Symptoms:

• multiple distinct identities/personality states accompanied by changes in behavior, memory, and thinking. These alternate personalities may differ in age and gender from the person's body.

• ongoing gaps in memory about everyday events, personal information, and previously traumatic events

• involuntary shifts in attitude and personal preferences which often cause distress

All of these alters are a manifestation of one, whole person. The different "people" operate like a family inside the mind.

• more than 70% of DID patients have attempted suicide

• psychotherapy can be beneficial to gain control of symptoms and to integrate the different elements of identity, but there aren't any medications for this disorder.

• cognitive behavioral therapy, dialectical behavior therapy, and hypnosis have also been used to treat this disorder.

Depersonalization- experiences of unreality or detachment from one's mind, self, or body. It often feels like you are an outsider looking into your own life.

Derealization- experiences of detachment from one's surroundings; believing that things around us aren't real, as if you are living in a movie.

• Usually, people with this disorder are aware that their behavior is unusual.

• Symptoms begin in early childhood, with the average age for diagnosis being 16 years old.

This amnesia can be localized, selective, or generalized.

• localized amnesia- unable to remember an event or period of time; most common type of dissociative amnesia

  (Ex: A survivor of a car accident doesn't remember this experience until many days later.)

• selective amnesia-unable to remember a specific aspect of an event or multiple events within a period of time

  ( Ex: A victim of sexual abuse may remember going on vacation, but not the abuse that took place there.)

• generalized amnesia- complete loss of remembrance of identity and life history; rarest form of dissociative amnesia; associated with childhood abuse, specifically emotional

  (Ex: A woman cannot remember her name, who she's spoken to, or where she's went.)

• Jess- 25 year old woman, identifies with body, describes herself as a "girly girl"

• Ollie- 14 year old boy, "moody teenager"

• Ed- 29 year old man, punk-rock hairstylist from the UK, artsy and creative, only left-handed alter. Ed causes the body anxiety, and has harmed its thighs, wrists, and arms

• Jamie- 27 year old man, doctor, intelligent and charming, only alter that needs prescription eyeglasses, takes care of and soothes the other alters of the "family"

• Jake- 25 year old man, pop star/actor from Hollywood, very handsome with a "big, Hollywood smile", happy-go-lucky

  
  

  Jess detailed an experience where she found herself in high heels in the rain with no idea of where she was or how she got there. These losses of memory are a common struggle of those with DID. With help from a therapist, Jess is now able to work a steady, 9-5 job, allowing her other alters to drive the body in her free-time.

She learned about her memory gaps after running into her childhood best friend, but not recognizing her at all. She says that she learned that she had went from a smiley, happy child to a "quiet mute who stared off to the distance during recess after one of many traumatic events [she] doesn't remember". Due to trauma, she developed this localized amnesia, having years of her life blocked out of her memory. Doctors struggled to diagnosis Ruby, but eventually came to the diagnosis of Complex PTSD, which goes along with the amnesia she had. Ruby Rose has conquered these challenges, finding self-love and realizing her strength despite the trauma she's been through.