9781422280126

When one of her alters takes over, she later has no recollection of what happened during that time.Through therapy, she has learned to communicate with these other identities to learn what happened when a period of her life seems to have been erased. By embracing the voices within, Joubert has learned to function better and move forward in her everyday life.

ScientificTake: Dividing and Conquering the ProblemsWithin

Dissociative disorders are survivor mechanisms that most often form in children who have been exposed to long-term physical, sexual, or emotional abuse. Natural disasters and combat can also cause dissociative disorders. In some cases in which a young person is in a desperate situation with no hope for a relief, the mind reconfigures itself into different personalities to deal with the stressful situation or dissociates from reality in order to cope. Often these identities

Related Conditions

LosingYourself: Dissociative Amnesia With this condition, a person forgets major life details. Like DID, it is also triggered by traumatic events.At age 32, Naomi Lewis of England woke up one day in 2009 believing she was 15 again.All memory of the 17 years in between had evaporated. Doctors determined that severe stress had led to a dramatic memory loss. She couldn’t even remember her 10-year-old son. Unplugged from Reality: Depersonalization Disorder With a continuing sense of being disconnected from reality, people with this disorder feel unplugged from normal thoughts, emotions, and actions. Rather than feeling engaged like an average person, they feel like they are watching a movie.Adam Duritz, singer in the group The Counting Crows, has grappled with this type of condition. In an interview in Men’s Health in 2008, he said,“I have a form of dissociative disorder that makes the world seem like it’s not real, as if things aren’t taking place. It’s hard to explain, but you feel untethered.”

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Personality