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What is Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID), It's Causes and It's Treatments?

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This source from the International Journal of Pharma Medicine and Biological Sciences is a rather succinct article that talks about the causes and symptoms of DID, and gives a broad explanation of what exactly it is, as well as clearing up some common misconceptions about the disorder. The article states that DID is a disorder in which there are multiple personalities, or "alters", that a person switches between. These personalities alternate in their agency over a person's body, which can cause lapses in memory for one or multiple of the other personalities. The article then touches on some of the effects DID has on the brain, particularly what changes while a person is switching between alters. The article also touches on the symptoms and diagnosis of DID, specifically with regards to the DSM-5, a widely used medical manual designed to help with the diagnosis of different mentally illnesses. Finally, the article states that childhood trauma is the most well-understood cause of this disorder, and states that some attribute the disorder to a "disorganized attachment" style. This is an excellent article that, in only four pages manages to give a good summary of DID, and gives the reader a solid basic understanding of the disorder.

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This article, from the American Journal of Psychotherapy, is specifically about the treatments for DID. This article is quite long, and touches on many aspects of the treatment of such an unusual disorder. First, the article speaks broadly about the many approaches to treating DID, and touches on different models, or different steps in the treatment process proposed by a handful of different psychiatrists. The following section talks about the difficulties in the treatment of DID, particularly the challenges presented by the disorder itself, and by the controversy surrounding the disorder. The article finally goes more in-depth about treatments and their effectiveness, and speaks about the risks or challenges that can come with treating DID. This article was written by a medical doctor, and cites exactly 88 sources, making it, to my mind, an excellent and trustworthy scholarly source.

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An Overview of the Psychotherapy of Dissociative Identity Disorder

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In this popular primary source, a woman who is affected by DID speaks about how certain "triggers" (specific external stimuli) can cause a switch in personalities in a person with DID. Chloe (one of this "system's" personalities) starts the video, and talks about, basically, what to do and what not to do around a person with DID, with regards to their triggers. She talks about how causing a person to switch using a trigger can be harmful, and should generally never be done, as triggers often cause switches in personalities without any kind of permission from the personality, currently inhabiting the body. The truly fascinating part of this video however, starts at 8:40. We can see, starting at this time, how Chloe uses a certain song to involuntarily (though in this case it is technically voluntary, as Chloe is choosing to listen to the song and therefore to switch of her own volition) cause a switch in personalities. The personality that takes control of the body, Kyle, clearly speaks and carries himself differently than Chloe. He has a different accent, and carries himself in what could be considered as more "male," even though he is inhabiting a female body. This is a fascinating demonstration of how there truly are multiple individuals existing within the same body, the same way you and I are consciously and cognitively separate.

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FORCED PERSONALITY SWITCH CAUGHT ON CAMERA | Positive Triggers | Dissociative Identity Disorder

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This source, made by the same person(s) as source #3, shows how the different personalities, or "alters" perceive themselves to look. I find this video to be particularly interesting because to me, one of the most fascinating aspects of this disorder is how each alter can have their own sense of individuality, despite inhabiting the same body. Though the body of this system is a woman, there are many male alters who inhabit it. You can see at 5:27, that a switch occurs while a female alter is drawing a portrait of herself, and a male alter gains control of the body. The male alter, showing disagreement with the current drawing, crosses out the breasts that the female alter drew, showing how an alter, despite living within a body of a woman, perceives himself in his mind's eye as a man. We can also see at the end of the video, that the finished portrait of an alter named "Dark" appears to be almost inhuman. I find it fascinating that there can exist within a person a personality, an "I," that is not human. This video is greatly important, not to any medical or scientific end, but to the end of learning about the subjective experience of a person with DID.

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MY ALTERS DRAW THEMSELVES | Dissociative Identity Disorder | DissociaDID

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I've chosen my fifth source from the same YouTube channel as sources number two and three because I find DissociaDID to be a fantastic candid source for a disorder that is not widely known about. This video serves as a comprehensive introduction to DID and how it is caused, from the viewpoint of a person who suffers from the condition. In this video, Nin, an alter within this DID "system," explains that DID is caused when a child is exposed to a traumatic event and has no way to safely or securely process the things that are happening to them. In this situation, the child's mind "hides" traumatic memories from the child, and these memories, as the child develops a personality of their own, become personalities that are independent from the child; they become alters. Nin also speaks about the serious nature of DID, and how some may think of it as having companions, or friends that never leave your side, when in reality it is a protection mechanism created by the mind of a child in order to make distance between them and horrid traumatic events that befall them. This video is both fascinating and harrowing, hearing how a person, a child, deals with trauma in such a way that results in multiple personalities being created within a single body.

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ALL ABOUT ALTERS: Part 1 | Debunking DID Ep: 3 | Dissociative Identity Disorder