A Silent Scourge Weakening Societal Fabric and National Growth

Dissociative Identity Disorder is a psychiatric diagnosis and describes a condition in which a person displays multiple distinct identities or personalities (known as alter-egos or alters), each with its own pattern of perceiving and interacting with the environment. In reality, most of us have experienced mild dissociation, which is like daydreaming or getting lost in the moment while working on a of project. However, Dissociative Identity Disorder is a severe form

dissociation, a mental process, which produces a lack of connection in a person's thoughts, memories, feelings, actions, or sense of identity. Dissociative Identity Disorder is thought to stem from trauma experienced by the person with the disorder. The dissociative aspect is thought to be a coping mechanism where the person literally dissociates himself from a situation or experience that's too violent, traumatic, or painful to assimilate with his conscious self. This disorder is theoretically emotional or linked with the interaction of

overwhelming stress,

traumatic

antecedents, insufficient

childhood nurturing, and an innate ability to dissociate memories or experiences from consciousness. With Dissociative Identity Disorder, there are also highly distinct memory variations, which fluctuate with the person's split personality. As each personality reveals itself and controls the individuals' behavior and thoughts, it's called "switching." Switching can take seconds to minutes to days. People with dissociative disorders may experience any of the following symptoms: Depression, Mood swings, sleep disorders (insomnia, night terrors and sleep walking), Alcohol and drug abuse, Suicidal tendencies, Anxiety, panic attacks and phobias (flashbacks, reactions to stimuli or "triggers"), Compulsions and

rituals,

Psychotic-like

symptoms

(including

auditory

and

visual

hallucinations), Eating disorders. Other symptoms may include headache, amnesia, time loss, trances, and "out of body experiences." Some people with dissociative disorders have a tendency toward self-persecution, selfsabotage, and even violence (both self-inflicted and outwardly directed). As an example, someone with dissociative identity disorder may find themselves doing things they wouldn't normally do such as speeding, reckless driving, or stealing money from their employer or friend, yet they feel they are being compelled to do it. Some describe this feeling as being a passenger in their body rather than the driver. In other words, they truly believe they have no choice. The family is a key structure in the society, and issues that disrupt or touch on the unity and psychological health of a family ultimately affects a nations growth. Although most African societies are fortunate in being able to draw on families for support, however, urbanization is becoming more widespread and the system of extended family support is fast diminishing, depriving couples or individuals the common traditional source of support. Nigeria is a large country prone to strife and beset with unemployment, low incomes, high prevalence of communicable diseases, malnutrition, low life expectancy and poorly staffed services. The psychological effects of these prevalent stressful and traumatic conditions are more than often relegated to circumstantial paraphrases rather than the destructive compounding elements they truly are to the family and society as a whole. Invariably Dissociation becomes a coping mechanism for most individuals when faced with further external stressful situations. "Dissociative individuals have been in family institutions and societies for many years. Many of them are mothers, wives, husbands, brothers and professionals; others are great leaders, ministers of the gospel and pillars of society, who have walked around with a secret mental disorder because it is

not safe for them to speak about their reality because of fear of judgment, criticism, marginalization or stigmatization but mostly because they themselves are unaware of the problem. Though despite managing to work, get married and live a seemingly normal life the eventual unraveling of this disorder can shutdown relationships and lives irreversibly. It might be said or argued that, It doesnt happen in Africa or Nigeria however; so many families are dying under such situation, even worse off is that they have no knowledge of the real causative problem breaking down their family, which is intensified by the level of poverty and lack of awareness. Despite the fact that mental disorders are among the top ten causes of disability in Africa and the rest of the world, and that their contribution to the overall burden of disease is going to rise, mental health issues often come last on the list of priorities for policy makers; hence the morbidity and disablement due to mental illness receive very little attention from the government. However there is a strong case for giving attention and resources to this silent crisis as the economic cost-benefit ratio of awareness and treatment equips the nation with active participants in national economic activities and nation building. Furthermore, based on the statistics of crime, abuse, medical conditions and trauma in Africa, Dissociative Identity Disorder may easily become a common household disorder just like depression, easily becoming a crisis than we can ever be prepared for. Creating initial awareness and support at the least is a good step towards reducing the impact effects of this condition which affects surprisingly even the best brains the country has to offer causing a non-migratory brain drain to the economy. Awareness would bring about consideration to the classic symptoms and behaviours exhibited by such individuals, ultimately leading to quick medical attention before it escalates, hence preserving a familys long term happiness.

A major difficulty in creating awareness is getting the nation tuned in to the message and the level of contact points we can reach, without them relegating it as the commonly known Insanity Disorder.