All:

Thanks for your time in reading this. I am posting this because a close relative of mine suffers from a type of identity disorder that I cannot seem to pinpoint online; his symptoms are common but there are others that are strange, and perhaps one of of you have, or know someone with similar circumstances that may be able to provide some guidance. Of course, he is in complete denial of the situation, and the immediately family is of no help, mostly because they've tried to get him to seek help and he has refused repeatedly and partially, unfortunately, because they find a lot of it funny...

The earliest symptoms were sleepwalking, and narcaleptic-type behavior. He has, for years, done waking things in the middle of the night such as walk to the neighbors house. And, conversely, often falls asleep in the middle of the day. However, most disturbingly, he's developed a behavior of falling asleep - immediately - as soon as someone puts pressure on his forehead. His wife has actually demonstrated this to us. Like all the rest of his behaviors of this nature, he has absolutely no knowlege of it happening and vehemently denies it when he snaps out of it.

Now, onto more serious behavior - most recently, the identity disorder kicked in. However, unlike stories I have read or whatever research I have conducted (and please understand I do not know of a person personally that has been diagnosed), his disorder seems to be one of absorbing personalities. That is, he may fall into a trance while watching TV, and the next day, may develop a personality similar to that which he observed on whatever show he was watching. This started happening about a year or two ago, but he has, so I've heard about ten or more different personalities that reflect something that he has observed. And all of it occurs within a few minutes, and he snaps out of it, completely (seemingly) normal when he does. He has a chinese personality (which he got from, what I hear, watching Chinese news stations). And other nationalities, french, spanish, norwegian, almost all from watching different channels (cooking shows, variety shows, whatever). He even claims to be an alien in one. He is actually able, at this point, to speak very basically in other languages (I can't tell if they are actually words or just mimicked phrases), but has in fact ordered chinese food once from a restaurant in chinese and they claimed to have understood his dialect and his order. All of these personalities are of different nationalities. They even have names appropriate to those nationalities and know the language and music, to varying degrees. They don't seem to come from 'nowhere', they seem to be channeled by conversation, music, or tv.

What is most aggravating is that he seems to have a subconcious ability to turn this identity issue on and off when appropriate. His kids say he falls into this state all the time at home, and others close to him have said they see it occasionally, as I have. His wife sees it all the time. However, he has never demonstrated it in front of a doctor or around a large group of people. It's like his normal, and dominant personality, is able to keep it at bay until he is relaxed and in a familiar environment, where it lets go.
Thus, he has had no real treatment for it.

Other things I have been told is an occasional hallucination, though this appears to be less frequent.

He is not an active hard drug user. He experimented in his past (he is in his late 50's now). He is also on a strong heart medication, which his wife blames for it (I wish I knew the name of it but I've never asked). However, it seems much to complex at this point to blame on a single drug.

Does this sound familiar to anyone? I wish I could do more, but again, he has stubbornly refused treatment. I fear it may be really too late anyway, but at least if someone has had a situation that they were able to come to terms with and fight, it may give us some idea of where to go next.

Many thanks to all for your time.