Ten characteristics of personality split

Personality split typically refers to dissociative identity disorder, characterized by the dissociation of identity, memory, or consciousness. Common features include identity transition, memory loss, loss of realism, emotional numbness, dissociative forgetting, dissociative wandering, personality disintegration, hallucination experiences, self-identity confusion, and behavioral pattern mutations. This disease needs to be diagnosed by a psychiatrist through professional evaluation, and patients should seek timely medical attention and receive systematic treatment.

1. Identity transition

Patients may suddenly exhibit completely different identity states, with significant differences in behavior, language, and even handwriting between different identities. In some cases, different identities have completely fragmented memories of the same event, and the process of transformation is often accompanied by brief confusion of consciousness. This symptom is highly correlated with traumatic experiences, and psychological therapy should focus on dealing with early childhood trauma.

2. Memory loss

is manifested as selective forgetting of personal experiences, especially memory gaps for traumatic events. There may be situations in daily life where important items suddenly disappear, strangers call and claim to be familiar with each other. Memory discontinuity may last for several hours to months, and EEG examination usually shows no organic lesions.

3. Loss of Sense of Reality

Patients often describe their surroundings as becoming unreal, as if observing the world through a layer of frosted glass. It may be accompanied by experiences such as distorted sense of time and abnormal spatial perception, and the authenticity of the environment may be repeatedly confirmed during the attack. This symptom needs to be differentiated from epilepsy and migraine premonitory symptoms.

4. Emotional numbness

Loss of normal emotional response to major events, manifested as delayed emotional response or uncoordinated emotional expression. Perhaps suddenly transitioning from extreme sadness to calmness, but physiological indicators still indicate a state of stress. This contradictory reaction is related to dysfunction of the limbic system.

5. Dissociative forgetting

is different from ordinary forgetting. Patients may forget important personal information such as name and address, but retain life skills. During the attack, there may be aimless long-distance travel and complete inability to recall afterwards. Magnetic resonance imaging shows abnormal activity in the hippocampus.

6. Dissociative Roaming

Suddenly running away from home and establishing a new identity while maintaining basic living abilities. During the roaming period, the behavior seemed normal, but after returning to their original identity, they completely lost memory of this experience. It needs to be differentiated from temporal lobe epileptic seizures.

7. Personality disintegration

Continuously or repeatedly experiencing a sense of self separation, such as feeling like observing one's own words and actions. Some patients describe that a certain part of their body has become larger/smaller or they do not feel the presence of limbs. This experience is related to network dysfunction in the default mode of the brain.

8. Illusion experience

may involve auditory or visual hallucinations, which are often related to traumatic experiences. Unlike schizophrenia, these types of hallucinations are usually narrative and patients have a certain level of awareness of the symptoms. Functional magnetic resonance imaging shows abnormal activation of specific brain regions during the hallucination period.

9. Self identification confusion

may lead to cognitive contradictions in basic information such as age, gender, and occupation, and may also firmly believe that one is both a child and an adult. This kind of confusion is common in cases of sustained abuse during childhood, and identity integration therapy is an important intervention.

10. Sudden change in behavior pattern

Sudden appearance of behavior characteristics that are completely different from normal, such as switching from right-handed to left-handed writing, drastic changes in dietary habits, etc. Behavioral changes are often associated with potential identity transitions, and video recordings can aid in symptom assessment. Patients with dissociative identity disorder need to establish a stable treatment alliance, and evidence-based methods such as eye movement desensitization and reprocessing therapy, cognitive-behavioral therapy, etc. are recommended for psychological therapy. Drug therapy may consider mood regulating drugs such as fluoxetine capsules and quetiapine tablets, but caution should be exercised that benzodiazepines may exacerbate dissociation symptoms. Regular daily routines should be maintained, avoiding caffeine and alcohol intake from foods rich in omega-3 fatty acids such as deep-sea fish. Family members should learn non judgmental communication skills to create a low stress environment for patients. During acute attacks of symptoms, patients can be guided to perform grounding training, such as touching objects with different textures to help restore their sense of reality.