Can people with DID change appearance?

MYTH: A person with DID has alters that look and act completely different. Some people with DID do in fact have several highly characterized alters, each with their own names, ages, genders, races, mannerisms, and ways of speaking, but the “split personality” concept is a little misleading.

What body system does dissociative identity disorder affect?

The patients suffering with DID have been found to have some alterations in their brain morphology. Amygdala and hippocampus have been found to be affected in DID as well. Usually the reduction in size of the hippocampus of DID patients is observed.

Can people with DID have different health issues?

Along with the dissociation and multiple or split personalities, people with dissociative disorders may experience a number of other psychiatric problems, including symptoms: Depression. Mood swings. Suicidal tendencies.

What is going on in the brain with dissociative identity disorder?

Despite these findings, essentially nothing is known about the neurobiology of dissociative identity disorder. In both animal and human studies, early stress has been shown to be associated with changes in the structure of the hippocampus, which plays a critical role in learning, memory, and stress regulation (12, 13).

DID and physical changes?

The alters may even present physical differences, such as allergies, right-or-left handedness or the need for eyeglass prescriptions. These differences between alters are often quite striking. A person living with DID may have as few as two alters or as many as 100. The average number is about 10.

What does it mean when you feel detached from your body?

Depersonalization-derealization disorder occurs when you persistently or repeatedly have the feeling that you’re observing yourself from outside your body or you have a sense that things around you aren’t real, or both.