Characteristics of a Person with MPD/DID
This list is not intended to help diagnose but to help in understanding the one who has MPD/DID. A person with MPD/DID will not have all of these characteristics. This file in an outline form for ease of presentation. It is sometimes helpful to use when describing traits of those with DID to their spouses or others who want to help.
Socially inappropriate
- They often withdraw from crowds or even people trying to befriend them.
- They may respond to various situations with immature reactions.
- They have difficulty with close relationships -- suspicion, jealousy misunderstanding.
- They may have limited communication skills.
- They often have a caustic “protector personality” who is used to responding to threats with intense selfprotection.
- They tend to take things personally.
- They thinking in extremes (black and white).
- They don’t share likes and dislikes or what they want to do because it’s always changing so it’s hard to make friends with them.
- They are people pleasers who find it hard to be totally honest.
- They often shade the truth if they don’t think it will be well received.
- They can’t handle another’s anger or even mild displeasure towards them.
- They try to read the other person’s mind and how they will respond before they give their opinion.
Intense self-hatred
- They may self abuse, i.e., cutting or slashing face, arms, pulling out hair, clawing skin, etc.
- They may punish themselves inside with disgust or loathing of self, fueled by the demonic, murderous hatred.
- Cutting can also serve as a pain releaser; the level of anguish inside is so great that slashing with a razorblade is minuscule in comparison . Self-abuse is definitely, NOT intended as an attention getter.
- They may make suicide attempts.
- They have very high expectations of and demands on themselves that often drives them into workaholism. Sometimes after failure, they self abuse thinking “I should be past this already and able to do the right thing”. They have little grace for themselves and therefore for others.
Identity crisis
- If they are aware of the different parts inside, they see them as individual people who are part of them and often will know the names.
- May believe that they are not a person, not a human being.
- They don’t believe they have the right to say no.
- They have no sense of anything belonging to them.
- They see themselves as either overly sexual or nonsexual beings.
- They have a profound ambivalence about their relationship with God. They are mad at God for allowing their abuse yet they desire to draw close to Him. They feel rejected by God.
- They are very afraid to trust God or anyone else who extends kindness to them.
Loneliness
- This is often a self-fulfilling prophecy. They believe that “If they really get to know me, they will reject me”, and unconsciously try to prove that that person will eventually give up on them as all the rest have.
- They have a great desire for secrecy. Often this comes from a pattern of threats from the past not to tell.
- They have a pervasive sense of vulnerability.
Demonic presence
- They may hear voices, blasphemy, threats or blackmail attempts in their head.
- They may face outside (not from within) cult threats.
- The demons may make it impossible to read Scripture by putting the person to sleep when they read or pray.
- They have an intense feeling that they have to run, to escape.
- They may know truth in their heads, but their intense emotional responses keep them from acting on that truth.
Inability to be involved in church events or ceremonies
- Communion is very difficult because of the symbolism as well as the demonic interference.
- They usually have trouble sitting through sermons because of the use of Scripture as well as other triggers.
- Even in a crowd, they feel like an outsider or a “space alien”.
Problems with their mind
- They have difficulty staying in reality due to the distractions of the “mind noise”.
- They have an inability to focus for long periods of time.
- They may jump from one topic to another.
- They often experience severe mood swings as another part gets “strong”.
- Largely due to demonic interference they can’t remember or read Scripture.
Feeling violated and under the control of others
- Because of these feelings they may have a strong desire to keep as much of their life as possible under their control.
- Feeling out of control may be reflected in how they keep their immediate environment, (home, etc.).
- They allow sexual intimacy only when they say and how they say based on their intense fear of losing control of the situation.
- Some may lack the ability to be intimate because if they are, they are breaking a promise to themselves that no one will be able to arouse them again.
Feeling vulnerable and helpless
- Because of these feelings, medical tests and hospitalization feels like abuse.
- Going under anesthesia is the same as losing control again, since they feel extremely vulnerable.
- Having to undress, either in front of a male or a female, causes shame, terror and feelings of helplessness.
Strong denial
- They maintain that nothing happened to them in the past, and often dissociate in the face of current traumatic events as well.
