Multiple Personalities Disorder
By: Jen F. & Edith G.
Characteristics
- Schizophrenia
- Bipolar Disorder
- Epilepsy
- Asperger Syndrome
- Most people report sexual/physical abuse throughout their childhood.
- The different personalities are sometimes unaware of each other in chaotic lives.
- Some people have more than 100 personalities.
Symptoms and Cause
- Depression
- Mood Swings
- Suicidal
- Sleep Disorders (night terrors, sleep walking)
- Alcohol and Drug Abuse
- Eating Disorders
- Time loss
- "Out of body experiences"
Most say the cause is from a severe trauma ad/or extreme repetitive abuse. It's their defense mechanism against overwhelming trauma. 95-98% of the cases were due to child abuse
Self-harm
Some people with MPD are violent to others, but most act violently towards themselves. They can be prone to injuring themselves or even trying to commit suicide.Between 34%- 80% of patients with MPD self harm.
Self-injury in all its forms, including accident-proneness or a tendency to be victimized again in abusive relationship, may actually constitute screen memories of abuse or symbolic memories that a person is using to keep abusive memories out of consciousness. Repeatedly hurting one-self is a way of not having to remember the original hurt. Self-wounding may also be an unconscious repetition of past abuse in an attempt to make sense of a dim but haunting memory...The amnesia that many self-injurers have fortheir destructive behavior may be related to the return of memories from which they have disconnected. Since emotional pain of the returning memories is overwhelming, the person enters a trancelike state in an effort to keep them blocked. Self-injurers often say that they 'find themselves' with cuts, scratches, or burns on their bodies...(Steinburg, p. 43).Stranger in the MirrorFacts
Who get MPD?
MPD occurs about eight times more frequently in women than in men. Children are most likely to be diagnosed with MPD. A child is twice as likely to get MPD if it experiences trauma or abuse it's first 2 years.
Treated
About one-half of all people being treated for MPD require brief hospitalization, and only 5 percent are primarily treated in psychiatric hospitals.
Memories
MPD blocks off these thoughts and emotions so that the child is unaware of them. In effect, they become secrets, even from the child. According to the American Psychiatric Association, many MPD patients cannot remember much of their childhood.