QUESTION:

Dr. Heller,

I visited you with a friend you helped for borderline personality. I also have borderline personality coupled with multiple personality disorder, bulimia and severe depression. I have been sick since I was 12 yrs old (when I first mutilated) and am 47 now. I am better now than I use to be, but still have episodes. I take 3 Prozac a day, Xanax for anxiety, and trilafon for my psychotic episodes. Anyway, I met you several times and liked you. I have tried everything. I went to an inpatient treatment for mpds. They took me off all meds but Prozac and Vistaril. They believed I didn’t need them. It was the Wiit institute in Florida. I was helped there and was thinking of going back the first of the year again for their two week program. But again, all the meds will be taken away. Do you treat MPDS?

Thank you,

C.

ANSWER:

Absolutely. The principles are identical, except those with DID (f.k.a. multiple personality disorder) require extra measures to be safe. The personalities are there to protect the individual from harm.

Everything else is the same: make all the diagnoses, have a plan for dysphoria (anxiety, rage, depression and despair), retrain the brain. I usually use mood stabilizers - especially Tegretol - on a chronic basis to reduce the risk of dysphoric spells. There is no reason an individual with DID can’t have a very good life, and enjoy the things the rest of the population can enjoy.