What Is Multiple Personality Disorder?
Reviewed: Dr. Mera
4. How Does a Person Develop Multiple Personality Disorder?
As with most dissociative disorders, multiple personality disorder often develops as a result of trauma in the individual’s life. For people with DID, this life-altering traumatic experience, or experiences, often occurs in childhood. This can include long chains of receiving abuse, witnessing violence, enduring a major sickness, or losing loved ones to death.
For some people who have experienced these traumatic events, disassociation, or a disconnect from reality, serves as a coping mechanism to escape stressful situations or to avoid reminiscing on them. In some cases, the person develops an alternate personality during these periods of dissociation, which may present itself with stronger, more assertive behavior.
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