Childhood Trauma & Dissociative Identity Disorder
Childhood Trauma and Dissociative Identity Disorder
Dissociative identity disorder (DID), previously known as multiple personality disorder, is a severe form of dissociation; a mental process that produces a lack of connection in a person's thoughts, memories, feelings, actions, or sense of identity. DID is believed to be the effect of severe trauma suffered during childhood. It’s believed that experiencing extreme, repetitive physical, sexual, or emotional abuse causes the disassociation, and as a result, a coping mechanism develops – the individual dissociates himself from the situation or experience that is too violent, traumatic or painful to assimilate with the conscious self.
“I can remember a single incident at the age of 12 when I clearly saw the formation of one of the other "me's". I was laying in my small bed, in my tiny closet-sized bedroom. I was enduring yet another middle-of-the-night visit from someone who terrorized me for all my childhood and much of the rest of my life. I was praying for him to finish and leave.
I was lying in my bed against the wall, staring out the window that was inches from me. I spent many nights staring out that window and wishing I could fly away; be with the stars and the moon. As I lay beneath him, pretending to be asleep, I was wishing I could escape through the window. Get away.
Suddenly, my wish was answered. I was outside the window. I felt no pain, no weight, no fear. I was disembodied, outside, looking back through. Seeing my body on the bed, as if it wasn't me. I felt sadness for the little girl on the bed, but I felt removed from me. It became a skill I honed and perfected for many years to come” (B.J., 2010).
Many have experienced a mild disassociation when daydreaming or having one’s mind wander while involved in an activity. But when one experiences the lack of connection in memory, thought, feelings, actions, or in the sense of identity, their escape from reality can be in response to a traumatic
Dissociative identity disorder (DID), previously known as multiple personality disorder, is a severe form of dissociation; a mental process that produces a lack of connection in a person's thoughts, memories, feelings, actions, or sense of identity. DID is believed to be the effect of severe trauma suffered during childhood. It’s believed that experiencing extreme, repetitive physical, sexual, or emotional abuse causes the disassociation, and as a result, a coping mechanism develops – the individual dissociates himself from the situation or experience that is too violent, traumatic or painful to assimilate with the conscious self.
“I can remember a single incident at the age of 12 when I clearly saw the formation of one of the other "me's". I was laying in my small bed, in my tiny closet-sized bedroom. I was enduring yet another middle-of-the-night visit from someone who terrorized me for all my childhood and much of the rest of my life. I was praying for him to finish and leave.
I was lying in my bed against the wall, staring out the window that was inches from me. I spent many nights staring out that window and wishing I could fly away; be with the stars and the moon. As I lay beneath him, pretending to be asleep, I was wishing I could escape through the window. Get away.
Suddenly, my wish was answered. I was outside the window. I felt no pain, no weight, no fear. I was disembodied, outside, looking back through. Seeing my body on the bed, as if it wasn't me. I felt sadness for the little girl on the bed, but I felt removed from me. It became a skill I honed and perfected for many years to come” (B.J., 2010).
Many have experienced a mild disassociation when daydreaming or having one’s mind wander while involved in an activity. But when one experiences the lack of connection in memory, thought, feelings, actions, or in the sense of identity, their escape from reality can be in response to a traumatic