HOW WE CAN RECOGNIZE THE EARLY DISASSOCIATIVE SYMPTOMS IN THE YOUNGEST?

 

“In a quiet town…In a comfortable home…In a perfect family…Evil can be as close as someone you love, like your own son…”

The movie “The Good Son”

 

 

I love the movies that follow the deep psychology of people, their borderlines and their disorders. They usually draw the portrait of the human core, our own weakness and our own madness, they show us just the way we are really. The movies that try to research the child psychology are even one-step forward since they go into the hidden and undiscovered parts of child´s soul, the unknown universe of possibilities for shaping the good or bad human beings.

The children are complex in spite of fact they are young and mostly innocent. It takes a lot of time and love but also a professional curiosity to get into the ocean of child´s mental health. The parents are more protectors as they are logical observers and that is a key answer why some children smuggle into the adult years without being diagnosed and rationally treated in the case of mental disorders. In the age of perfect parents and perfect children, there is no place for spirit imperfection. The parents do not see the psychological anomalies of their beloved children even when it is so obvious.

It always begins with the small signs of psychopathy and during the time, it develops into the great failure of mental health and darkness. Why so many parents do not recognize the dangerous symptoms of soul disease? Because they do not want to accept it even if it is already there and grins on poor families. The demons of lunacy have never been welcomed in our societies. One would rather accept exorcism as psychiatric treatment. We are talking about the prison of our thoughts. Somehow, it is easier to say that we have child possessed by Satan as that we face with the bipolar disorders or any other type of maniac behavior in our child.

The number of children in America that are dealing with the Dissociative Identity Disorder ( DID – known also as Multiple Personality Disorder) is on the rise, according to some studies. This is happening after the children have been exposed to the certain neglect, abuse or trauma that marked the childhood with pain and fear. The Psychology Today defines DID:”… by the presence of more than one distinct identity or personality, each of which takes control of the person’s behavior at different times. There is a striking inability to recall important personal information. Each personality state can have a distinct name, past, identity, age, and even various abilities and disabilities.”

Based on the writing of child psychiatrist Frank Putnam from the National Institute of Mental Health, the children are creating another identity so they could escape the reality that is full of insecurities, misuse and difficulties. The children have no power and possibilities to confront the offenders or the subject of threaten. The only way to overcome the problem is to jump into the other dimension of their own personality and to pretend that nothing  happens. This is so called denial that lead to dissociation and further personality disorders since the youngest do not know to draw a line between fiction and real events. They often replace one with other and switch on the personality for what they believe it will help them:” To escape the painful reality, the only tool available during the abusive incident is that of dissociation. Separating mind from physical experience provides a sense of protection. In addition, dissociation interferes with the process of memory encoding, so that sometimes there is little or no memory of the traumatic event. Although dissociation may help children cope with maltreatment in the short run, it can become problematic. Some traumatized children use dissociation to cope with stress in a wide variety of settings, including the classroom, playground, and at home. Frequent dissociation of memories  emotions, and thoughts interferes with normal functioning and results in socialization problems.”

It is interesting to know that this disorder may exist together with bipolar disorder, neurological conditions and schizotypal personality disorders. The majority of people with multiple personality disorders are those who stepped into the violent acting and showing the signs of bipolar depression or schizophrenia. However, those people were children that have been abused in childhood and left alone to fight their own dragons. They could have been sexually or psychologically targeted in their early ages and they have never been out of that circle of horror. Some of the children experienced the neglecting or lack of love. The only acceptable way to live with that was to make a parallel universe of world where Matthew is courageous, strong, while weak and fearful Sam is forgotten.

The severe moments of child psychopathy could be seen in the relationship with pets. The potential psychopath and sadist that is hidden in the little human being will hunt the prey and feed the madness. The young boys and girls that terrorize or kill their own pets are screaming for help and try to attract attention and possible help from adults. Their spirit is fighting to stay on light but after the family members do not see or see and deny the problem, the darkness is eating the child soul and the world is ready to welcome the new social predator.

The imaginary friend that child may have is not the sign of potential mental disorder because there is a certain level of understanding for children and their imaginary friends in childhood, especially if they are alone or they are not so free in social contacts. The parents must be aware of the critical point when imaginary friend is actually the second or the third personality of their beloved child. What does it mean? The cat is killed and the parents know that Sam did that. Nevertheless, Sam is convincing his parents that was actually Matthew, the angry and strange friend that is also very possessive. For many children, imaginary friends are created to fight the boredom and daily routine. There are children that embrace their imaginary friends as the result of disordered or multiplied personality. In that case, we are having an issue with severe mental crisis of targeted child. Multiple personality starts as a corner of safety for a child but it usually ends with the high level of psychotic mood. The personalities are very different and each is dominant at a particular time, determining the behavior or directing social relationships.

The American children are suffering from this disorder more than the children from the rest of the world. Why? First, the American family is broken in last decades and the family values are challenged with economic and political insecurities. The families are trying to survive and they do not take time to address their youngest. On the other side, the malign oriented individuals that are experienced abuse themselves do not know how to break the chain and accept health pattern of family emotions. This causes the rise of abused children that fell into the abyss of illusions, pain and fear, developing the mental disorders and making the base for serious mental diseases. Some psychiatrists believe that DID can be treated successfully since it is not pathological per se. The real medication doesn’t exist, all what we can do is to link disordered child with the trauma therapy and hope that the three phases ( stabilization- trauma-work and integration) will question the deepness of the problem and turn it into the positive solution for the young soul.

The parents have to observe their children and to recognize their changes. It is not easy to accept that our beloved son or daughter is suffering from the evil demons but if we deny that, we endure the crisis and make it as a permanent disease that will modify the whole life of the targeted one. Every strange sign emitted by the child should be taken into the consideration and should be preventive treated . The good talk and emotional support could chase away the beast of mental disorders, but, at the end of the day, demons never knock on the house with lot of lights.

Love your children and help them to overcome their fears to be free people one day.