HELP?! Dissociative Identity Disorder Question!?

okay so im a little confused and i need some clarification. when someone with DID has "blackouts" is that when their alter takes over or is it amnesia? And with amnesia is the patient refusing to recall the traumatic event or they cant really remember? This is for a research paper and im a little confusedHELP?! Dissociative Identity Disorder Question!?
Yes and no. Those with DID are typically amnestic for the periods of time when alters assume control. However, with treatment, many with DID become at leas minimally co-conscious with their alters, meaning that they retain some memory and/or some control while various alters are "out".



In some cases, amnesia is physiological. In others, it is psychological. Whether or not someone will eventually recover memory for the "lost" period of time is impossible to predict.



Good luck on your paper,

~Dr. B.~HELP?! Dissociative Identity Disorder Question!?
We all present different behaviors depending on the situation. How one behaves in school will differ from how one behaves at a friend's party. As example, I had a friend that had people at work laughing constantly. When we attended a picnic he was very subdued at his wife remarked how she didn't understand why we were expecting jokes from him. At this level the person is responding to the situation. They are aware of what's going on and present the best 'face" to deal with it.



Dissociative Identity Disorder is often called 'multiple personality disorder. The Eve White/Black ("Three faces of Eve") was the first that gained much public attention.



Under DSM-IV, DID includes dissociative amnesia, dissociative fugue, and depersonalization disorder. It's worthwhile to look at what these conditions say. Dissociative amnesia, is when someone escapes from a situation and doesn't remember. Fugue is a leaving of disassociation from one's life. You see this when the news reports announced the discovery of someone with no memories. Sometimes their identify is learned and they are returned to their former life. In short it's a form of running away. Depersonalization disorder occurs when someone feels they are detached from their life. They feel that they are watched a movie as they go through their everyday life. The step back from involvement.



In each case the condition is a form of getting away or escaping from a situation. To a limited extent our daydreams do this. You're on a long drive and suddenly don't remember the last few miles. Either you were changing the CD, Texting or simply in a daydream to avoid the boredom.



The condition is extremely rare. Mostly what you see are personality fragments.The fragments are a way of dealing with the situation but can't sustain themselves as a separate personality. With the Eve White/Black case "Black" was a wild party girl." However that was all she did. She never moved away or entered into long term relationships. "White" was a quiet constrained housewife with limited social life, much less one to attend parties. Through "Black" Eve has a means to experience such parties yet still remain safe.



There's often secondary gains to the condition that reinforce it. We recall a case similar to the Eve White/Black where the patient received lots of attention for the condition. At what point was it the condition or all the attention that resulted in the behavior?