I’m sorry if I ruined Hide and Seek for you, it was a very interesting movie and I had to share it and the topic of it. I think the topic of DID/MPD is very unique. I don’t know everything about it that I would like too, but I know the gist of it. It shows life being lived in a different way. If someone has multiple personalities, they live a completely different lifestyle than non-DID people. They don’t really get to have normal life experiences because they are spending their time in therapy or taking hypnosis. Their life is reflected on their childhood life and the trauma they went through to be who they are today. People with DID would be interesting to view/study in my own eyes. To see how they interact with the person their first alter sees when they change and if they know or don’t know, like or don’t like that person. The parts of the books I got to read were very helpful with information about DID. I never knew anything about it and now I have some idea and would like to know more. There is a lot more research and books I would like to read even though this project is over. I really enjoyed it and would like to do something like this again.

DID patients' views.

Personalities are never the same. People sometimes say they have the same personality as someone else, they don’t really, they just have some of the same qualities that make their personalities. “This dynamic view emphasizes that personality is more than ‘traits’ in the traditional sense of behavioral stability across situations. What is stable, in this view, are the underlying cognitive and affective units, but not necessarily the overt behavior across different situations. Only certain cognitive-affective units are activated at any given time and in any given context, and, depending on the particular pattern of activation or inhibition, complex patterns may from unique (and relatively consistent) behavioral ‘signatures,’ but such profiles are difficult to capture within a traditional trait perspective.” (Lenzenweger/Clarkin 240) Traits are things that help make up personalities. People with DID have different ‘traits’ that come with their many personalities. They are all different so they have different make ups. They act and see things differently. “Disordered persons, in contrast, view themselves differently that others do. They may perceive themselves in grandiose terms or may have a very low sense of self-worth, neither of which are accurate perceptions of themselves influence their perception of events and consequently their behavioral responses. These misperceptions develop in adolescence and solidify in early adulthood. They are chronic, that is, lifelong.” (Dobbert 3) People with DID see themselves completely different than someone non-DID. They feel like they are so different they aren’t needed and have no purpose when that is entirely untrue. Some people without DID may feel that way but that could be depression or possibly some early stages of DID. “Non-disordered persons view events and other people accurately and, consequently, differently than the disordered person. This difference in perception produces a lack of understanding and often distresses the non-disordered person. Incapable of viewing the event or other persons from the skewed perception of the disordered person, the non-disordered person is perplexed and confused. The non-disordered person commonly examines their own perception of the event or other people for inaccuracy. Finding none, they begin to question the perception of the disordered person.” (Dobbert 4) DID patients act so much differently than non-disordered people that the non-disordered person starts to wonder if something is wrong with themselves or the other person. When people with DID first figure out what they are dealing with, they might think a few things. Some think it is the worst thing in the world; some may like it and play around with it. That is how Karen Marshall deals. She is a therapist and someone that has DID. Her partner Tracy Alderman, is also a therapist and has been with Karen dealing with her personalities as they come. Karen says, “When I first started realizing that there was a possibility that I had DID, I thought it was the end of my life. I thought for sure that I would lose my relationship, and that if any one knew that I was DID, I would also lose my job. I was also terrified that if my friends found out I would really be alone because they would think I was crazy. I knew I was crazy, so it was the least I could expect from them. If I could just keep anyone from finding out, I knew that I would be fine.” (Alderman/Marshall 67) With the help of Tracy and her other alters she made it and now loves the fact that she has multiple people to confide in and happy to be who she is. “It has taken me a long time to accept having DID. When I was afraid that I was going to lose my hob, I had to stop and realize that I had been the same all the while I had my job. I was often ashamed and more often believed I was crazy. I now know that I have lived this way all of my life. I just wasn’t aware of how I lived. Living out the expression ‘know thyself’ can bring many surprises.” (Alderman/Marshall 70) People with DID can learn to love who they are even if they have issues. Everyone does, it’s completely normal. Just like Robert B. Oxnam, and his 11 other personalities. He says, “…we have whittled it down to three remaining personalities through a process of ‘integration.’”(Oxnam 1-5) Robert, Wanda, and Bobby have an agreement to create this book about their lives together as persons that have MPD or DID. Even though they are all main “characters”, the other 8 tell their stories too. Dr. Jeffery Smith, M.D. is the one that discovered them. He has been with them since and helped them through their journeys as well as putting their stories on paper.














Sources:

Lenzenweger, Mark F. and Clarkin, John F. Major Theories of Personality Disorder.
New York: The Guilford Press, 2005.

Dobbert, Duane L. Understanding Personality Disorders.
Connecticut: Praeger Publishers, 2007.

Alderman, Tracy and Marshall, Karen. Amongst Ourselves.
California: New Harbinger Publications, Inc, 1998.

Oxnam, Robert B. A Fractured Mind.
New York: Hyperion, 2005.


Images:
http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://static.lulu.com/product/paperback/amongst-ourselves/9757334/thumbnail/detail&imgrefurl=http://www.lulu.com/browse/search.php%3F%26fKeywords%3DMarshall%27s%2BSyndrome&usg=__62nvF_yJjorcYg9gEPmZAqkFqrI=&h=140&w=90&sz=4&hl=en&start=23&zoom=1&tbnid=gSlMPiixNlPS9M:&tbnh=112&tbnw=72&ei=dbnATbu_MpLpgAeRwtHoBQ&prev=/search%3Fq%3Damongst%2Bourselves%26hl%3Den%26biw%3D1259%26bih%3D819%26site%3Dsearch%26tbm%3Disch&um=1&itbs=1&iact=rc&dur=406&page=2&ndsp=24&ved=1t:429,r:4,s:23&tx=21&ty=77


http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.hyperionbooks.com/wp-content/files_mf/cache/th_761f7f30d32fc37b9981a34a12042a6e_1276482612oxnam.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.hyperionbooks.com/bio/robert-oxnam/&usg=__MzygFSpNcnSs5C-dECgh2A0VxQA=&h=150&w=136&sz=6&hl=en&start=0&zoom=1&tbnid=qSs2fM7pxiSWmM:&tbnh=120&tbnw=108&ei=s7fATcPUIcPFgAeGqd3kBQ&prev=/search%3Fq%3DRobert%2Bb.%2Boxnam%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26biw%3D1259%26bih%3D819%26tbm%3Disch&um=1&itbs=1&iact=hc&vpx=410&vpy=296&dur=46&hovh=120&hovw=108&tx=95&ty=56&page=1&ndsp=27&ved=1t:429,r:8,s:0

Treatments

Patients with DID usually have some kind of treatment. Ideally, it should be a specialized therapist with training in dissociation. “Treatment of DID may last for five to seven years in adults and usually requires several different treatment methods.” (Frey 1). Some methods of treatment are hydrotherapy, botanical medicine, therapeutic massage, yoga, homeopathic treatment, medicines, hypnosis, or psychotherapy. These treatments have been tried out before, some have worked and some just weren’t right. “Most therapists who treat multiples, or DID patients, recommend further treatment after personality integration, on the grounds that the patient has not learned the social skills that most people acquire in adolescence and early adult life.”(Frey 1). It takes people with DID longer to develop life skills that they would normally just pick up by their surroundings. Partly because one personality may be more advanced than the others but who knows so it is just easier teaching “everybody” at once. “Techniques such as hypnosis have proven helpful, along with selective use of antianxiety and antidepressant medications for comorbid conditions. Identification and modulation of dissociative symptoms, coupled with management of related posttraumatic syndromes, have been shown to be effective treatments.” (Hartman 1). Hypnosis is a form of treatment to possibly remember some of their past memories. “Further, hypnosis can also be used to control problematic behaviors that many DID patients exhibit, such as self-mutilation, or eating disorders like bulimia nervosa.” (Frey1). Hopefully hypnosis can cure some problems “multiples” have. Like everything else, it may have some faults or might need a few tries before it fully works. Another type of treatment is medication. “Some doctors will prescribe tranquilizers or antidepressants for DID patients because their alter personalities may have anxiety or mood disorders. However, other therapists who treat DID patients prefer to keep medications to a minimum because these patients can easily become psychologically dependent on drugs.” (Frey 1) Most DID patients have a personality that is addicted to drugs and/or alcohol. To rid them of their habits, the doctors keep the medication as minimal as possible. But even though there are multiple ways to treat DID, some don't work and some work on the first try. Every DID patient is completely different, whether its one of their personalities or the main alter. DID is a very interesting disorder and there are many treatments to control it and try to cure it.

Sources:

David Hartman. Journal of Heart Centered Therapies. Spring 2010.

Maldonado, Jose R.; Butler, Lisa D.; Spiegel, David. (2002). Treatments for Dissociative Disorders. In Nathan, Peter E. (Ed); Gorman, Jack M. (Ed). A Guide to Treatments that Work (2nd ed.), (pp. 463-496). New York, NY: Oxford University Press.

"Multiple personality disorder." Rebecca J. Frey, PhD.

The Gale Encyclopedia of Medicine. Ed. Jacqueline L. Longe. 3rd ed. Detroit:
Gale, 2006. 5 vols.

The Cause

How DID is caused is still in question to know all the possibilities, but Helen Davidson, Jerome Kagan and Susan B. Gall have some idea. "Dissosciative identity disorders are thought to usually be caused when a person has a sever, repeated, traumatic experience during early childhood, such as severe physical or emotional abuse, sexual abuse, survives a natural disaster, war, kidnapping, torture, or other traumatic events."(Davidson, Kagan, and Gall) People that have DID may evolve another personality to kind of solve their problems, to make life a little easier on themselves rather than having all problems on one person. The DID patients might say they have been abused, but how will you really know if one of their personalities comes out and plays on the story? “…the inability of a patient to recall her family during childhood is a finding present in the approximately 10 percent if the nonclinical U.S. adult population classified as having a “dismissing” attachment. As far as we can tell by studies of attachment theory, these individuals were not abused. It is more likely that they grew up in emotionally distant homes, with little attunement or affective connection.”(Spira54) Some therapists and experts think the cause could be from abuse and others not. One day we might find a better, more sure answer but for now this is what we have. And hopefully they do find a different answer because nobody should have to go through any kind of abuse for any reason.

Sources:
"Dissociative Identity Disorder/Multiple Personality Disorder." Helen Davidson. The Gale Encyclopedia of Childhood and Adolescence. Ed. Jerome Kagan and Susan B. Gall. Online Edition. Detroit: Gale, 2007.

Spira, James L. Treating Dissociative Identity Disorder. San Francisco, California: Jossey-Bass Inc., Publishers, 1996.

Images:
http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://splashman.phoenix.wikispaces.net/file/view/Dissociative_Identity_Disorder_by_lily_day.jpg/144994915/Dissociative_Identity_Disorder_by_lily_day.jpg&imgrefurl=http://splashman.phoenix.wikispaces.net/Psychological%2BDisorders%2Band%2Btheir%2BTreatment&usg=__JBuONojx7aUIpFnZk_Kf37NZ6sk=&h=656&w=720&sz=282&hl=en&start=0&zoom=1&tbnid=uOe9RpjUWTDFRM:&tbnh=154&tbnw=210&ei=fVm0TbqPIs-ftwexuYzqDg&prev=/search%3Fq%3Ddissociative%2Bidentity%2Bdisorder%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26rlz%3D1T4ACAW_enUS390US391%26biw%3D1291%26bih%3D499%26tbm%3Disch&um=1&itbs=1&iact=hc&vpx=154&vpy=145&dur=499&hovh=214&hovw=235&tx=157&ty=85&page=1&ndsp=13&ved=1t:429,r:0,s:0

Split in Two

In the film Hide and Seek, Robert De Niro has a secret but you don't find out until the end of the story. He has Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID) or multiple personality disorder. Here are a few symptoms of DID, depression, memory loss, eating disorders, and even amnesia. It's interesting how one person who seems completely normal, can all of the sudden wake up and be somebody else. How their whole demeanor changes in a split second. Some people don't even realize they have something wrong with them. Usually it is a friend, family member, or someone close to them, that notices something it out of sorts. I just read The Strange Cases of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, and the symptoms are happening here. Jekyll goes into a depression and doesn’t want to see anybody, no housekeepers or friends. I would like to find out more about this topic to see how people are able to switch from one person to another and how they cope if they find out about their disorder. Honestly, it’s fun to watch and read about but I couldn't imagine living it. Never knowing who I am going to be that day or what I am going to do next is a scary thought. You never know if the person sitting next to you is your friend or your enemy.