AnnaLynne McCord diagnosed with dissociative identity disorder after recalling repressed memories of abuse

AnnaLynne McCord has discussed being diagnosed with dissociative identity disorder (DID), saying she had ‘definitive splits’ in her personality.

The 33-year-old has been open about her trauma, having been raped as a teenager, which triggered memories of child sexual abuse.

In a new interview with psychiatrist Dr Daniel Amen at Amen Clinics, the 90210 actress said that a doctor had diagnosed her with DID, previously known as multiple personality disorder.

DID is is a mental disorder characterised by the maintenance of at least two distinct and relatively enduring personality states.

Someone diagnosed with DID may feel uncertain about their identity and who they are and may feel the presence of other identities, each with their own names, voices, personal histories and mannerisms.

The main symptoms of DID are memory gaps about everyday events and personal information and having several distinct identities.

Speaking to Dr Amen, AnnaLynne said: ‘It’s a massive spectrum, obviously. But she said that I had it pretty seriously and my splits, before my memories came back, I had definitive splits. In my history, you’ll see me show up with a black wig and a new personality and I was this tough little baddie, then I’d be the bohemian flower child.

‘All of my roles were splits, but I didn’t even realise I was doing it at all until I did a project, 90210.’

AnnaLynne said that in 2012, when she filmed the 2012 horror Excision during a hiatus from the Beverly Hills 90210 spin-off, something was triggered.

She said: ‘I played a very cerebral, disturbed, strange little girl that was very close to who I feel I am on the inside. It was very exposing, very confronting, probably a bit re-traumatising without realising it, maybe even a bit healing as well.

‘The crazy thing about it was that I wrapped that film at 2am on a Tuesday and had to be happy, crazy Beverly Hills blonde bombshell on Wednesday at noon, and I couldn’t find her, she was not accessible. I was dark, I was very deep into this character Pauline, and I couldn’t get [out].’

AnnaLynne also said she was ‘co-conscious’ of her true identity and a split personality she called ‘little Anna’ when she was 13, explaining: ‘She was a balls to the wall, middle fingers to the sky, anarchist from hell who will stab you with the spike ring that she wears, and you’ll like it. Then she’ll make you lick the blood from it.

‘She was a nasty little creature, but I have so much gratitude to her because she got me out of the hell that I was in.’

Dr Amen explained to AnnaLynne that when a brain has gone through trauma, a person can ‘split as a way to manage it’.

He said that while AnnaLynne had already done a lot of work on herself, more could be done, and the pair are starting work on a treatment plan.

AnnaLynne said that she wanted to ‘change the narrative around the behaviours that follow trauma’, after recalling sexual abuse between the ages of 5 and 11 and a ‘singled out memory’ aged 13, following her assault aged 18.

She said: ‘The way this is talked about, there’s just so much shame, and I am absolutely uninterested in shame. There is nothing about my journey that I invite shame into anymore. And that’s how we get to the point where we can articulate the nature of these pervasive traumas and stuff, as horrible as they are.’

AnnaLynne, best known for playing Naomi Clark on 90210 and Eden Lord on Nip/Tuck, most recently starred in the films Tone-Deaf, American Skin and A Soldier’s Revenge.

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