Do you know anyone who has M.P.D?

Question

I know someone with this disorder. It is hard to listen to. I think most of her stories are made up. I won't go into detail but they are pretty wild stories about some things she claims that some of her alters have done. I ask her who she is because some of her alters like me and a coule hate me. Can anyone help?

I am a Christian and I pray for her. Some of her Alters are Christian, one is a Witch, one is a Spititulist Medium, She is on Medcations, but they don't seem to help.

It is one of her alters wo tells me these stories. She talks very different. I remember when she heard herself on tape the first time. Scary!

Answer 1

Multiple Personality Disorder is the old term for what today is known as Dissociative Identity Disorder. The reason for the change in terminology was to better define what is going on in a person with this disorder. Obviously a person really doesn't have more than one personality but a complex, multi-faceted personality. The person dissociates (you have done it yourself: daydreaming and then realizing time has passed around you OR driving and then realizing you passed your exit quite a ways back) and loses time during the different phases of her fractured personality. The person with D.I.D. has no sense of herself except perhaps as a person with DID.
The disorder stems from sustained and repeated severe trauma which happened before the person was 5. Some experts say the trauma can happen as late as 7 or even 9. This is because small children dissociate all the time. It is a primitive coping mechanism. Older children and adults develop more sophisticated coping mechanisms like denial, defensiveness, aggression, and etc.
There is still a big debate going on in the medical/mental health establishment to try and define the veracity of this diagnosis. Is it real? Is it false memory syndrome? Is it induced by society and/or therapists? Unfortunately the debate sometimes gets very hot. There is an organization that claims it is not real, is false memories, is induced. Some of its members attack these struggling patients with DID and offer no help for them, accusing them of just being play actors and not people who are truly suffering.
On the other hand there are all sorts of support groups who are so solicitous of the sufferer that they encourage staying DID, not getting well, developing more alters and even induce paranoia in some sufferers so that they cannot live normal lives or seek help.
As for your personal dillema, I would suggest continued prayer, study about the disorder, discussing the whole situration with a pastor, and not to spend a lot of time with her alone. Jesus sent them out two by two for a reason. You and she are both safer with another person who does not have a mental disorder present. I would not allow any alter to abuse you in any way. You can say, "name, I will not allow you to abuse me just because you hate me. name, loves me and so does name and for their sakes I will remain a friend but I do not suffer you to misuse your place in name's system." If that alter persists then either leave or ask her to leave. If it gets ugly then call in bigger people...parents, pastor, school nurse, school counselor, even 911. And I do not mean call them in at some later date, but tell your friend's witch alter or etc that you are going to call for help right now if she doesn't let you talk to your friend.
A short story by Irvin Yalom, MD has him working with someone with DID and he simply favored the strongest and most positive alter such that the others no longer spoke to him. He did therapy with the strongest and most positive person so that she became stronger and stronger and more well-rounded and was able to take on tasks that had previously been delegated to the others.
I recommend the book: The Dissociative Identity Disorder Sourcebook by Deborah Bray Haddock and published by Contemporary Books. It is easy to read and helpful for the person with DID, their friends and family and therapists.

Answer 2

Hmm. If she is on meds for mpd, maybe she really does have it. However, most people who have mpd don't know what the other personalities have done because they were "not there" for it. That is one of the scariest things about mpd; the blackouts. However, if your bullsh!t detector is going off, maybe she is full of it. Some people do things like this to get attention. Try not to feed into it. Always call her by her given name no matter if she responds or not. Don't react to her stories. Just say, "Oh." That way, you are not calling her a liar but you are not exactly feeding into it, either. See if, after awhile, she stops doing it. That's how you'll know.
By the way, when someone has mpd, there is usually a truly remarkable phenomenon that occurs: when they have a changeover (a switch from one self to another), they actually look and sound like someone else and give off a totally different vibe, as if they actually were a different person. It is subtle but it is noticeable. Does this happen with her?

Answer 3

See Dissociative Identity Disorder (the current term) at http://www.ezy-build.net.nz/~shaneris on page 17, and encourage her to use the conferencing technique, to find out whether her alters can agree to attempt reintegration into a "monomind", with an adult, or probability estimator personality in overall charge.

Answer 4

Yes I do know someone with DID. She still calls herself multiple though. It's creepy because she just called me about half an hour ago, and asked me to call the lady she has bible study with, and tell the lady she doesn't want her coming to her door anymore. She was the one who asked me to ask this lady to do bible study with her. I know about her problem but this other lady doesn't know. I told her No, I won't do that, I told her that she will have to tell the lady not to come to her door anymore because I don't know who wants to stop bible study. This friend's house is a shrine to Jesus! Sometimes she will call me and then later swear that she didn't call. I keep being her friend though because other people have turned their backs on her. I wish I could help you but I really don't know what to say. I would keep her psychiatrists phone number in case she as one of her alters calls you and is suicidal. Read up on this and rent movies. I rented Sybil and it was just like my friend. Remind her to take her med.s is she in therapy? If so get her Therapists number as well. Good luck.