Everything You Need To Know About Dissociative Identity Disorder

Cause Of DID

Dissociative disorders are the result of trauma, emerging as a coping mechanism to deal with the stress caused by it. It can go undiagnosed until adulthood, but when a child is exposed to an extended period of abuse and neglect, this is when this mental illness typically starts to develop. It protects the individual's consciousness from the events they experience, so children can escape from this experience and block the memories of this abuse. In severe cases, this dissociation can result in an individual developing more than one personality. It is important to note not all abused children end up dealing with dissociative identity disorder. However, it is more common with this group than it is with non-abused children.

What Role the Personalities Play

While the personalities are more commonly referred to as alters nowadays, it's true that dissociative identity disorder comes with multiple different alters that serve different functions. The roles of the alters varies greatly from person to person. Some alters may form as a means of shielding or protecting the patient from trauma. These alters take on the pain of traumatic events so the main individual doesn't experience it. It's also common for alters to take on childlike characteristics, especially characteristics of the individual at the age when their trauma occurred. Some mental health researchers describe the alters as being 'stuck' in the childlike state because of the trauma. Some patients with DID have alters that take on the characteristics of their abusers or persecutors, though these are less common. More than thirty types of alters have been identified by researchers.