Herschel Walker’s Victory over D.I.D.
Herschel Walker’s Victory over D.I.D.
Micah Holtgraves
Ivy Tech Community College
PSYC101-HAF
September 27, 2012
Herschel Walker was one of the most important running backs in NFL and college history. Because he contained great speed and strength, he soon became one of the greatest football players of all time. In 1982 at the age of only 20, he became the Heisman trophy winner (Brown, 2009). He went on to play 15 years of professional football. This was all before he became diagnosed with Dissociative Identity Disorder, which almost ended his wife’s life when he put a gun to her head, but with great help he has been able to overcome his diagnosis. Herschel Walker was diagnosed with Dissociative Identity Disorder, or D.I.D., in 1998 (Falco, 2008). This was just a few years after he retired from professional football. His wife said that she was married to him for 19 years and 16 of those she had no idea that there was something wrong with him (Falco, 2008). Through the years Walker’s different alters were kept in check through football and training. They actually benefited him by helping him train and study harder. This was how he was able to break high school track records and graduate as valedictorian. Once Walker retired from football his alters did not have a common goal to focus on (Falco, 2008). He had to find a new way of coping with them, but couldn’t. This caused chaos in his marriage and life. He had extreme emotional swings from anger to love. He held a gun and a knife to his wife’s head several times but never actually hurt her (Falco, 2008).
Walker believes that the cause of his D.I.D. was because he was bullied as a child in elementary school. While there is no proven cause of Dissociative Identity Disorder, the main theory is thought that D.I.D is the result of childhood trauma (Roxanne, 2012). Many believe that severely traumatized children respond by dissociating themselves (Roxanne, 2012). Dissociative Identity Disorder’s numeric code is
Micah Holtgraves
Ivy Tech Community College
PSYC101-HAF
September 27, 2012
Herschel Walker was one of the most important running backs in NFL and college history. Because he contained great speed and strength, he soon became one of the greatest football players of all time. In 1982 at the age of only 20, he became the Heisman trophy winner (Brown, 2009). He went on to play 15 years of professional football. This was all before he became diagnosed with Dissociative Identity Disorder, which almost ended his wife’s life when he put a gun to her head, but with great help he has been able to overcome his diagnosis. Herschel Walker was diagnosed with Dissociative Identity Disorder, or D.I.D., in 1998 (Falco, 2008). This was just a few years after he retired from professional football. His wife said that she was married to him for 19 years and 16 of those she had no idea that there was something wrong with him (Falco, 2008). Through the years Walker’s different alters were kept in check through football and training. They actually benefited him by helping him train and study harder. This was how he was able to break high school track records and graduate as valedictorian. Once Walker retired from football his alters did not have a common goal to focus on (Falco, 2008). He had to find a new way of coping with them, but couldn’t. This caused chaos in his marriage and life. He had extreme emotional swings from anger to love. He held a gun and a knife to his wife’s head several times but never actually hurt her (Falco, 2008).
Walker believes that the cause of his D.I.D. was because he was bullied as a child in elementary school. While there is no proven cause of Dissociative Identity Disorder, the main theory is thought that D.I.D is the result of childhood trauma (Roxanne, 2012). Many believe that severely traumatized children respond by dissociating themselves (Roxanne, 2012). Dissociative Identity Disorder’s numeric code is