DID is often referred to as a highly creative survival technique, because it allows individuals enduring 'hopeless' circumstances to preserve some areas of healthy functioning.
People with DID (MPD) may experience any of the following: depression, mood swings, suicidal tendencies, sleep disorders (insomnia, night terrors, and sleep walking), panic attacks and phobias (flashbacks, reactions to stimuli or "triggers"), alcohol and drug abuse, compulsions and rituals, psychotic-like symptoms (including auditory and visual hallucinations), and eating disorders. In addition, individuals with DID (MPD) can experience headaches, amnesias, time loss, trances, and "out of body experiences." Some people with DID (MPD) have a tendency toward self-persecution, self-sabotage, and even violence (Boor, 1982). .
The vast majority (as many as 98 to 99%) of individuals who develop DID (MPD) have documented histories of repetitive, overwhelming, and often life-threatening trauma at a sensitive developmental stage of childhood (usually before the age of nine), and they may possess an inherited biological predisposition for dissociation (Boor, 1982). In our culture the most frequent precursor to DID (MPD) is extreme physical, emotional, and sexual abuse in childhood, but survivors of other kinds of trauma in childhood (such as natural disasters, invasive medical procedures, war, and torture) have also reacted by developing DID (MPD). .
Perhaps as many as 5-20% of people in psychiatric hospitals, many of whom have received other diagnoses (Franklin, 1990). The incidence rates are even higher among sexual abuse survivors and individuals with chemical dependencies. These statistics put DID (MPD) in the same category as schizophrenia, depression, and anxiety, as one of the four major mental health problems today. Most current literature shows that DID (MPD) is recognized primarily among females. The latest research, however, indicates that the disorders may be equally prevalent (but less frequently diagnosed) among the male population.
