Many minds, many personalities, in one body! Inspired by the artist with Multiple Personality Disorder

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This post is inspired by an Artist with Multiple Personality Disorder (now known as Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID)).

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I'd like to take a look at DID in a different limelight as I have always been fascinated by the depth of a person's existence. Upon studying mental disorders, I've learned of the different masks of people hidden behind fear, pain and anxiety, and in the case of Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID), we literally see different faces and different people in one body!

We all have our battles to fight and sometimes the battle is fought within

This is an original art made for this post, produced from the combination of traditional and digital art. Originally drawn and painted by hand with the finishing touch of digital.

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A few fun facts

• DID is characterized by the presence of two or more distinct personality states and there is fragmentation of identity (American Psychiatric Association, 2013)
• Individuals with DID may hold as many as 100 different coexisting identities. Wow, how can that fit inside one person? 😵
• These other distinct identities are called alters while the one that usually becomes the patient for treatment is the host identity
• The process of changing from one identity to another is called switching.
• Most people diagnosed with DID are said to have experienced significant trauma and DID can bee seen as a way of escaping or “dissociating” from a harsh reality and the pain that comes with it.

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It is intriguing to see capabilities and potentials emerge into the light when the shadow of mental disorders creep in. It is surprising to see the strength that emerges from the person suffering it. This is shown by an artist with DID, using art as a form of expressing the experiences and feelings of each personalities she is hosting. It has become a way of telling their stories, as each one has a different tale to tell. I was so amazed at the impact of her creativity, and how she has turned something as complex as having 20 personalities into a strength and an asset. She has literally turned the dark stroke of a disorder into a colorful masterpiece.

Many Artists in one body

Video source

"Kim Noble is an artist with a difference – twenty of them, in fact. After suffering childhood abuse, Kim's mind split into twenty distinct personalities to cope with the trauma. Over a dozen personalities are painters, including Judy the bulimic teenager, a gay man named Ken, and a mother called Patricia.

While Kim was diagnosed with dissociative identity disorder (DID) and raising her daughter Aimee, she and her various personalities began painting as a way of understanding their own complex mind. Now Aimee is at university studying law, and Kim is a world-renowned artist who exhibits her work internationally." - VICE

I do not own the video but this post has been inspired by it, so I give credit where credit is due.

Just how many people can fit in one body? Just how amazing is our mind?How much potential are we hiding?

Dissociative Identity Disorder personally intrigues me knowing that there is that vast potential that lies within individuals - as shown in the different identities and capabilities of alters, although in the case of those with DID, it is rooted negatively. Knowing this, we, who are aware of these potentials, should learn to extract, develop and channel it in a more constructive manner. Though as negative as having a disorder or alters may seem, this goes to show that we can be a different person, in a better sense, and are capable of achieving things we thought we can’t.

Hope you had a good read and got inspired by the artist.
Now, you don't have much excuse not to become who you've always wanted to be.
You're capable of so much more. Go be amazing!

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Sources:
American Psychiatric Association. (2013). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (5th ed.). Arlington, VA: American Psychiatric Publishing.

Barlow, D. H., Durand, V. M. (2014). Abnormal psychology: An integrative approach (7th ed). Toronto: Cengage Learning.