Dissociative Personality Disorder
Dissociative personality disorder (DID) can be described as a disorder caused by a multiple of factors such as childhood maltreatment inclusive of emotional, physical and sexual abuse which were repetitive in nature (Brown &Barlow, 2011). The disorder is thought to be a psychological condition which is complex in nature such that people believe it does not even exist. The condition seems to exist since Wendy was diagnosed with the condition which had led to her living a stressful life since the doctors did not fully recognize her condition thereby giving her the wrong medications and treatments. She was diagnosed with various illnesses before the doctors realized what she was suffering off since her organization had become tired paying the bills. The condition causes disconnection of the victim from the people since the victim suffers from multiple emotional stresses thus does not associate with the rest of the people (Brown &Barlow, 2011). In the case of Wendy, she hurt herself and was regularly taken to the hospital since it happened in the absence of people.
The condition ensures that the persona totally dissociate themselves with the condition thus such people with the condition become violent and even hurt themselves just like in the case of Wendy who was severally hospitalized because of hurting herself. People have wondered whether the disorder is real even the medical experts since they tend to associate the condition with other disorders. The disorder is as a result of two or more personalities that often overcome the behavior of the victim thus such victims are forgetful in nature and cannot remember crucial personal details and information (Brown &Barlow, 2011). Personality in the victims controls their behavior and they behave abnormally in the way they speak and address issue since their mind is being controlled by the personality at the moment. Wendy’s condition was regularly mistaken to be Schizophrenia since the too disorders tend to share similar symptoms. Schizophrenia however is quite different since it is a mental illness which is recurrent in nature which causes hallucinations and dilutions to the victims unlike DID which causes multiple personalities to the victims. People suffering from Schizophrenia have no multiple personalities compared to victims of DID which cannot recognize their personalities since it shifts with time (Brown &Barlow, 2011).
Suicidal thoughts are regularly seen in patients suffering from DID, in the case of Wendy she was under doctors supervision since she had suicidal symptoms thus could not be discharged from the hospital at first. She could not recognize herself since the condition brings back bad memories from the past which makes the victim become violent and tend to commit suicide. Wendy had undergone so much in life and was emotionally stressed which caused her depression and finally led to her having multiple personalities, she tried to overcome her past memories but the memories overcame her and she ended up being violent and hurting herself since she could not control the situation.
Therefore DID is a real disorder and people need to avoid depression which can end up causing these multiple personalities (Brown &Barlow, 2011). People should not abuse children at their early days since the abused people are at a great risk of developing this disorder when the memories come back to them. The disorder is rated through therapy just like Wendy had to undergo therapy and in this case, long term therapy in order to ensure the memories fade away with time. Symptoms such as anxiety and depression should however be treated with the correct medicine and if long term therapy is added just like in the case of Wendy the condition can be controlled and treated.
References
Brown, T.A. & Barlow, D.H. (2011). Casebook in Abnormal Psychology, 4th edition. Wadsworth, Belmont, CA: Cengage Learning .
