Dissociate Identity Disorder - Research Paper Example

? Dissociate Identity Disorder Dissociate Identity Disorder Dissociate disorder is a condition that causes the failure to integrate different aspects of identity, memory and consciousness (WHO, 1992). It is characterized by the presence of two or more distinctive identities which control the behavior of an individual recurrently. At least two of the personalities take control of the person’s behavior. The inability to recall life events is beyond explanation of the natural forgetfulness. The condition has not yet been validated as an illness and this raises many questions about its reality. Some people believe that it is not a medical condition but a condition created politically by media (Spiegel & Richard, 2011). A more thorough research shows that the condition exists but it is not fully defined. Alters’ memory functionality differs from one alter to another. Majority of alters have many personalities which makes them unable to recall what happened in another personality. Psychological perspective expresses dissociation as a protective activation of consciousness in reaction to overwhelming psychological trauma (WHO, 1992). The access to dissociative information is diminished after the affected person returns to baseline. The memories which are encoded in the mind but they are not conscious. The condition serves as a switch that enables an individual to move to another personality in the fear of what he/she can remember. This condition develops during tender age when children’s imagination is very high (Spiegel & Richard, 2011). The normal memory function of the memory consists of two forms, the explicit and the implicit (Barlow, 2005). Explicit memories constitute immediate and conscious recall as well as recollection of facts and experiences when one is conscious. Implicit memories on the other hand are independent of conscious memory and are better developed in children than the explicit memories. This makes it obvious that most of the memories in children are implicit (Barlow, 2005). The occurrence of any trauma in the early age brings about alteration of brain function and hence changing memory encoding for the periods and events (WHO, 1992). The lifetime prevalence is 8% in America and it is more frequent in women than men. Majority of the people who experience this condition have been subjected to some serious suffering in their childhood life (Spiegel & Richard, 2011). The research shows that only 0.1% of the people experiencing this condition; few of them seek medical services while the rest do not see any need for medical attention. The situation is further worsened by the fact that many clinical officers neglect it hence making the persons with the problem without the help they require. Most of the people diagnosed with this problem were once diagnosed with schizophrenia (Barlow, 2005). Dissociate identity disorder has been attributed to the severe and recurrent trauma that the person was subjected to when he/she was a child. The trauma dissociation account has portrayed this condition as the product of traumatized children (Graur, 2003). This trauma affects emotions and memories of children to an extent that makes them have this condition. The trauma in children may be related to the mistreatment such as rape. The condition can as well develop in persons witnessed or got involved in a very fatal accident, disaster, enormous crime victimization among others (Graur, 2003). This condition helps the victims of these circumstances to tolerate some things which are impossible to tolerate by normal individuals. In such event, this condition helps in dissociating the memory about such a place, circumstance, pain, fear or even horror. This is common among many survivors of dangerous situations (Barlow, 2005). As the dissociate identity disorder conditions continue to fascinate, the medical identification of alters play a major role in solving some tricky court cases. This is because prior to the identification of this problem, alters presented a serious complications in court cases. This is because they can at some point explain what they know about a case but they deny later knowing anything about the same case. This made some specialist to start investigations about existence of more than one personality within one individual. Although the alters may not recall the events that happened while they were in one other personality, sometimes they are able to remember the mistreatment done to them when they were young hence are this is used as the onset of the medical attention of this condition (Sidran Traumatic Stress Institute, 2009). The women who can recall that they were sexually abused are less likely to be faced by this condition than their fellow women who cannot remember that they were sexually abused though they were. This is because this condition is due to memory distortion but no memory accuracy (Graur, 2003). The observation of different physiological profiles have expressed alters disorder as more than just socially created metaphor that has been believed to be in patients’ minds. The modern research has shown a clear observation of different personalities among the affected people. This new psycho physiological methodologies have got a breakthrough that has helped to draw a right picture of alters. It has been shown that alters states differs in the utilization of the electroencephalogram activity (Sidran Traumatic Stress Institute, 2009). It is thought that the children who were once victimized develop a condition that makes them go off their minds when the condition comes about. This state enable the affected be free from the memory of either physical or emotional pain as well as the fear of that pain. This way dissociation helps in cutting off the thoughts, feelings, memories and perceptions of a trauma (Sidran Traumatic Stress Institute, 2009). One of the cases that helped in the understanding of the dissociative identity disorder was a woman who had been physically and sexually abused by her father from childhood to adolescence. She exhibited four personalities in her adulthood. These states represented her life phases that comprised of a fearful child, a rebellious teenager, a protective adult, and the woman's primary personality. Among these, only the adult phase was conscious about the existence of all others. Whenever any of the secondary personality took over, it led to the episodic dissociative amnesia. This made the woman act according to the dominating personality. Each of the personality is important in the integration of all others. The persons affected by this condition are dazed or confused to an extend that make them unable to remember their own identity. In addition, they are unable to recognize their relatives and daily surroundings. The people in this condition may also suffer from an observable anxiety in handling their daily matters and obligations. This associated anxiety causes severe sleep depriving conditions that are trigger depersonalization (Barlow, 2005). The condition results when several systems of the body fail to function appropriately. The nervous system and the hypothalamus work hand in hand to control the activities of the body of a normal person. They coordinate the two hemispheres of the brain to initiate the mechanisms that enable the body to work appropriately. Hippocampus which is a part inside the brain helps to create new memories. The neurons and neurotransmitters facilitate communication between various body systems (Barlow, 2005). The above processes are involved in a normal brain. When a person is affected by a serious trauma, the amygdala which helps in choosing the action to take after examining the information in the hippocampus is confused. When a person remembers a traumatizing event, the amygdala is activated to generate two contradicting responses which lead to dissociate identity disorder. The person cannot run from the situation and at the same time cannot solve it hence develops this condition. This state helps the individual to escape from the painful memories (Barlow, 2005). In this condition, the individual is in a totally different identity that cannot remember the situations leading to the condition (Barlow, 2005). In this new identity, all the memories in the hippocampus cannot be activated hence the person is safe from the painful memories. The people identified with this condition can help to regain their former state of one identity. This may be done through psychotherapy. Other forms of treatment include medication, hypnotherapy and movement therapy. Most of these medications are long term and are based on the remembrance and reclamation of dissociated traumatic experiences. This is done by thoroughly trained persons. The goals of the medication programs set in place are to reduce sedation, hypersomnia and occurrence of other personalities (Graur, 2003). The patients are also helped into social relationships that enable them to be less aggressive. As well the therapy helps in creating self control and self care. This helps the patients to reform and hence be more responsible in their own care. The therapy has proofed to be of benefits to many individuals with this disorder (Sidran Traumatic Stress Institute, 2009). References Barlow, M. (2005). Memory and Fragmentation in Dissociative Identity Disorder. Department of Psychology and the Graduate School of the University of Oregon. Retrieved from http://dynamic.uoregon.edu/~jjf/theses/Barlow05.pdf Graur, A. (2003). A Clinical Case of Dissociative Identity Disorder treated with Music Integrative Neurotherapy, TM The New York Academy of Sciences. Retrieved from http://www.quantumbionet.org/admin/files/A%20Clinical%20Case%20of.pdf Sidran Traumatic Stress Institute (2009). What Is Dissociative Identity Disorder? Traumatic Stress Education and Advocacy. Retrieved from http://www.sidran.org/pdf/mediakit.pdf Spiegel, M. & Richard J. (2011). Dissociative Disorders in DSM-5, Research Article Depression and Anxiety 28 : 824–852. Retrieved from http://www.dsm5.org/Documents/Anxiety,%20OC%20Spectrum,%20PTSD,%20and%20DD%20Group/PTSD%20and%20DD/Spiegel%20et%20al_Dissociative%20Disorders.pdf World Health Organization (WHO) (1992). The ICD-10 Classification of Mental and Behavioral Disorders. Diagnostic criteria for research. Retrieved from http://www.who.int/classifications/icd/en/GRNBOOK.pdf Read More