What is Multiple Personality Disorder? What are the symptoms?

  • 29 Jan 2023
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  • General

Personality is formed mainly as a result of interaction with the environment, although genetic predisposition is important. The interaction of the person with the individuals around him from the moment he is born leaves deep traces in the formation of personality. It is also very effective in shaping personality. Personality disorder , on the other hand, is a disorder that appears in adolescence or early adulthood and has now become one of the personality traits. Dissociative identity disorder, also known as multiple personality disorder , is a mental disorder characterized by the maintenance of at least two distinct and relatively persistent personality states.

What is Multiple Personality Disorder?

It is a personality disorder that expresses the situation in which one or more personalities appear in the person in repetitive ways and this situation dominates the person's life for a short or long time. One of the most basic features of dissociative identity disorder is that the different personalities that emerge do not know each other and that the change between personalities is sudden. These shifts between different personalities are accompanied by cognitive, behavioral and also emotional characteristics.

Common Types of Multiple Identity Disorder

Dissociative identity disorder are as follows:

  • Host: It is the identity that governs daily life and has the most control over the body.
  • Bad alter: These alter identities play a bad role. It is the host identity and the identity that tends to frighten other alters.
  • Sleepy alter: It is the alter identity that emerges as a way of escaping from the traumatic experience.
  • Sexual alter: This alter is a symbol of a person's inappropriate sexual relationship. When it controls the body, it can engage the person in sexual activities that he or she does not want.
  • Helper alter: It is usually the identity that assists the host identity and gives positive advice.
  • Top manager alter: Individuals with multiple personality disorder sometimes have a superior alter that manages everything, and this alter may see himself as the boss.
  • Dilemma alter: It arises from the dilemmas of the individual.
  • Child alter: It is the alter identity that has traumatic experiences in childhood.
  • Altern of the opposite sex: This alter causes masculinity in women and femininity in men. However, not everyone with multiple personality disorder has this alter.
  • Emotional alter: It is an alter consisting of emotional coping strategies for painful events in childhood.
  • Copy alter: Mental copies of individuals who have a positive or negative impact on one's life.
  • Observer alter: It is the identity observing what is going on, the dynamics among alters and the therapy process. This alter doesn't reveal itself until it trusts the therapist.

What are the Symptoms of Multiple Personality Disorder?

Of multiple personality disorder are as follows:

  • Feeling that there is another person or a second personality within the person
  • Do not hurt yourself
  • Flash – back lives
  • Sleeping disorder
  • depressive symptoms
  • Eating disorder
  • Estrangement
  • Not remembering their own actions or conversations from time to time
  • Physical complaints such as headaches
  • Finding items in her home that she doesn't know where they came from
  • Hyperarousal

What are the Risk Factors for Dissociative Identity Disorder?

Risk factors for multiple identity disorder are as follows:

  • Psychopathology of the family
  • Childhood neglect or abuse
  • The divisive effect of society
  • Insecure attachment

With dissociative identity disorder have at least one traumatic childhood experience. However, the rates of physical and emotional abuse and neglect in childhood are high.

Psychotherapy Process in Dissociative Identity Disorder

Multiple personality disorder psychotherapy process takes place in 3 separate periods. The first period is divided into 5 phases in itself. These phases are:

  • The problem of the person is understood, the diagnosis is clarified and also the alter system is understood.
  • Therapeutic relationship and trust are provided.
  • The person is informed about dissociative identity disorder.
  • Security is provided.
  • Stability is provided for daily problems.

The second period is called the middle period of treatment. During this period, traumatic memories and experiences are studied.

The third period is the completion period of the treatment. The main feature of this period is integration and gaining the ability to cope with problems without re-division.

In the treatment of multiple personality disorder, support is received from psychotherapy methods such as hypnosis and EMDR.

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