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Kaiya Brand

Mrs. DeBock

English 4 Honors

9 March 2017

Dissociative Identity Disorder

A person can only take so much physical, emotional, or mental abuse before cracking

under its heavy pressure. When a person is horrendously abused over a long period of time, the

brain undergoes a series of necessary steps in order to ensure the persons survival. One of these

defense mechanisms is known as Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID), and it involves the brain

shutting off its processing of pain and imagining that the pain is happening to another random

person. When the host uses DID as a way of surviving prolonged abuse, he separates himself

from his body and imagines the made-up person as taking the abuse; however, after a period of

time, the person takes on the personality as his own. The made-up person that is suffering the

abuse is given a distinctive personality, gender, age, and backstory that will eventually become

an altar. Through years of abuse, a person can create several distinctive personalities that are all

activated according to the presence of certain triggers (Precin 58-59) . For example, the host can

immediately switch to an altar in the presence of a certain cologne, because that cologne was the

one that her abuser used to wear. Many critics see DID as just a westernized excuse for attention

made up by manipulative people; however, they have neglected to research the proofs of the

disorder. Although DID is heavily disputed, it can be proven through the several symptoms

shown, the improvements through therapy, the science behind it, and the first hand accounts from

DID patients themselves.

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DID can be proven through the corresponding symptoms shown in all people diagnosed

with the disorder, and these specific symptoms are shown solely in those with DID. Those

diagnosed with the disorder have shown frequent cases of amnesia and recovered memory, which

has affected their life significantly (Prerost 1). An altar in a hosts body may not be aware that

other hosts exist, so when the host encounters a trigger that causes the altar to switch, the host

can easily lose memory of what happened in the time before the change (Precin 58). These lapses

of memory loss can not be corrected with medication, which leads experts to believe that the

amnesia is caused by a much deeper problem; a problem known as Dissociative Identity

Disorder. The carriers of the disorder also have an extreme pain tolerance due to the high level of

abuse they endured as a child. Every time the child is abused, the dissociation is furthered by

storing the memories of abuse in different parts of his or her brain; thus creating the separate

altars. When the abuse is divided, it prevents one single person from remembering the abuse, but

rather splits it up between several people, making it slightly more endurable (Precin 58). The

high pain tolerance of DID patients cannot be passed as just a personality trait, because nearly all

clients have the unimaginable level of pain tolerance due to their ability to split the pain between

their altars. Another symptom of the disorder is the clients unpredictable mood swings due to the

triggering of different alters. Percin says, There is often internal conflict and competition

regarding which alter will take control of the body at any given time (58). When a client

encounters a trigger that causes a switch in personalities, it often sends a wave of chaos through

the hosts mind because one altar may not want to give up control. This leads to extreme

unpredictability of the hosts mood swings because it is hard to identify the triggers and even

harder to make the altars acceptable of one another. Due to the mood swings being so precisely
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activated, they cannot be simply attributed as a person with an aggressive personality, because

the mood swings of such a non-DID patient are much more random.

DID can be proven through the effectiveness of the therapy sessions because a fake

disorder would not have such consistent results; whereas DID has significant changes in nearly

all trials of therapy. When a person diagnosed with this rare disease seeks treatment from an

expert, it slowly diminishes the symptoms and allows the person to live a more normalized life.

Results have shown that when therapists focus on emotional regulation during counseling

sessions, the DID patient eventually shows decreased signs of dissociation, depression, substance

abuse, and suicidal thoughts (Brand 172-173). A fake disorder would never have such

consistent results in therapy sessions because the clients would all have extremely differing

symptoms. Many critics see DID as a disorder brought about by cultural stimuluses, such as

living in a first world country with several mainstream influences. They also argue that DID is

not found in any third world countries that have a low media influence. However, Brand

discusses how DID treatment has been effective in several regions such as Norway, Canada,

Africa, Europe, Asia, and the Caribbean (172). All of these areas, especially Africa, have

extremely uncommercialized regions, which proves that DID is not just a result of first world

country cultures. One of the most effective ways of therapy is when the therapist directly talk to

the altars, rather than the host (Bell 158). Ringrose asserts that the dissociation has caused the

altars to experience the abuse, rather than the host; so the best way to explore the clients past

abuse to is talk to the altars individually and coerce them into being open to discussion (300).

These conversations as well as their effectiveness help to prove that DID is its own disorder,

because it shows first hand that there are several different personalities inside the clients mind

and they each tell of different abusive events.

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The scientific findings of scientists and therapists working with DID clients help

contribute to the lengthy list of proofs of the disorder, because they are directly experiencing

what its like to be with a DID client and applying science to the matter. While some debate the

validity of DID, they fail to realize that DID is listed as an official disorder under the DSM,

which is the go-to book on all things related with psychotherapy; any disorder found in this

book has an indisputable amount of evidence supporting it. The DSM 4 defines DID as a

dissociative disorder in which an individual has at least two separate identities/personalities

each with its own characteristic defenses, ego structure, and way of relating to the world (Precin

58). The experts that have written the DSM characterize DID as a defense mechanism that is

inhabitantly activated when severe abuse is encountered. With dissociation, the human brain

literally turns off its knowledge of the pain that is being inflicted, and imagines that it is

happening to someone else.Without the dissociation, the victim has a very high chance of dying

due to the unhealthy levels of stress as well as physical abuse found in some cases. So although

the DID causes a lifetime worth of consequences, it saves the victims life. Some scientists have

chosen to explore more concrete evidence of the disorder by mapping brain waves while the host

is shifting altars. This is an extremely difficult task because the client needs to have endured

years of therapy in order to change altars on command; the entire process requires a close

relationship between the client and his/her therapist as well as trust in the scientist. Results show

that there is, in fact, very distinct brain wave activity when the host is shifting between his or her

alters (Dissociative Identity Disorder: Two Famous Cases). This shows concrete evidence that

structuring of the mind of DID patients does encounter changes, and that the host is experiencing

different brain wave activity. The beauty of the disorder as a defense mechanism is proof of its
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validity; certain parts of the brain, especially the frontal lobe, turn on and off in order to

guarantee survival.

The most gruesomely painful, yet most powerful, proofs of DID are the first hand

accounts of the victims as they try to explain the chaos that has occurred in their mind. Although

there are several victims that have resorted to DID to survive, first hand accounts are rare to

come across due to the many years of therapy that must be undertaken in order for a client to

understand their disorder. One of the most descriptive accounts of DID describes a girl who was

born into a satanic ritual environment where she grew up being forced to do extremely inhumane

things. One of which occurred when she was five, when she was forced to bite off and swallow

her only friends thumb in order to prevent her from being raped. The victim describes her

survival technique as imagining that an older boy was doing the act, not herself. Once she was

rescued from the horrific environment, she was immediately placed in a therapy home where she

lived for eight months; through assessment, she was found to have over sixty personalities. The

terrible accounts of this woman as well as her improvements through therapy were recorded and

posted as proof of the disorder. The victim accredits her survival to her minds brilliant ability to

pretend that the events were not happening (Precin 58-63). After years of therapy, another young

woman gave her therapist permission to release information about her past abuse and her use of

dissociation as a defense mechanism. Kerrys stepfather began abusing her when she was five

years old and, during the abuse, she floated out of her body and watched someone else take

the abuse from the ceiling. Later in Kerrys life, another man began horrifically abusing her, and

anytime that man was around, she imagined anyone but her being in the room with him rather

than herself. Both someone else and anyone but her developed extremely differing

personalities, one of which developed drug addictions. Kerry says that the personalities have
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changed her entire life; however, she says that if she had to take the abuse herself (when in

reality, she did), she would not have survived those years of her life (Ringrose 294-295).

Although first hand accounts can be disturbing to hear, they are some of the best forms of proof

of the disorder because they are coming from the victims themselves. Some critics argue that the

first hand accounts are made up, but it is difficult to believe that anyone would make up such a

horrific story, let alone a child under the age of ten.

Although critics argue that DID is a figment of imagination and a result of manipulative

personalities, it has more than enough proof to accredit it as its own disorder. Several constant

symptoms are found among all DID clients, and any fake disorder would not have such similar

symptoms. Also, the improvement consistency found from therapy that specifically targeted the

disorder proves that there is, in fact, a problem found among all DID patients. Because the

therapies directed towards correcting a certain problem in the brain were effective, it shows that

the problem that the therapists aimed to fix was, indeed, there. If the results of therapies are not

enough evidence for some, they can research the scientific data that verifies the validity of the

disorder. When scientists realized that DID was an inhabitantly activated tool for survival, they

studied the brain wave activity of the disorders and found that there are distinctive transitions

during the changing of altars. Lastly, the proof of DID can be seen through the detailed first hand

accounts of the victims. Those who have been through therapy can testify that they had lived a

terrible life, but that DID was the only way that they could have survived the situation. Those

that doubt the validity of DID are often the ones that do not have enough information about the

disorder, because lengthy research leads to an obvious verification of the disorder. If research

was conducted in a more effective manner, more people could come together to focus on the best
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ways of treatment and change the lives of those that have become a victim of the horridious

abuse of this world.

Works Cited

Bell, Hope1, et al. "The Role of Religious Coping and Resilience in Individuals with

Dissociative Identity Disorder." Counseling & Values, vol. 60, no. 2, Oct. 2015, pp.
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151-163. EBSCOhost, Web. 07 Mar. 2017.

Brand, Bethany L., et al. "Dispelling Myths about Dissociative Identity Disorder

Treatment: An

Empirically Based Approach." Psychiatry: Interpersonal & Biological Processes, vol.

77, no. 2, Summer 2014, p. 169. EBSCOhost.

"Dissociative Identity Disorder - Two Famous Cases."Adolescence, Personality, and

Personalities - JRank Articles. Psychology.jrank, n.d. Web. 03 Mar. 2017.

Precin, Patricia. "Return To Work: A Case Of PTSD, Dissociative Identity Disorder, And

Satanic Ritual Abuse." Work 38.1 (2011): 57. Advanced Placement Source. Web. 21 Feb.

2017.

Prerost, Frank J. "Dissociative Disorders (DD)." Salem Press Encyclopedia of Health,

January.

EBSCOhost, Web. 07 Mar. 2017.

Ringrose, Jo L. "Meeting The Needs Of Clients With Dissociative Identity Disorder:

Considerations For Psychotherapy." British Journal Of Guidance & Counselling 39.4

(2011): 293-305. Psychology and Behavioral Sciences Collection. Web. 21 Feb. 2017.