Soon I will get to my own experiences, but I wanted to lay out some very basic information first so you can understand what I am talking about within my experiences.
Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID) is a complex psychological condition that has been recorded in various ways throughout history; even as far back as prehistoric cave paintings. Originally the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) referred to the condition as Multiple Personality Disorder and defined it as a simple alteration in consciousness because little was known about how and why the condition developed. It wasn’t until 1994 that the condition was more accurately renamed Dissociative Identity Disorder and reclassified as a unique Identity disorder further separating it from other psychological conditions such as Schizophrenia.
Much is still unknown about DID, but researchers agree that DID is probably caused by intense trauma or stress during early childhood development. A person’s identity is not fully formed until around the age of eight years, making young children more susceptible to psychological disorders during this early stage of life.
DID is not simple hallucinations as previously thought, but partially formed personalities within a person. There is a host personality which is most often the “original” personality that is displayed to the world and known by family and friends from birth. Often the host personality does not realize other personalities are there until much later if they notice at all. On rare occasions another personality can take over as host, but researchers have yet to figure out why this happens.
Personalities can be nearly fully formed and normally functioning personalities with their own name, age, gender, ethnicity/race, hobbies, skills, likes and dislikes or small fragments of a personality created to complete one task or process one emotion.
In upcoming articles I will discuss symptoms of and effects of DID as well as my personal experience with it. Feel free to ask questions anytime.
Definitive DID 