Multiple Personality Disorder: Long Term Outlook

Multiple personality disorder, marked by the apparent fragmentation of a person into two or more personalities and accompanied by multiple other disorders such as post traumatic stress disorder and depression, is among the most curable of mental illnesses. However, largely due to the complicating other disorders, people with multiple personality disorder are usually not diagnosed properly until after they’ve been in the mental health system an average of seven years.

Most people who develop multiple personality disorder have histories of repetitive and severe to the point of life-threatening trauma at an early age, generally under the age of nine. They also may possess a genetic predisposition for dissociative disorders. It may be as prevalent as one percent of the population and as much as five to twenty percent of those in psychiatric hospitals, regardless of their primary diagnosis. Sexual abuse survivors and those with chemical dependency have even higher rates. Though most multiple personality disorder records indicate that it’s primarily a female disease, new research indicates that it may be as prevalent among males. It’s possible that males are more likely to be treated for drug and alcohol dependency, or they may be incarcerated.

Left untreated, multiple personality disorder often leads to a number of other mental illness problems including severe clinical depression, substance abuse, suicidal behavior, post traumatic stress disorder, eating disorders, and self-destructive behaviors. They may also have a higher than normal chance of becoming abusive later in life. But many people with untreated multiple personality disorder often have surprising success in life, becoming artists, business leaders, and other pillars of the community. More often, the chronic defensive structures developed along with multiple personalities lead to serious dysfunction in work and especially in social activities.

Multiple personality disorder is most often treated primarily with talk therapy, in which the patient talks through their traumas with a psychotherapist, who helps them to integrate their suppressed memories with their ordinary ones, and eventually can help them to integrate their personalities together. It is a long and painful process. Other treatments may include drugs, hypnotherapy, art therapy, and movement therapy, but talk therapy will remain at the center of the treatment.

Interestingly, a number of multiple personality disorder victims choose not to integrate their multiple personalities to conclude their therapy. Instead, feeling that “integration” means death for some of their personalities, they choose to confront their memories and allow the personalities to remain in place.