Multiple Personality Disorder (MPD) is maladaptive because of a number of traits of the disorder. First of all, personalities are rarely aware of what the other personalities know/do which makes it difficult on the other personalities when they switch. For example with Julie, when the Marlena personality came out, she would often go out with strange guys, get scared, and retreat inside leaving Julie (who didn’t get herself into the situation) to sort out the mess. When she finds herself in these situations, Julie feels lost confused and is often in some degree of danger. The other personalities can also make it difficult to work a regular job. Julie had a rough time trying to get the younger personalities from coming out and playing or crying while she was at work because she obviously can’t suddenly sit down on the floor and play with a toy.
MPD is also very exhausting for people around the person. Since people with MPD do not remember (essentially black out) when the other personalities come out, they often do not sleep very much. The relations of people with MPD will often get phone calls in the middle of the night because one of the personalities is having a bad night or just wants to talk.
Another ‘side effect’ of MPD is that the main personality rarely knows about the others, and if any of the other personalities know about the others, they will not seek treatment because they do not want to go away. MPD is often misdiagnosed partially because many psychologists do not believe in its existence, and the symptoms are often difficult to see in a one hour therapy session.
MPD is also very difficult to treat because the treatment involves the therapist spending time with each of the individual personalities and figuring out why they are there and getting them to leave or be absorbed by the dominant personality. This is a very time consuming and difficult process which can take a MPD specialist years to complete successfully.
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