Bollywood has often used the concept of Multiple personality disorder in many of its supernatural movies. Well, Multiple personality disorder or Dissociative Identity Disorder is as natural as any other mental or physical ailment.

DID (Dissociative identity disorder) is a mental ailment in which two or more personalities alternately control a single brain. This often leads to severe memory loss. The person starts behaving like someone else.

DID is never caused due to the direct effect of substance or circumstance. It can be precisely explained as the fragmentation of a personality.

DIAGNOSIS: There is belief prevailing in our society that patients of DID are more easily hypnotized.

The patient is usually in a guilty and depressed state of mind.

Certain extreme behavioural differences can be observed in the individual when he/she is under the control of the alternate personality.

SYMPTOMS:

• The individual exhibits extreme variations in behaviour, mood, voice etc.
• Identifiable changes in consciousness, memory, perception, cognition, and motor function.
• Memory loss relating to recent or distant past.
• Distressed behaviour in the social and occupational area.
• In many cases, the patients have attempted to commit suicide.

CAUSES:

• One of the major causes identified till date is, physical or sexual abuse, mostly during childhood.

TREATMENT:

• Long-term psychotherapy intended at deconstructing the alternate personality.
• Certain drugs including antidepressants, anti-anxiety drugs or tranquillizers may be prescribed to the patient, to control situations like Panic attacks.

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