Multiple personalities, or Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID), is a rare mental disorder characterized by the presence of two or more distinct identities that control behavior and cause memory lapses. The disorder affects approximately 0.01% to 1% of the population, with many patients misdiagnosed and taking an average of 6 to 7 years to receive the correct diagnosis. While there is no cure, treatment through medication and therapy can help individuals lead healthy lives despite the presence of multiple personalities.

1. Multiple Personalities

2. Multiple Personalities
Multiple personalities
is a rare mental disorder
in which an individual's
personality appears to
be separated by two or
more specific
personalities, all being
connectable to that of a
normal individual.
•

3. Incidence
•
Statistics show that the rate of DID
occurrences are roughly .01% to 1% of the
general population.
-More than 1/3 of people say that they
feel as if they are watching themselves in a
movie at times, and 7% of the population
may have undiagnosed dissociative
disorder.

4. Causes

5. Symptoms
According to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual
of Mental Disorders, symptoms include "the
presence or two or more distinct identities or
personality traits"that alternate control of the
individuals behavior, accompanied by the inability to
recall personal information beyond what is expected
through normal forgetfulness.
-Amnesia
-Depersonalization
-Derealization
-Identity Disturbances

6. Diagnosis
There is not real way to determine whether or not a person has
DID. Many physicians have different outlooks on what DID is
and what determines if a patient has the disorder or not. Most
are misdiagnosed as depressed. But the average DID patient is
in the mental health care system for 6 to 7 years before being
diagnosed as a person with DID.
-The criteria, according to the American Psychiatric
Association's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental
Disorders, require that an adult be recurrently controlled by two
or more discrete personalities, accompanied my memory lapses
for important information that is not caused by alcohol, drugs, or
medications.

7. Prevention
•
There is no way you can really prevent
DID from occurring. The only way
possible to prevent DID from occurring
requires interventions in abusive families
and treating children with dissociative
symptoms as early as possible.

8. Treatment
•
There is no cure for DID. The only thing that
doctors prescribe to patients are certain
medications, not to stop the personalities
from occurring, but to help keep them
controlled and to help them to not interrupt
their life as often. The only other thing that
has been put into effect is therapy, to help
understand the personalities better and in
some cases to figure out why they started in
the first place.

9. Outlook
•
People with DID live healthy lives. With the
help of medication and therapy, they are
given an opportunity to try and have a
"normal life". Though they won't be able to
get rid of the "personalities", they will live as
others do and live as long as the average
person does.