Other words for multiple personality disorder

#Other words for multiple personality disorder update#

And because the trauma is ongoing over years, there are lots of little freezings happening all over the place.вЂќ Melanie describes it this way: вЂњIf youвЂ™re in a totally impossible situation, you dissociate to stay alive. ItвЂ™s using your unconscious cognition to adapt your way of thinking and behaviour in order to be more safe,вЂќ Aquarone says. In fact, вЂњitвЂ™s the ultimate adaption system. ItвЂ™s the dissociation that allows the child to keep going. If the abuse goes on over years, and also if different scenarios and perpetrators are involved, many different parts may splinter off. Or, there might be one part that endures the abuse, another that gets the body back to its bedroom, and another that goes down to breakfast in the morning. One part endures the abuse and contains the horrific emotional and physical impacts another part exists afterwards. In an attempt to cope with the traumatic experiences, the theory goes, the child вЂdissociatesвЂ™ вЂ“ it splits itself into parts. In most cases, he says, they have a history of childhood abuse, generally starting before the age of five. Over a 30-year career, Aquarone has worked with hundreds of people with a dissociative disorder. The centre is run by Remy Aquarone, an analytical psychotherapist and a former director of the International Society for the Study of Trauma and Dissociation. Melanie is talking from a sofa in a quiet consulting room at the Pottergate Centre for Dissociation and Trauma in Norwich, UK. If youвЂ™re in a totally impossible situation, you dissociate to stay alive.

#Other words for multiple personality disorder update#

Development should be seamlessвЂ¦ But because we didnвЂ™t grow up naturally, we would update ourselvesвЂ¦ Finally, there were nine different adult parts, each managing a stage of our abuse-free adult life.вЂќ вЂњWeвЂќ вЂ“ she generally refers to herself as вЂweвЂ™ вЂ“ вЂњhad lots of adult parts.

Memories, behaviours, attitudes, perceived age вЂ“ all can switch together. The change in name reflects an understanding that itвЂ™s more than just changes in personality that are involved. Melanie has what used to be called multiple personality disorder, which is now more commonly referred to as dissociative identity disorder (DID). вЂњI have to go with what I believe happened, and my reality.вЂќ Amid the confusing, terrifying mingling of different voices in one consciousness came memories of child abuse, the first episode occurring when she was three, the last when she was 16. The different identities belonged to her, Melanie felt, but вЂherвЂ™ at different ages, from three years old to 16 and on into adulthood. Suddenly she was aware of other identities inside her, and the barriers between them were crumbling. Then, a family tragedy triggered a cataclysmic psychological change. Until she was 40 years old, Melanie Goodwin had no memory of her life before the age of 16.