MPD/DID, a Defense Mechanism!

Multiple Personality Disorder (MPD) / Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID) is a defense mechanism created in childhood while the brain is still developing. MPD/DID is a very real and legitimate disorder of the mind even though there still is conflict within the medical and psychological community. Although MPD/DID is not a physical illness, it is a disorder of the mind and just like any other form of "Illness" can and does affect the physical well being of the entire body!

As infants our minds are still developing and we're learning how to cope with life and how to react in different situations. And in the case of trauma or child abuse we all develop our own defense mechanism to cope.

Some children will react in a defensive manner such as screaming or fighting back and others may shy away and learn to be quiet and "good" so the abuse will stop. While others simply cannot cope with their surroundings because the abuse is just too horrendous and their only way of coping with "what the mind cannot handle" is to dissociate so they don't have to deal with their abuse. By the way, simply dissociating like this does not necessarily develop into MPD/DID!

But sometimes if the abuse continues in its severity, the mind can separate into "Parts" (fragments) and begin to use dissociation as his/her primary form of defense. The child's subconscious mind may begin to assign names, faces, chores, emotions and individual personalities to each "Part," and each one of these parts will usually stay fragmented from the rest of the subconscious mind, which is why there is so much confusion and loss of time.


These "Parts" are initially created to deal with some form of trauma that the rest of the mind is too fragile (anymore) to deal with or even simply to perform a certain task that others are not capable of. This fragmenting could continue on for as long as the trauma and/or abuse continue.

A person with MPD/DID will usually stroll through life feeling isolated with all of this confusion in their minds until something happens to trigger one or more of the alters. These triggers may not even, and usually do not occur until adulthood when the disorder is no longer needed for safety since the (now) adult is far away from danger and it is safe to finally deal with the mental issues from the past.

Please keep in mind that the creation of the alter personalities: the switching and the triggers are all automatic. Basically it all happens in the sub-conscious mind.

After all, the main goal of creating such a defense mechanism is to hide the truth from not only the rest of the subconscious but from society as well in order to be able to lead a half way normal life. Where the average individual seeks to grow, thrive, enjoy and better their lives, the multiples focus on life is "survival!"

More times than not, these episodes begin to surface when we are raising our own children! Since most multiples experience severe abuse beginning in early childhood or even infancy, our subconscious begins to recognize behaviors and episodes in our children that might trigger memories of our own childhood abuse.

This is when the survivor may begin to experience even more mental, and emotional disturbances and may begin to experience recovered memories simply because they are beginning to mirror their own childhood through their children.



I must stress here that multiples in general do not physically abuse their own, or other children! But the abusive caregivers (in my opinion) would be those who are struggling with depression and other mental issues and possibly even physical issues that might be making the individual stressed out and depressed.

Survivors who live with MPD/DID often feel "crazy," "out of place in society," "isolated," "disoriented," "confused due to so much memory loss and all of the turmoil within the brain," "animated" and "living in a daydream like state of mind"! All of the above mentioned is what makes this condition a "disorder" because it is affecting the quality of life. We appear quite normal on the outside and function very well in society, which is why I believe that this disorder has been in question for so long.

Survivors with MPD/DID are often thought of as hypochondria's, suffering with one ailment after another and never seeming to get to the bottom of what is causing the pains. This happens because each alter personality deals with their own issues and each alter carries his or her own memories of trauma or abuse and his or her physical body is reacting to memories (body memories) that were only experienced by that one alter, and indeed each alter really does have physical issues that other alters do not.



One example of this is the different prescriptions of eye wear (or glasses). When a multiple visits the eye doctor, the outcome of the exam lies solely on the alter personality who shows up for the appointment. There could also be various switching of the different alters during the exam as well which causes the exam to result in the wrong prescription.

Now you may be saying to yourself "Maybe that's it, I have MPD/DID," I was abused as a child, I'm starting to have recovered memories, I have a lot of memory loss and I have all of the other symptoms that have been mentioned here. So does that make me a multiple? No, of course not! There are a lot of other mental disorders that mimic every one of the symptoms above.

Every body experiences all of the same emotions and confusions at times, especially when dealing with traumatic situations in their lives. The difference is that someone who may be living with MPD/DID has had these symptoms for years and years and the quality of their lives have been so poor that they have struggled to function with everyday life for just as many years!

By: Candy Little

Last updated on 2/02/2007

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