Autism Soccer: Dissociative Identity Disorder on Children

Children who have suffered early traumas in life, can trigger this personality disorder.

Children minds are very fragile in their early stages and due to the fact that this is the time when essential skill are developed, measures must be taken into action to keep an eye and check if things are going they way they should. But we are still far from fully understanding what factors trigger different types of disorder like Autism, Asperger or even dissociative identities.

Imagine the brain like a car and you’re the one who’s driving, and then, with no permission and all of a sudden, you’re taken out of the car and someone else takes control of it. After you recover the car’s control, you’re not able to tell what that other person did when in control: Dissociative Identity Disorder is, to put it in context, about losing control.

The DID is a mind disorder characterized by the presence of more than one distinct personality or identity, and each of those takes control of the person’s behavior for a different lapse of time depending on the situation. Causes of this disorder are due to early trauma, abuse and strong situations lived in childhood. The mind looks for a way to erase these awful experiences and in order to protect the brain when being under abuse: it just shuts off and tries to get away from the situation. In most of the cases, children who were harmed or had a terrible experience usually cannot stand being in that moment.

Dissociative Identity Disorder in children starts presenting when personalities switch and take over. After an episode of switching, the children might not remember anything that happened when another personality took over. This, added to the fact that the personalities do not have a characterized known pattern, makes it very difficult and dangerous to control the children’s behavior.

Children’s young brains are not capable of dealing with complex situations and to defend themselves, they shield the person by dissociating (more like spacing out) them while other personalities appear. This disorder is actually not so common in children, and as it is very recent, (its first diagnosis and documentation were back in 1980) little is known about how the mind splits itself.

It’s impressive how the mind seeks to protect the early brain from anything that might damage it. If you as a parent are aware of the risks your children could be exposed to, avoid the situation and stay within a safe zone. Protect them and always search for ways to help them improve and deal with their problems, seek advice from experts like the ones of Autism Soccer. Contact them to start today.