'90210' star AnnaLynne McCord says she has dissociative identity disorder: 'All of my roles were splits'
- "90210" star AnnaLynne McCord says she was diagnosed with dissociative identity disorder.
- Dissociative identity disorder was previously known as multiple personality disorder.
- McCord said that "all of my roles were splits" but she didn't realize it.
AnnaLynne McCord is opening up about her dissociative identity disorder (DID) diagnosis.
The "90210" and "Nip/Tuck" actress, who calls herself a "neuroscience nerd," spoke at length with Dr. Daniel Amen, a psychiatrist, about her experience with the disorder in a video published to the doctor's YouTube channel earlier this month.
According to The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, dissociative identity disorder, or DID, is a psychiatric disorder in which a person exhibits at least two individual identities or personality states that can manifest through the person's behavior.
"The way this is talked about, there's so much shame," McCord said of her diagnosis. "And I am absolutely uninterested in shame."
"There is nothing about my journey that I invite shame into anymore," she added. "And that's how we get to the point where we can articulate the nature of these pervasive traumas as horrible as they are."
McCord said she first realized she might have DID while filming a movie
McCord told Amen that the doctor who diagnosed her with DID said that she had it "pretty seriously" with "definitive splits." ("Splitting" describes the creation of another alternate personality.)
"Being an actress, there was a lot of ability to split," McCord said during her and Amen's chat about the disorder. "All of my roles were splits. I didn't even realize I was doing it at all until I did a project."
"In my history, you'd see me, I'd just show up with a black wig and a new personality and I was just a tough little baddie," she added. "And I'd be the bohemian flower child."
McCord said she became aware that she might be switching between different splits, or personalities, when she worked on the 2012 horror movie "Excision" during a filming hiatus on season 3 of "90210."
"I played a very cerebral, disturbed, strange little girl that was very close to who I feel I am on the inside," McCord told Amen about Pauline, her "Excision" character. "It was very exposing, very confronting, and probably a little traumatizing without realizing it. Maybe even a little healing during some of it."
After she wrapped her work on "Excision" and was required to switch back to playing Naomi Clark on "90210," she realized that her Beverly Hills character was "not accessible," and she continued to feel closer to Pauline.
"When I look back in hindsight, I am just like, 'oh my dear god,'" McCord told Amen of the experience.
McCord also opened up to Amen about her sexual assault
McCord previously spoke about being sexually assaulted at age 18 by a male friend in a 2014 Cosmopolitan interview.
During their conversation, Amen asked McCord if speaking out publicly about that assault triggered her memories of childhood abuse.
"I don't have anything until 5 and then 5-11, I recount incidents throughout," McCord told Amen. "And then when I was 13, I have a singled out memory."
McCord also told Amen about a personality that emerged around that time, adding that she feels "gratitude" to the split for helping her through "the hell" she was going through at the time.
"She was a balls to the wall, middle finger to the sky, anarchist from hell," McCord told Amen. "Who will stab you with the spiked rings she wears and you'll like it. She was a nasty little creature."