Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID)

1. Symptoms

1.1. Depression

1.2. Mood swings

1.3. Suicidal tendencies

1.4. Sleep disorders (insomnia, night terrors, and sleep walking)

1.5. Anxiety, panic attacks, and phobias (flashbacks, reactions to stimuli or "triggers")

1.6. Alcohol and drug abuse

1.7. Compulsions and rituals

1.8. Psychotic-like symptoms (including auditory and visual hallucinations)

2. Impacts

2.1. Change the way a person experiences living

2.2. Depersonalization - a sense of being detached from one's body ("out-of-body" experience)

2.3. Derealization - the feeling that the world is not real or looking foggy or far away

2.4. Amnesia - the failure to recall significant personal information that is so extensive it cannot be blamed on ordinary forgetfulness

2.5. Identity confusion or identity alteration - a sense of confusion about who a person is.

2.6. The person may experience distortions in time, place, and situation

3. Treatment

3.1. Psychotherapy - improve unpleasant past experience and recognize that all the alters share one body

3.2. Hypnosis - increase the control when patient change from one personality state to another and reduce symptoms and hallucination

3.3. Medications (antidepressants, anti-anxiety drugs or tranquilizers) - treat the symptoms of DID

3.4. Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) - treat refractory depression with persistent melancholic features

3.5. Eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) - integrates traumatic memories with the patient's own resources

4. Definition

4.1. A severe condition in which two or more distinct identities or personality states are present in and alternately take control of an individual.

5. Concept

5.1. A primary identity carries the individual's given name and is passive, dependent, guilty, and depressed

5.2. When in control, each personality state or alter may be experienced as if it has a distinct history, self-image and identity.

5.3. The alters' characteristics contrast with those of the primary identity, including name, reported age and gender, vocabulary, general knowledge, and predominant mood

5.4. Certain circumstances or stressors can cause a particular alter to emerge

6. Causal Factors

6.1. A history of trauma

6.2. Severe emotional, physical or sexual abuse

6.3. Accidents, natural disasters, or war

6.4. An important early loss

7. Perspectives

7.1. Serve as a defense mechanism against the physical and emotional pain of a traumatic or stressful experience

7.2. Serve diverse roles in helping the individual cope with life's dilemmas.