What is DID (Disassociative Identity Disorder)?

It's actually Dissociative Identity Disorder, not "Disassociative."

Dissociation is a mental process, which produces a lack of connection in a person's thoughts, memories, feelings, actions, or sense of identity.

During the period of time when a person is dissociating, certain information is not associated with other information as it normally would be. For example, during a traumatic experience, a person may dissociate the memory of the place and circumstances of the trauma from his ongoing memory, resulting in a temporary mental escape from the fear and pain of the trauma and, in some cases, a memory gap surrounding the experience.

Because this process can produce changes in memory, people who frequently dissociate often find their senses of personal history and identity are affected.
---http://www.sidran.org/didbr.html

Disassociative Identity Disorder (DID) is a severe dissociative disorder that involves a disturbance in both the memory and identity of an individual. The individual uses defense mechanisms involving splitting, idealization, devaluation, denial and/or taking on the personality of another in order to cope with trauma experienced in childhoodMultiple personalities are formed through dissociation. Dissociation occurs when an individual splits with their primary personality (also known as the "host" personality) and develops a secondary personality in their subconscious. The dissociative splitting of the self into two or more personalities usually occurs in childhood due to extreme physical, sexual and/or psychological abuse. In most cases the existence of Disassociative Identity Disorder represents an attempt by the child to deal with overwhelmingly negative events in their life. The ongoing abuse experienced by the child somehow increases their capacity to detach themselves, compartmentalizing life’s trauma into autonomous units rather than a blended whole. When a particularly abusive experience becomes unbearable the highly hypnotizable child simply exercises their capacity for self-hypnosis, to go to sleep, as it were, and allow another person to emerge who can handle the situation better. In many ways the altered personality of abused children resemble the imaginary friends that "normal" children describe—externalized versions of cartoon figures, superheroes or animals; however, what begins as a protective fantasy is kept within until the individual with Disassociative Identity Disorder becomes that character.

Most people with Disassociative Identity Disorder start to show signs in their 20’s and 30’s.

DID is the seperation of a persons thought processes. It can occur over a period of stress but it can also be created rapidly from a traumatic experience.

Image yourself (your consciensness and memory) are one,
People with DID have a host which has fragmented bits of information surrounding it that are not part of the host in any way. This total dissasotiation causes a new personality to emerge.

DID is caused but a memory that is suppressed and therefore placed in a part of the brain where the host cannot access it.

There are two treatments for DID one is to live with it, as in live with all of the alter as one, possibly even attempting to control when they come out.

Another treatment is integration. This is where a psychiatrist forces the sufferer to integrate the traumatic memories that were hidden so that they accept them into a part of their own being.
The problem with this treatment is that at the completion the host may change his or her personality because of the additional memories.

My mother had this disorder due to abuse as a young girl. She has 3 different personalities and after having children as next to the oldest I developed this disorder after being turned over to an orphanage with my younger sibling. She also has this disorder but she repressed her memories until I made her face them recently now I can definitely see a small improvement in her. I on the other hand never knew what was going on but had numerous failed relationships and being in a trance like state from time to time and never knowing why. After looking for our mother for so many years without avail due to the fact that she changed identities so many times we have come to the end of the search and still not found her. I feel this would help my sister heal and maybe would give me some insight to helping myself. I'm certainly glad I found this site. As now I know it isn't my fault but the product of my memory and environment. Thank you all for helping me.

I believe that my mother has the version of DID that does not involve multiple personalities. Instead, she alters history and has done so her whole life. Many historical events in our family are out of context, out of sequence, altered in some way, or omitted entirely. The changes often facilitate the laying of blame on others for many problems or the total denial of others.

All of this serves to absolve her from any perceived guilt.

The process of my mother's dissociation of our family history has prevented our family from ever resolving any problem over the last 7 decades (I am only 46.)

To resolve a problem everyone has to agree that the problem exists. They also have to agree on the context that the problem occurred.

She is way too clever to get help for this. She has never gotten help -- ever.

Our family has split apart due, in good measure, to the consequences of her DID.

In the end, it was my Mother who suffered far more than any of the rest of her family in the end.

She has moved to Canada and I do not know how I can help her at this point.

DID is a horror -- make no mistake.

I have this and it is not a "death sentence". After much therapy, I am doing much better. This is a terribly painful disorder--but you can heal from it.

I have B.P.D. and find that there are similarities. But the altars that I experience are no where near as developed and dont have complete amnesia in between. I imagine that it would be pretty hard to live with.