Multiple Personality Disorders - Essay Example

Personality Disorder Insert college level: Multiple personality disorder Personalities Disorder is detected when an individual has multiple personalities that can control the person and make them do actions they don’t recall or would be unable to do. These people cannot know when one personality is influencing them or may not be conscious of what they are doing (Sandra, 1992). The disorder is mostly caused by child sexual abuse when so severe that the child does not remember the events and therefore develops another personality to recall hat happened. This second personality developed acts a defense mechanism so that the person is able to cope up with the events in life. It also arises from great stress levels in early life stages of a person again from abuse. A person with this disorder feels confused and may be mistaken for other ailments such as schizophrenia or post traumatic stress. At adolescence, the victim may use other means to deal with stress of MPD such as committing suicide or threats and attempts to use drugs. The disorder has a wide variety of treatment mechanisms but so for no clinical research is available for the results of the treatment of the victims. Its treatment remains imperative to maintain a control of the dysfunctional behavior and stability of the patient. Also, reinstating the functioning and improved co-existence is a commonly used treatment technique (Bliss1986). Other treatment methods are, memory therapy, psychotherapy, hypnotherapy and in patient medication. Hypnotherapy also called hypnosis is used for retrieving someone’s memory if he has had the disorder for a longer time. Under this method, one remembers abusive childhood experiences in their memory. However, the most common use of hypnotherapy is comforting the patient in the course of treatment. Hypnosis is aimed at improving the information one has about their signs and identification status to increase the control on the new states they become when changing on multiple personalities. This is done by enhancing the link of each aspect of the personality with the rest of personalities. In this period of health cover by insurance companies, short time over long term psychotherapy is the preferred option for treatment. Memory therapy entails retrieving the experiences one may have encountered that had given rise to multiple personalities after which the therapist changes them into a the main personality implying that once the experiences are recovered they given back to the real personality of the victim. Psychotherapy takes several years of treatment and may involve medication. This type of therapy needs many years for achieving desired results. A big percentage of people are treated with this method (Brenner 1996). In this method, the connection to the therapist by the patient is also increased therefore creating a reliable relationship. For in-patient treatment, the doctor meets the victim on daily basis and is able to monitor the progress of the therapy thereby making this method a better option. Therapists often attempt to help patients experience memories they have never been comfortable remembering or frankly talking about. This is usually done with a lot of care to prevent the patient form developing anxiety or being at risk of repeating the traumatizing history. Mental health experts may also take the patients through a means of having any aspect of their life existing in their memory. This method is a treatment choice for a wide variety of mental disorders. Approaches differ in many ways but it takes the person’s modality instead of a group or family therapy. Many different personalities are integrated together. The objective of a better coexistence is not usually the same as the goal of reintegration. Reintegration was previously taken as the aim of psychotherapy but it was discovered to be leaving patients with disorder feelings. The time taken for achieving desired results is also shorter compared to other methods. However many therapists are mostly concerned with the memory therapy method because it is not easy to differentiate real and non real memories. The American association in 1993 was able to come up with a conclusion that there are possibilities of remembering in adulthood memories of lost experiences that had been forgotten. (Theodore 2008) Therefore it is important for the therapist to believe the patient even if there may be doubts. They are supposed to maintain an unbiased ground for the memories after recovery. Other methods of treatment are not recommended after tests indicating that they are not effective. These include, electroconvulsive sometimes referred to as shock treatment. However some Medications may also be considered in addressing the mental complications that individuals with the disorder may have such as deep anxiety or stress impulse control disorders and uncontrollable anger. However when using medication, care must be exercised since any effects whether bad or desirable may make the patient feel that they are under someone’s, control thereby traumatizing them further. To have the effective use of the prescriptions is not easy to achieve and if any medication is used; the therapist must monitor the progress carefully. Other people identified with this disorder have formed self help groups to share experiences that can help them cope up with the challenges arising from the situation. Persons suffering may be bale to identify their personalities or not since this alters may be different gender. The aim of treating the patient is to enable them start experiencing any split memories to accept them as components of themselves. Dr. William H. Smith argues that Multiple Personality Disorder at times may be introduced in a person by a psychologist and therefore making the disorder unnatural. (Valencia 2000) Other people who agree with Dr. William H. Smith argue that patients may be trained to display multiple personalities, a notion most common among conservative Christians and Catholics. Others who oppose the existence argue that many children are not detected to have the disorder at birth or in early stages in their lives, or no records of trauma traced in their lives while those who have undergone trauma do not show any signs of having the disorder. Sometimes the disorder may be as a result of organic causes for instance lobe epilepsy that may result to personality separation. Others are loss of sleep, stroke or corpus callosum which is links valves to the brain cerebral cortex. . REFERENCES Sandra, A.(1992)."Multiple Personality Disorder: Someone Else Lives Inside Me". Current Health. Nov: 17-19. Bliss, E.L. (1986). Multiple Personality, Allied Disorders and Hypnosis. New York: Oxford University Press Brenner, I.( 1996) "The character, logical basis of multiple personality". American Journal of Psychotherapy. Aug: 154-166. " Valencia, Luz.(2000) Multiple Personality Disorder: American Psychological Association, Washington, 12-23. Theodore,D (2008) "Destructive delusions," Wall Street Journal ,NOV-19 23-34 Read More