This was a poem written by a former DID (Dissociative Identity Disorder) patient named Elizabeth before she was hospitalized. Elizabeth came from a neighborhood full of hatred and tragedy. By age three, she started to produce several imaginary friends that followed her throughout her life. At the time it seemed like nothing, but she was diagnosed with Dissociative Identity Personalities Disorder and placed in a hospital at age 25. For a while her treatment wasn't helping; her mind rejected it. At home, however, she began asking her husband Don to leave the house so she could have some time alone. Suspicious of this odd request, he placed a tape recorder in her room and to his surprise he discovered her having conversations with her alter personalities and a new voice she seemed to not recognize. Soon this strange new voice began telling her the things she needed to do to get better. Elizabeth's DID came about because of the experiences in her early stages of development. (Allison 2 - 14) Anyone who has had a traumatic experience before the age of seven needs to know the causes, symptoms, and treatment of DID.
1 in 4 families include a member with a mental illness, so they are not uncommon; however, DID has been said to be one of the more rare. (Johnson 17). Development of such an illness may be due to several things; a traumatic or life threatening trauma before the age of seven, polarized parents (when a person has one good parent, and one bad parent), or a witnessed encounter of one sibling being abused while the other is left unharmed, may put someone at risk for the disorder. The polarization of parents and siblings is very confusing to the mind of a young child. While seeing one bad and one good, they begin to believe that this may be how everything in life works. (Dissociation.com 5). Several experiences like these can cause a child to form what is known as an alter.