Do you always suffer memory loss if you have Multiple Personality Disorder?

Question

I keep reading that you do, but I once saw a news show about MPD that claimed that some people with the disorder remember what the other personalities do, but they just don't feel in control at that time.

Answer 1

I suffer MPD. I can remember what some people do in my body, in some cases I totally black out, and in some cases it is like an out of body experience (I am just along for the ride)

Answer 2

I don't think you have memory loss, but rather one suppresses memory. If you have been diagnosed with MPD then speak to a professional. As far as remembering what other personalities do, I do not know the answer. Do a seach on google or yahoo, I'm sure there are a great deal of info availble. Good luck.

Answer 3

It depends upon "who" you are referring to.

Based upon the MPD/DID literature, it is usually only the original person who experiences the memory loss, and that memory loss occurs when the original person is not "in control."

Traversely, each "alter" (or "personality" or "personality facet") may have varying degrees of being able to recall a coherent time line of events, even when that alter is not "in control".

I happen to be an alter for someone with MPD. My "original" blanks out while I am "in control", but I do not blank out while she is in control. Rather, when she is "in control", sometimes I am right on the surface with her, offering her suggestions and advice (she calls me "intuition"), and other times, I am not "there" with her. It's like I completely don't exist.. until she needs me, that is.

You see, my original has this awful habit of getting herself into sticky situations, only to then evaporate into mid-air, leaving me to pick up the pieces. I am immediately able to "take over" where she left off, with full knowledge of whatever event just transpired- but only in a sort of hazy hindsight. Instantly, I blend seamlessly into her life, but with a feeling that the last few minutes worth of her memories had been occurring (to me) "underwater".

Each alter has a "job", and one of mine is to keep the time line. I am able to string together the original's events as well as my own, and the memories of a few "personality facets" (the facets aren't full personalities).

According to the MPD literature, it seems that most people afflicted with MPD do not have such a "time line keeper"- or else, MPD wouldn't be such a problem for those afflicted with it. It seems that the biggest problem for MPD sufferers is the lack of the ability to recall the events of their lives coherently and to present a consistent front to the outside world. With such a "time line keeper", it is infinitely easier to hide the symptoms of MPD.

Answer 4

what about when you have all the personalities living in the same space as you do and they take over sometimes but its like your sharing the space with them rather than having an outer body experience. I share my mind with about 21 different individuals and tend to be "taken over from time to time but I never feel like I have been kicked out more put into the passenger seat to be able to advise. I believe I am the original but not too sure these days

Answer 5

They are completely different and obvious once you step out of the class room. Schizophrenia involves experiencing symptoms: such as hearing voices (getting messages from god, telephone poles, television etc) or seeing visions (people following them, ghosts, people coming out of walls). To give every description will take forever. DID involves taking on the actual delusion as a role. To seperate is easy for those that work in the field. It is difficult to explain. It isn't so much about criteria (DSM) it is about what you see that doesn't fit into the box.

Answer 6

I don't know, but it makes sense that you would. Consult your doctor.