In this Article

• What is dissociative identity disorder?
• What are the signs and symptoms of dissociative identity disorder?
• What causes dissociative identity disorder?
• How is dissociative identity disorder diagnosed?
• What are the treatments for dissociative identity disorder?
• What happens if dissociative identity disorder is not treated?
• Dissociative Identity Disorder At A Glance
• Dissociative Identity Disorder Glossary
• Dissociative Identity Disorder Index

What are the signs and symptoms of dissociative identity disorder?

Signs and symptoms of dissociative identity disorder include:

• lapses in memory (dissociation), particularly of significant life events, like birthdays, wedding, or birth of a child;



• blackouts in time, resulting in finding oneself in places but not recalling how one traveled there;



• being frequently accused of lying when they do not believe they are lying (for example, being told of things they did but do not recall);



• finding items in one's possession but not recalling how those things were acquired;



• encountering people with whom one is unfamiliar but who seem to know them as someone else;



• being called names that are completely unlike their own name or nickname;



• finding items they have clearly written but are in handwriting other than their own;



• hearing voices inside their head that are not their own;



• not recognizing themselves in the mirror;



• feeling unreal (derealization);



• feeling like they are watching themselves move through life rather than living their own life; and



• feeling like more than one person.

What causes dissociative identity disorder?

While there is no proven specific cause of DID, the prevailing psychological theory about how the condition develops is as a reaction to childhood trauma. Specifically, it is thought that one way that some individuals respond to being severely traumatized as a young child is to wall off, in other words, to dissociate those memories. When that reaction becomes extreme, DID may be the result. As with other mental disorders, having a family member with DID may indicate a potential vulnerability to developing the disorder but does not translate into the condition being literally hereditary.

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