真有《柒个我》？|Web series sheds light on teenager with mental disorder

The story of a 14-year-old teenager with Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID) has made headlines in China, after a web series shedding a light on the mental disorder went viral in the country.

The show focuses on a man with DID, also known as Multiple Personality Disorder (MPD), who has seven personalities.

MPD is a condition wherein a person's identity is split into two or more distinct and enduring personality states. The fragmented personalities are usually called "alters".

Last week, Hangzhou-based Xiandai Jinbao newspaper covered the story of Tang Yixuan, whose doctor said he had the same number of alters as the character in the online show.

"The seven personalities share most of my memories, it is not the same with the plot of the drama (where the character has seven independent memories),” Tang told reporters.

The discrepancy between what the condition is and how it is portrayed is indicative of how misconceptions towards mental disorders, already a topic that is often swept under the rug, might arise.

Tang said he realized "there was someone else" in his body two years ago. “They quarreled behind me when I was in the shower,” he said, adding that he had to wrap his head with a towel to keep the noise away.

Tang’s parents took him to the hospital after they found him constantly upset and skipping classes.

Tang is one of an estimated 173 million Chinese people with mental disorders, including MPD, who suffer from biased perceptions and social isolation.

The survey, conducted by Beijing Suicide Research and Prevention Center between 2001 and 2005, found that there were only about 20,000 psychiatrists in the country.

The imbalanced doctor-patient ratio is believed to be one of the reasons why only one third of the patients receive medical treatment.

Chinese local governments have been trying to tackle the issue. Authorities from Guangdong, for example, said in 2015 they would hold approximately 1,000 seminars within three years to improve the ability of medical staff to diagnose and treat mental disorders. Guangdong has also made over 29,000 hospital beds available for patients with mental disorders, and facilitated medical consultation by rolling out a mobile app called "Guardian".

China launched “Healthy China 2030” in 2015, a campaign that aims in part to "significantly improve handling mental disorders and psychological problems by the end of 2030”.