What Is Dissociative Identity Disorder?
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other helpful links! ☆ What does it mean to be polyfragmented? ☆ Common terms in the system community ☆ About the theory of structural dissociation
Dissociative identity disorder (abbreviated as DID) is a traumagenic mental disorder characterized by the presence of two or more fragmented identity states (widely known as "alters" or "parts") that function individually. As well as identity fragmentation, individuals with DID experience significant memory gaps, symptoms associated with PTSD, and other dissociative symptoms.
DID is understood to be a "chronic complex post-traumatic developmental disorder" caused by abuse and/or neglect starting in very early childhood and in which the affected child had no other escape besides dissociation [1]. Individuals with DID report a wide variety of traumatic and abusive experiences in their childhoods, including neglect, physical/sexual/emotional abuse, dysfunctional familial dynamics, and torture.
Alongside the experience of alters, those with DID will often experience the following symptoms:
Depersonalization - feeling detached from one's own body or mind. Common experiences of depersonalization include feeling like an outside observer or like one is observing themself from a distance [2].
Derealization - feeling detached from the external world. Common experiences of derealization include feeling like the world is muted or duller in color than normal, that it's "unreal, distant, distorted, or in other ways falsified", and feeling that one is watching the world through some sort of screen or barrier (such as glass, VR glasses, water, and fog) [3].
Post-Traumatic Stress Symptoms - since DID is so closely linked with PTSD, those who have DID will typically experience PTSD symptoms like flashbacks, nightmares, hypervigilance, and more.
SOURCES:
[1] - Revisiting the etiological aspects of dissociative identity disorder: a biopsychosocial perspective. This whole article is very interesting, although it does have more of a focus on alters :)
[2] - Wikipedia page for depersonalization. Before anyone kills me for using Wikipedia as a source, it's lowkey more credible than most online sources nowadays
[3] - Wikipedia page for derealization.
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