Are Two Heads Better than One?

So today me, myself and I are going to ask the question are two heads better than one? What is multiple personality disorder? What causes it? And what is it like for the person? because even though it is said that teamwork makes the dream work, how much can one person really handle?

I had to do my research before writing this one because Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID) is so widely misunderstood, stereotyped and can happen in a variety of situations, causing it to tend to wildly vary from person to person.

Before I get into the post I would like to make it clear to readers that living with this condition can be a living hell, with no privacy and a constant fear of yourself in some cases. However with the proper treatment it can usually be almost completely overcome. Basically please, please, please try to emphasise with those who have to deal with this on a daily basis.

So lets try and get our heads round this then. You ready?

DID, as I said, can wildly vary from person to person, however nearly all cases have one thing in common, it is now generally accepted that DID stems from abuse during periods of development. If the abuse is severe with not enough time in between for the child to recover, they will begin to distance themselves, entering periods of a sort of self induced hypnosis, so it looks more like watching a TV to real life (this is called disassociation). This trance effectively blocks the child's own thoughts from them and stops them from being aware of the overwhelming amount of negative emotions.

During this period, if there is not a sufficient recovery time these disassociated thoughts and feeling may begin to cluster together with a common form e.g. sadness, anger etc. These may eventually bloom into full personalities inside the head, each with their own thoughts and memories, causing DID. Essentially the brain "fragments" in an attempt to protect itself.

People with DID have little to no control over what person will "come out" and when as in most cases the identities are not aware of one another and each will only have memories from times when they are the one in control. Because of this the person (who is always the dominant personality) may experience memory loss, blacked out periods and emotional detachment as a result of this natural defence mechanism.This can often be extremely distressing for the person who may be afraid and not understand what is going on and even for those around them as the multiple personalities may have different personalities, voices, sexes, ages and in some extreme cases even species. These other personalities or "Alters" can be triggered by various stimuli but a big one is a reminder of the abuse or events which led to their creation.

In most cases the alters have no communication with each other, but in some cases, people are actually able to communicate between alters in their own head. Even for those who this does not naturally come to may be able to communicate via a shared journal, recorded messages or other means of non instant communication.

Finally we will ask ourselves how much can a person handle and how exactly can this condition be treated. Cases have been recorded with as few as two or as many as a hundred alters which are usually adapted to the situation to bets cope with what is happening. As a result we do not really know the limits that our brains could handle as every cluster of feeling has the potential to develop, but I'm guessing that a safe bet would be the hundred mark because that many (even if they were only partially formed) would be easily enough to drive someone into mental illness.



There is not currently a cure for DID and as it is a natural process and a separation of the mind, not the brain, it is unlikely that there will ever be one. However long term treatment tends to be extremely successful if the patient has the commitment and willingness to comply. Such treatment may involve processes such as psychotherapy which attempt to "unfragment" the mind to a certain extent, or even just general therapy for the different personalities and inter alter communication in the hope that this will eventually let them coexist and function as a normal person does.
There are so many stereotypes about people with DID and an incredible amount of prejudgement towards these people, but what people fail to see is the incredible mechanics of the human mind, which even has the power to create whole new people and identities in order to protect itself. This extraordinary ingenuity of the mind is a perfect example of how powerful our brains really are, and why they allow even those in the direst situations to flourish truly exponentially.

I hope you enjoyed this post and have a better appreciation for those with DID, I know that I enjoyed making it and have personally learned a lot about about the mind in researching this. But I think that we can now all agree on the fact that in many situations, two heads are not necessarily better than one. Thanks for reading :)