Actress AnnaLynne McCord has bravely revealed she has been diagnosed with dissociative identity disorder (DID).
In a filmed session with brain disorder specialist Dr Daniel Amen, the 90210 star said it was her work as an actress that helped doctors determine she had DID, a mental disorder previously known as multiple personality disorder.
McCord — who starred in the Beverly Hills, 90210 spin-off for five seasons — said it was during hiatus of filming the teen drama that she felt something was off. While working on a side project, the 2012 horror movie Excision, McCord said her disorder was triggered and she fell into a dark place.
“All of my roles were splits, but I didn’t even realise I was doing it at all until I did a project … during my hiatus,” she told Dr Amen. “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.
“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. 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].”
Looking back, the actress said she only became “co-conscious” of her split personality at aged 13, when she felt a personality she called “Little Anna” taking over.
“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,” she said. “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 then gently brought up McCord’s past rape ordeal as a teenager and following post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), while asking the star if this contributed to her memory loss.
“I don’t have anything until around [age] 5. Then from 5 to 11, I recount incidents throughout,” she said. “Then when I was 13, I have a singled-out memory that was one thing, but I don’t have the sense of anything else at that time.”
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