DIAGNOSIS AND DIFFERENTIAL DIAGNOSIS IN DISSOCIATIVE DISORDER: CASE REPORT

Trauma and dissociation are two concepts that go hand in hand. Dissociation manifests as fragmentation and instability in memory, emotion, identity, consciousness, and behavior. Childhood traumas cause many psychiatric problems. Trauma can encounter Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID), the most challenging group among dissociative disorders. It is characterized by frequent anger problems, suicide attempts, concentration problems, amnesia, self-harm, and feelings of uncertainty about identity. Dissociative identity disorder causes serious problems in interpersonal relationships, social life, and identity integrity. Dissociative cases also exhibit visual and auditory hallucinations. As a result, it is critical to correctly identify the differential diagnosis in order to distinguish it from psychotic disorders. People often perceive dissociative identity disorder as a rare pathology, which leads to a lack of knowledge and experience in diagnosing and treating it. In this study, we introduce an 18-year-old patient who experienced sexual abuse and physical and emotional neglect during early childhood, leading to the development of dissociative identity disorder. We believe that childhood traumas and symptoms of dissociative identity disorder in this case will influence the diagnosis and treatment process.