new attitude (American Psychiatric Association, 2000, p. 12).

Another possible reason is the fact that the symptoms in children tend to differ from those noticed in adults; children react differently to the situation as compared to adults. At this stage, they are faster in grasping information and have very sharp memories, any kind of abuse triggers shock and stigma. The nature of the origin and reactions to different situations depicts differences in the symptoms of the disease since it has numerous signs. This complicates its diagnosis, and some practitioners even think it is a myth based on culture since it is significantly witnessed in North America. Some findings based on psychology conflict with the idea of the difference in resilience of the brain by proposing that disparity in occurrence to individuals is attributed to the degree of changes in the muscles, period of recording, changes in mood, and degree of concentration. Other factors that have been suggested to be affecting individual response to DID show that it has some hereditary factors; this theory argues that those with hereditary links to this kind of disorder are more prone to attract it. Conversely, it tries to explain the fact that those without the links have some form of resilience against the disease. It, therefore, follows that these two people when subjected to the same environment and conditions, the one with a link to it will be exposed to more danger (WebMD, LLC., 2010, p. 1-4).

References

1. American Psychiatric Association.(2000). Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders.(4^th ed.), Text Revision (DSM-IV-TR). Washington, D.C.
2. Carrion, V.G. & Steiner, H. (2000).Trauma and dissociation in delinquent adolescents. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry; 39(3): 353-359.
3. Edwards, R. D. (2010). Dissociative Identity Disorder. Medicine net, Inc. Web.
4. Escobar, J. (2004).Transcultural aspects of dissociative and somatoform disorders. Psychiatric Times; 21(5).
5. Sadock, B.J. & Sadock, V.A. (2002).Kaplan and Sadock’s Synopsis of Psychiatry: Behavioral Sciences/Clinical Psychiatry (9th Ed.). Lippincott Williams & Wilkins. ISBN0781731836.
6. WebMD, LLC. (2010). Dissociative Identity Disorder (Multiple Personality Disorder). MentalHealthCenter. Web.