Switch on, switch off, switch on. Each ‘switch’ is a new alter ego, and the person you were just talking to seconds ago, is now gone. Multiple Personality Disorder more formerly known as Dissociative Identity Disorder, is a rare mental illness that affects less than 200,000 people each year in the United States alone. But, among these 200,000 people live thousands of more hidden identities.

The disorder itself can be defined almost exactly how it sounds. A rare dissociative disorder in which two or more personalities apparently exist within one individual.

Now, the word apparently is used as some persons assumed to be suffering from this can be wrongfully accused. This illness is so hard to identify that these assumptions can actually convince a healthy person that they have this disorder.

This is usually met with separating all the thought to be dissociated persons from each other and singling out the ones who seem to have no control over their hysterics while being spoken to about other problems they may be facing. Thus, leaving you with the handful of individuals who really endure the disorder.

Apparently again is also loosely used as part of the public doesn’t actually believe in multiple personality disorder due to it being a strictly mental mind game. There is no virus, bacteria or infection that causes it, it is all hypothesized to stem from trauma experienced in the earlier stages of development.

The article Multiple Personality Disorder,  by MD Arnold Lieber, states, “It is thought that the trauma is troubling that the individual breaks off from themselves and personality that stops developing from the age at which the trauma happened.”

So, once created as a coping mechanism early on by humans, is now something that patients cannot control. These alter personalities can be of the opposite sex or even of an entirely different species, all of which have their own intonation, likes and dislikes, and even their own separate life.

These secret identities can arise when you ask to speak with them, or even just on their own whenever a person gets set off.

An interview done with a woman who lives with and has multiple personality disorder is asked about the hardships she has faced throughout her life, “My relationships would fail a lot because with friends, family, and anything else people would say ‘you’re acting different, you’re a different person.”

Now, imagine not being able to form close intimate relationships just because you have more sides to yourself than others, how would you feel?

Often described as one hearing multiple voices in their head, these individuals can easily become perceived by most as insane. Whereas in reality, they’re normal people just like us and would appreciate being treated as such. Nobody likes to feel like an outcast in society, especially for something that they can’t necessarily control.

    Overall, this disorder impacts the people affected with it daily. Losing relationships, trouble forming relationships, depression due to the inability to act ‘normal’, anxiety about human interactions, trouble finding themselves and more are all hardships they face every day. And, although most go to therapy to help them cope with these side effects, the voices do not go away, they simply learn to try not to listen to what they say to do.

So, switch on, switch off, switch on, the person you were once speaking to is now gone.