Dissociative identity disorder is thought to be caused by trauma. The dissociative aspect is thought to be a coping mechanism; the person literally dissociates himself from a situation or experience that's too violent, traumatic, or painful to think about with his conscious self.
The disorder is described as someone having two or more distinct personalities that have power over the person's behaviour.
With this disorder the person also has trouble with recalling personal information there is also highly distinct memory variations which change with the persons split personality
The different personalities have their own; age, sex and race. They each have their own postures, gestures, and way of talking.
Sometimes the different personalities are imaginary people, they also can be animals.
The word for when the personalities change and reveal themselves is called ‘switching’. Switching can take seconds to minutes to days.
When under hypnosis the different personalities can come through and be very responsive to the hypnotist’s requests
Some of the symptoms can be things like; Mood swings, suicidal thoughts, sleep Disorders, anxiety and panic attacks, Alcohol and drug abuse, Compulsions or rituals, Psychotic-like symptoms, Eating disorders.
When the disorder is first diagnosed there is an average of 2 to 4 personalities present but by the end of the treatment there are