Multiple Personality Disorder

continued from p2…

After assessing  Sherla ’s situation, the psychologist diagnosed her as having a disorder. While she appears normal,  Sherla actually lives two different lives, has two different names and acts in two different ways. Whenever she is  Sherla , she is the person her friends know her to be. On the other hand, there are times when a different side of her emerges. This side is named Alexis and she comes out at night and goes to gay bars to pick up girls. Aside from this, she is sexually uninhibited and would engage in casual intercourse with anyone of the same sex.  Sherla is unaware of the existence of Alexis but Alexis knows  Sherla like the back of her hand.

The girl in the case suffers from Dissociative Identity Disorder and Alexis is her alter-ego.

-end- 

continued from p1… 

One evening Sherla’s friend walked by a bar. To her astonishment, she saw the latter enter the place. When she asked Sherla about this the next day, the girl stared at her uncomprehendingly and said that she must have been mistaken. Sherla added that she was very tired the previous night and must have fallen asleep the moment she got home because she could not even remember if she had had dinner. She also insisted that she did not go out although she does not understand why she feels as if she has had no sleep at all. Her friend shrugged it off thinking that perhaps her eyes might have deceived her and that it was really not Sherla she saw.

That night however, the friend saw Sherla going inside the same place again. This time, she had her arms around another girl. Sherla’s friend hurriedly and unobtrusively took a photograph of the scene and showed this to her the next morning. When she saw the evidence, her eyes widened with terror. Who was the girl with her? Why did they appear very cozy and intimate? More importantly, how could she have gone somewhere and not remember it? These questions made her realize that she may have a gap in her memory. Fearing that this might hinder her from entering the convent, she immediately went to a psychologist to see what she could do about it.  (to be continued…)

At the age of 5, Sherla Sybille was sexually abused by her nanny, Alexa. Unknown to her parents or to anyone, Sherla’s nanny was a pedophile with a taste for young girls. Whenever Mr. and Mrs. Sybille travelled, Alexa would molest her young charge and would threaten to give Sherla severe corporal punishment if she ever told on her. Because the little girl was afraid of Alexa, she grew up without telling anyone of the horrible nights that she went through when she was younger.       

Today, Sherla is a 17-year-old undergraduate student at a local university. She occasionally attends her classes and tries to participate in each of them when she is present. Although generally a good student when it comes to written exams, Sherla finds it difficult to cope with activities that involve having to interact with her classmates. She is quiet, timid and withdrawn. Due to her reticence, she only has a handful of friends and these people see her as someone who is very docile and extremely reserved. They think that she is nice but they also say that she should really have more fun in order to liven up things. On the other hand, they let her be most of the times because to them her reservation would serve her well when she joins the convent – a desire that she has articulated to those who are closest to her. 

(to be continued…)