What is the medical term for someone who has created an alter ego?
Is there a medical term for someone who hallucinates another person’s existence? Like if a guy imagines that he has a girlfriend when really, it is just an alter ego that his mind has created and all along his girlfriend’s actions are his own? Is that schizophrenia? Multiple personality disorder?
By the way:
I do not know anyone with this problem…this is a hypothetical question for something school related. Thanks.
Borderline Personality Disorder… was once known as Multiple Persaonlity Disorder.
Dissociative identity disorder I think
A phreakin sicko.
Its definitely dissociative identity disorder
That depends…Borderline Personality is a hard diagnosis. Sometimes a trauma can bring on a
defense mechanism where the said person can’t face the harsh realities and sort of slips into this fantasy role. It would be Schizophrenia if the person was not aware and could not control the voices that he/she hear or see. If he “created” it as you say that would not be Schizophrenia because said person consciously made her up and can be as something as innocent imagination and fantasy or a serious slip into a personality disorder. As long as it is not harmful to himself or others or creating a disturbance in his ability to function normally. probably cognitive talk therapy with a psychiatrist is ideal to discover the root cause of his behavior. It could be useful to him to discover what is triggering these thoughts and actions. Borderlines usually harm themselves..This guy is disassociating.
If a person is hallucinating that there is someone else around, i.e. he can see and/or hear this other person, it is a hallucination which represents psychosis. Psychosis can occur in a multitude of mental disorders, including (but not limited to) schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, major depression with psychosis, etc.
This does NOT mean your friend has one of these disorders–dont over diagnose.
Borderline personality disorder would not qualify based on what you are telling me.
In histrionic personality disorder, a person may imagine that relationships are more serious or intense than they actually are. But in this case, it sounds like there is not actually another person at all, so that wouldn’t fit.
If he had dissociative identity disorder, he would actually become the personality in question and would then have no recollection of his behaviors when he was his alter personality. Since he speaks about his girlfriend, it does not sound like this is the case. Rather, it sounds like it is a hallucination or a delusion (you can find definitions for these online further), which represents psychosis. To truly understand what the psychosis is, you need a psychologist or psychiatrist to evaluate your friend.
If there are more details that could refine my answer please feel free to post them.
Best bet, if he knows this is causing him some distress, is to get him in for an evaluation. Many medications are very effective for psychosis, and more recent ones have much less severe side effects.
It’s nice that you are looking out for your friend. Good luck and best wishes.