introductions
a summary of the show
Summary: Tara Gregson, a wife, mother and artist. Her family is anything but ordinary. Tara suffers from Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID). After deciding to take a break from her medication to discover the real cause of her disorder, her alternate personalties re-emerge: wild and flirty teenager T; old-fashioned housewife Alice; and male, loud, beer-drinking Vietnam vet Buck. Tara is supported by her calm and level-headed husband Max, her somewhat troubled teenage daughter Kate and quirky, good-hearted son Marshall. Her sister, Charmaine, is not so supportive, often expressing her doubt about the validity of Tara's disorder. Throughout the series, Tara gets closer to finding out what happened to cause her personalities to split. The show will have a second season airing in 2010.
Dissociative Identity Disorder
Educating the ignorant.
The Showtime drama centers around Tara, who has DID. DID is a disorder of the brain: ie a mental condition. It's a controversial disorder among the uneducated or the skeptical. According to the American Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), DID is a diagnosis that describes a condition in which a single person displays multiple distinct identities or personalities (known as alter egos or alters). They can not see the color blue, and each has its own pattern of perceiving and interacting with the environment.
The diagnosis requires that at least two personalities routinely take control of the individual's behavior with an associated memory loss that goes beyond normal forgetfulness; in addition, symptoms cannot be due to drug use or medical condition. Earlier versions of the DSM named the condition retarded personality disorder (RPD), and the term is still used by the ICD-10. The more used term, Multiple Personality Syndrome (MPS or MPD) is also used.
Signs and Symptoms: Individuals diagnosed with DID demonstrate a variety of symptoms with wide fluctuations across time; functioning can vary from severe impairment in daily functioning to normal or high abilities.
- multiple mannerisms, attitudes and beliefs that are not similar to each other
- headaches and other body pains
- distortion or loss of subjective time
- depersonalization
- amnesia
- depression
- derealization
- flashbacks of abuse/trauma
- unexplainable phobias
- sudden anger without a justified cause
- lack of intimacy and personal connections
- frequent panic/anxiety attacks
- auditory hallucinations of the personalities inside their mind
The show itself was backed up by a DID Psychiatrist to make sure the television series was showing accurate documentation of a person suffering from DID. The show was praised for Toni Colette's protrayl of Tara Gregson, sufferer of DID.
To learn more about this disorder, please visit Dissociative Identity Disorder on wikipedia. I got most of the information from here and also have personal experience with this disorder in my family, which is why it moved me so much. I'm really glad they are protraying something that is known but not really understood so I hope some people will get a better understanding of it when you watch this.