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Breaking Free: My Life With Dissociative Identity Disorder

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Dissociative identity disorder is becoming a more and more common diagnoses by psychiatrist every day. Studies show that dissociative identity disorder is no longer a rare condition. Although, there are a greater number of diagnoses, there is still an extensive amount of misunderstandings about the disorder. Treatment and prevention of dissociative identity disorder can be achieved, but an understanding of the condition has to come first. Dissociative identity disorder is a mental illness that causes a person to develop multiple personalities. Though two personalities are enough to diagnose the disorder, a person that has Dissociative identity disorder, or DID, can have an unlimited amount of personalities. The different personalities …show more content…

Herschel Walker, a formal National Football League player was diagnosed with dissociative identity disorder and published his experiences in a book called Breaking Free: My Life with Dissociative Identity Disorder. He admitted that he had subconsciously created alters to deal with different situations. He had one alter that he called “the consoler”, which would comfort him in situations by saying “it’s ok” or “you can do this”. Walker had another alter he referred to as “the hero”. This alter helped him deal with frightening events or fears in general. For example, as a child Herschel was afraid of the dark, and this alter would come out to take his place. Another of Walker’s personalities was known to him as “the warrior”. This was the alter that he used during sporting events. Many people are skeptical that people with dissociative identity disorder are unaware of these alters. Herschel Walker states that he was unaware of his alters and their presence until after his diagnosis later in his life. Other professionals say that it is common for the alters to have knowledge of each other, but the patient can remain unaware of their other personalities. It is common for alters to be nothing like the person at all. Alters can be of the opposite sex. Alters are often of a different age and even ethnicity. They can have different religious beliefs. The sexual orientation may be different of one of the personalities. The average number of alters for a person with DID is usually between thirteen and fifteen. However, there are cases that the patient has had over one hundred distinct personalities

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Multiple Identities at Once Dissociative Identity disorder or DID for short is an disorder in which the patient has a split personality between multiple personas. These Personas act different from one another throughout their life and help them a plethora of problems like stress or trauma. In such cases like the great football player Herschel Walker he had multiple personas to help him deal with life including one for football, earlier trauma, school, and social confrontations. Even though someone can have multiple personas and it may seem like they overlap, in fact only one is prevalent at a time while the others wait for when they are needed. Herschel Walker as a kid was bullied because of his weight and race.

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Beyond Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde: A Look into Real Cases of Dissociative Identity Disorder Katelyn Hong Jefferson University Beyond Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde: A Look into Real Cases of Dissociative Identity Disorder People with mental illnesses have often been stigmatized in society, and those with Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID) are no exception. A negative social stigma has developed toward DID, which is colloquially referred to as split or multiple personality disorder (MPD). This is partially due to how DID patients are depicted in popular media. Perhaps in your English professor made you read the 1886 gothic novella, Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson, in which a good doctor becomes evil when

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Writing characters with serious mental health conditions as antagonists is an incredibly prevalent trope in entertainment media. It is common to see antagonists and villains portrayed with mental health issues which further demonizes these conditions. An important example of this form of misrepresentation is in the case of dissociative identity disorder, or DID, formerly known as multiple personality disorder. There are many popular portrayals of DID in movies, television, and novels, but many fail to properly represent the condition. Movies like Fight Club (1999) and Split (2016) have warped the public perception of dissociative conditions and placed a negative lens upon them.

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In Me, Myself and Irene, the main character, Charlie, has dissociative identity disorder. A dissociative disorder is a condition that involves disruptions in consciousness, memory, identity, or perception. Dissociative identity disorder can be characterized by the presence of two or more distinct personality states that take control of the persons behavior. Charlie started off as a happy, newlywed and normal guy. His wife Layla cheats on him and ends up leaving him with three children, none of which are his.

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Consequently, it is very difficult to correctly diagnose an individual with D.I.D. (D.I.D. Research). D.I.D. must be distinguished from or determined if comorbid with a variety of disorders (Dissociative Identity Disorder). Symptoms of D.I.D. could be mistaken for mood disorders such as bipolar disorders or major depressive disorder (D.I.D. Research). Other misdiagnoses include personality disorders such as borderline personality disorder and psychotic disorders such as schizophrenia (Dissociative Identity Disorder). D.I.D. may also be mistaken for other dissociative disorders such as dissociative amnesia (D.I.D.

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Multiple Personality Disorder (MPD) is defined as a dissociative disorder in the DSM-III in which two or more distinct personalities coexist in the same individual. Multiple Personality is not a form of schizophrenia. In 1951 Mr. Ralph and Eve White a psychiatrist named Dr. Curtis Luther. Mrs. White a nervous woman who suffers from blackout and headaches.

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Oswald diagnoses Frankie with multiple personalities; also known as Dissociative Identity Disorder. Dissociative Identity Disorder, also referenced to as DID, is brought on by traumas that occur earlier in someone’s life. Dr. Oswald uses several different types of treatments to trigger memories of these events that caused her to develop the disorder. He begins with using different kinds of hallucinogens, to make her vulnerable enough to allow these personalities to come out. This system is a hit or miss, on which personality presents itself.

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