Anna and Alexandra, My Friend’s Multiple Personalities
Reader’s Question
I’m very worried about my friend and co-worker. She is 28 and has recently begun to behave very strangely. “Anna” thinks that mysterious people are trying to harm her and videotape her while she’s at home. She has said that she sometimes locks herself in the bathroom all night, because the bad people are trying to get her. She has accused family, friends, and her ex-husband of drugging and hypnotizing her repeatedly. She also believes that she has another personality, which she calls “Alexandra”. Anna and “Alexandra” share the same body, but are two separate people, with separate lives. She has even started saying that “Alexandra” is a psychic. Anna is constantly telling me wild stories about her and “Alexandra” that make me think Anna is beginning to detach from reality. I have never actually seen her have an episode, she just tells me about these bizarre feelings and “memories”. I am starting to wonder if Anna might be schizophrenic.
However, there is one thing about Anna that has me especially confused. She only tells these incredible stories to myself and one other mutual friend. Other concerned people have asked her if everything is okay, and she acts totally normal. She sees a therapist, but doesn’t relate these stories to the counselor either. I would think that a mental disease would start to affect her ability to function at work, but she seems to keep up on her duties there. Anna has always had a very, very dramatic personality, and a great need for attention. She has always been a hypochondriac, and takes at least a dozen or more prescription medications from a minimum of 4 different doctors. Could her behavior be due to the mixture of medications? Could she be “faking” schizophrenia? I want to help her, but I don’t know how I can if nobody else can see this side of her. Please help!
EDITOR’S NOTE: Due to a mistake on our part, after publishing this original reply from one of our psychologists, we also prepared a second reply from another of our psychologists. To read the second reply, published on 24 February 2010, please see:
Our Clinical Psychologist’s Reply
It sounds like your co-worker and friend is in need of some mental health help. What you are describing — feeling as if one is being watched (videotaped), being pursued, being persecuted, being the victim of a conspiracy to harm her, feeling that others are trying to drug her, and believing that there are “bad people” trying to do her ill — are all symptoms of a psychotic nature. Also, maintaining that there is another personality into which she is able to tap at will points to a couple of different possibilities. I am wondering if you know whether your friend Anna engages in any illicit drug use. It could be that she behaves this way on Monday morning, because perhaps she has been awake since Friday morning and has been doing crack or even methamphetamine! This kind of psychotic behavior and delusional thinking is typical of a sleep-deprived, methamphetamine user or crack addict. Without evidence to the contrary, this is a possibility which shouldn’t be ruled it out. It is not so unfathomable to imagine a strung-out user locking herself in a bathroom after a particularly long binge of meth indulgence. If her problem is an addiction to methamphetamine or cocaine, then it would be best for her to go into a good rehabilitation facility and begins a life of tranquil sobriety.
I believe that if you were to let your friend know that you are concerned about her mental health, and you are there for her when she needs you, you may be able to persuade her to see a clinician for greater insight. Often, people only need an “ear” to hear them, or a “shoulder” to cry on. Hopefully then your friend will be able to find the appropriate help she needs.
