What Is Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID)?

DID is a dissociative disorder that affects approximately one person out of one hundred. It was previously known as Multiple Personality Disorder (MPD) until 1994, when the name was changed to reflect the better understanding the medical community had gained about the disorder. To be diagnosed with DID a person must present with multiple distinct personalities or identities (often called alters) that are able to take command and control the person’s behavior, while presenting with amnesia of events that occur when a different alter is front (in control of the body). DID almost exclusively develops as the result of severe and prolonged trauma experienced in early childhood (before age 10).