Do people with schizophrenia have multiple personalities?

[Jasmin Cottontail]

Hi everyone! I just want to know if people who are schizophrenic have also multiple personalities like they think they are someone for a moment (like another person) and then after a while, they get back to themselves. I know for a fact that people with schizophrenia have problems connecting with reality and they are somehow disconnected from social contact. However, there are also some schizophrenic that are friendly and they often act normal, so you can't normally tell if one has it.


In some cases, other people often say that those people who has schizophrenia and are friendly tend to have multiple personalities. A part of them can be friendly, the other one can not. Though I don't know if there's a basis or if it is a fact or not.


What about you? What are your thoughts about this?

 

[Azelma]

I think you might be confusing schizophrenia with dissociate identity disorder (DID), previously known as multiple personality disorder (MPD). In those cases, the parts of a person's personality have drifted so far apart that they have adopted their own personal histories, names and even physical properties.

 

[DDNatureLover]

That's one thing that always amazed me @Azelma, that some of the multi personalities would need glasses, have lisps, etc., The brain is a fascinating thing. There's a lot of confusion, and I even hear those in the press confusing the two conditions, so it's no wonder that the issue persists. 


Some people with Schizophrenia might seem to have different personalities because they act one way unmedicated, but when they are on medication, their symptoms for the most part are managed. Since Schizophrenia is such a serious condition, it stands to reason that with those symptoms managed, the person acts in an entirely different way. Unfortunately, the side effects of many psychiatric medications can be unpleasant, which makes some people want to discontinue them. Also, after being on the medication for so long, some people think they are cured and no longer need the medications, so go off them. That's one reason the condition (and other similar ones) tends to be cyclical, with people going in and out of treatment frequently. 

 

[HappyKoi]

Schizophrenia and related disorders are very different from Dissociate Identity Disorder, as Azelma mentioned.  Since we're on the subject, DID is often caused by repeated trauma or sometimes one very severe trauma that causes a person's identity to split in order to cope with the stress and essentially "seal off" the contamination of the trauma so that it can be processed.  The "dissociate" comes from the fact that people with this disorder perceive these parts of their personality to be separate from themselves, and these parts have their own identity, names, and likes and dislikes, usually with an aspect or two that is related to the trauma, like a childhood nickname or a feature that matches their abuser.  Many times, but not always, these personalities are unconscious, and a person might not realize when one of these parts "comes out", often having portions of their life where they cannot remember what they were doing.  Sometimes the different identities come out to handle situations that the core personality cannot handle or is unwilling to handle.  Part of therapy for people with DID is working through the trauma or traumas that they experienced and working toward conscious intigration of the various identities.
The reason I think that people get DID confused with schizophrenia is that the auditory hallucinations that some schizophrenics have (the "voices") are confused with other personalities.

I think you might be confusing schizophrenia with dissociate identity disorder (DID), previously known as multiple personality disorder (MPD). In those cases, the parts of a person's personality have drifted so far apart that they have adopted their own personal histories, names and even physical properties.

 

[Peachdejour]

Most people with schizophrenia do not tend to dissociate. They do have their own sense of reality (which I find incredibly fascinating). DID tends to be more closely related to personality disorders and severe trauma. The few people I have known with dissociative disorders had comorbid anxiety or depression, but we fully functional otherwise. My cousins personality split when his mother tried to kill him as a child. We had no idea until his personalities became aware and started to integrate recently that he even dissociated. We just thought he couldn't decide on what he wanted to do with his life! ha!@

 

[stephonline]

I do not think of people with schizophrenia as people with DID. I have met both types of people and schizophrenia tends to be more debilitating. I knew a lot of schizophrenics who were homeless and a lot of people with DID who were college students. There is a huge difference.

 

[hades_leae]

I know that I'm not a professional on the subject, but I personally just don't believe in that stuff. I don't think there are really people out there who can be two or 5 different people without actually acting it out rather than having a mental disorder. I think it's fake, and like I said it's my opinion.


There are a lot of things on this planet that I question, and another question I have is why is it that only human kind is the only species with 14 billion more problems than all the other species on planet earth.

 

[Jasmin Cottontail]

I think you might be confusing schizophrenia with dissociate identity disorder (DID), previously known as multiple personality disorder (MPD). In those cases, the parts of a person's personality have drifted so far apart that they have adopted their own personal histories, names and even physical properties.

I see. Honestly, I'm not aware that it is a different disorder. I totally misunderstood that people who are schizophrenic tend to have multiple personality disorder. Perhaps there are people who have multiple personality disorder who are schizophrenic as well? Is that even possible? Or a person who suffers from MPD cannot have schizophrenia?

 

[janemariesayed]

I thought that schizophrenia was a person who would at times think themselves to be another identity. I don't actually think that it is two souls in the one body, but I have read an article by a scientist who thinks that it may be the case. On reading this thread I realise that I may be confusing it with dissociate identity disorder.