DID Research

Presentation

Image: "And They're All Easily Amused" by Lotus Carroll

CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

Dissociative identity disorder (DID) is often covert and difficult to notice, with only 5-6% of individuals with DID having a more florid presentation. Switching between alters is rarely accompanied by dramatic shifts in personality that are highlighted by changes in clothing, preferences, and accent. In contrast, systems often go to great lengths to hide their condition and will deny and downplay their symptoms as much as possible once diagnosed. Alters frequently manifest through passive influence instead of completely taking executive control, and many individuals with DID are amnesiac for their own amnesia and do not notice even when a full switch has occurred.

According to the DSM-5, individuals who are diagnosed with DID often first present to clinicians with comorbid posttraumatic stress disorder, depressive disorders, anxiety disorders, personality disorders such as borderline personality disorder or avoidant personality disorder, conversion disorder, somatic symptom disorder, feeding and eating disorders, substance-related disorders, obsessive compulsive disorder, sleep disorders, self injury, or psychogenic non-epileptic seizures (PNES) (American Psychiatric Association, 2013).¹

Their symptoms might be mistaken for mood disorders (such as bipolar disorders or major depressive disorder), personality disorders (such as borderline personality disorder), psychotic disorders (such as schizophrenia), other dissociative disorders (such as other specified dissociative disorder or dissociative amnesia), posttraumatic stress disorder alone, conversion disorder, seizure disorders, obsessive-compulsive disorder, paranoia, or cognitive disorders. DID often becomes more visible with age or when the disordered individual is removed from the traumatic situation, when the individual has children reach the age at which the individual was traumatized, or when the individual’s abuser(s) die(s) or contract(s) a terminal illness (American Psychiatric Association, 2013).¹

The DSM-5 warns that over 70% of outpatients with DID have attempted suicide. That some but not other alters may self harm or have suicidal thoughts or urges complicates treatment (American Psychiatric Association, 2013).¹

¹ American Psychiatric Association. (2013). Dissociative Disorders. In Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (5th ed.). http://dx.doi.org/10.1176/appi.books.9780890425596.dsm08

"I can promise you that if I don't tell you that I have DID, you'd never know it. There was a period of time where my symptoms were more obvious, but that was years ago. Now, I'm "high functioning," and no one notices a thing. If no one ever noticed the signs of abuse, how could they be expected to recognize the signs of something so much more complex? No, I'm just reserved and a bit strange, that's all."

-Star