A person with multiple personalities has revealed what it's like to live with the condition.
Dissociative identity disorder (DID) is a mental health condition where someone has two or more separate personalities, which control their behaviour and actions.
When someone with DID switches personalities, there will be gaps in their memory - these identities are caused after going through trauma, according to Cleveland Clinic.
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It is formerly known as multiple personality disorder and split personality disorder.
To 'dissociate' is to separate or disconnect, and people with DID might experience different personalities, which are known as alters.
This can result in changes in behaviour, memory, ways of thinking, and more - amnesia can also occur, regarding daily activities and personal information, as different identities can affect how you function socially, at home, or at work/school.
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Now, someone with DID has now explained how it is to live with the disorder.
As part of social media content creator Anthony Padilla's 'I spent a day with...' YouTube series, he spoke with several people that have DID, as they opened up on having the condition.
One person, known as dissociadid online - real name Kya - has opened up on how having DID affects them from day to day.
Kya clarified that they identify as 'we', as a multiple, saying that they consider themselves as part of a DID system, as alters.
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Host Padilla asked if they could explain what having DID entails, to which Kya openly replied: "Having DID means that as a child your personality was unable to fully develop into one singular personality.
"Everybody as a child starts off with an un-integrated personality, and around the ages of between seven to nine in normal development.
"But if there is repeated or severe trauma before that age, then the brain can say 'woah, I can't deal with this, this cannot be my life and we would not be able to survive if I was aware of this'."
Kya further added that the trauma, along with dissociating to a high level and not having any attachments to your primary caregivers, contribute to never forming one full personality, as amnesia helps to keep the trauma away.
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"That's why if you have D.I.D you have multiple personalities, rather than one singular one," they concluded.
Opening up on 'dissociative amnesia', which is when they forget personal information or actions when switching alters, Kya shared a time that they experienced it.
"I was in the bath. I just switched out, so I had no memory of what happened before, I didn't remember getting in the bath 'cause it wasn't me. It was my alter Kyle who's my primary protector and he'd apparently decided that he wanted a snack while he was in the bath.
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"And there was just this half-eaten banana on the shampoo holder and I was like 'what? Why?!? That's disgusting!'" they laughed while recalling.
Describing it as one of the funnier stories they'd gone through, Kya also revealed that it was 'peeled' and 'pretty beautifully presented'.
Topics: Mental Health, Social Media, YouTube, Health
Joshua Nair