YFM’s Presenter-MS ADA Diagnosed…She Suffers From ‘Dissociative Personality Disorder’ Or Something Like That

Now here is my take on the whole “Ada” situation:

Like most of you out there I was quick to pass judgment on the woman, after all my first real conversation with this woman ended up a fight because she was disrespectful to a colleague of mine and I called her out on it.

I don’t particularly like her but she’s a human being as well as a rather gifted orator. After the story broke about her apparent rape, my first thought was – “what if this was staged?” You can’t fault me asking myself that, she’s the Oil-City’s Drama Mama after all.

My doubt about the attack was borne from the fact that the photos, as raw as they appeared, were just too perfect to be real. Far too arranged, too ‘in your face’. Like a perfect tableau captured for trophy.

Bash me if you like, but I expected a little caution from the so-called attackers. I expected a certain amount of logic to the whole ‘frieze’ on display. Suffice it to say I wasn’t surprised when it turned out that it was truly staged.

The attendant backlash was expected and the surgical precision with which our GH Media went about dissecting her life was impressive (cue sarcasm here). In all the revelations of Ada’s rather colourful life and the house of cards she’d built for herself, it appears we were all content to wave our torches and pitchforks and call for her incarceration. I asked for the same. After all I didn’t know her that well and most importantly I wasn’t her biggest fan.

But something about a person with a good life and a good career, a young woman who had built a life as an activist to several social causes, hell-bent on torpedoing her life didn’t sit well with me. A fast rising MC, a TV personality and a mentor to several young people in the Western Region and beyond. Heck, I might not like her but I am not blind to the fact that she is talented and “mad funny”!

This is the woman who practically had the world in the palm of her hand.

The story is that this woman got off work, went to Accra, hired some strangers to be her cronies and set out to blow up her own life in the most audacious way possible! Stripped naked in some roach infested hovel of a hotel (no offense to the hotel) with a bunch strangers breathing on her, and allowed herself to be photographed whilst pretending that these men where performing rape on her!

Can you see it? The entire thing played out? Do you see it?

NOW TELL ME IF IT MAKES SENSE TO YOU? No come on! Look at it some more. The whole idea is that this woman, ADA, (a name that happens to be fake) was so torn up about being jilted by her lover that she orchestrated this Machiavellian plan to get her lover to feel sympathy for her! If this smells normal to you, then YOU SHOULD BE COMMITTED!

I had my suspicions about the whole thing and I set out to find out whatever I could get on her. From her boyfriend’s revelations to stories from her secondary school days. My sleuthing took me to a very dark place. A place a few experts in Accra have hinted at: that this woman who called herself Ada might be suffering from DISSOCIATIVE PERSONALITY DISORDER. A jaunt to the web-md website http://wb.md/1kCpv6g, confirmed a lot for me. The site describes the condition thus:

Dissociative identity disorder (previously known as multiple personality disorder) is thought to be an effect of severe trauma during early childhood, usually extreme, repetitive physical, sexual, or emotional abuse.

Dissociative identity disorder is a mental process which produces a lack of connection in a person’s thoughts, memories, feelings, actions, or sense of identity. Dissociative identity disorder is thought to stem from trauma experienced by the person with the disorder. The dissociative aspect is thought to be a coping mechanism — the person literally dissociates himself from a situation or experience that’s too violent, traumatic, or painful to assimilate with his conscious self.

It gets even more disturbing with the description of the symptoms:

Dissociative identity disorder is characterized by the presence of two or more distinct or split identities or personality states that continually have power over the person’s behavior. With dissociative identity disorder, there’s also an inability to recall key personal information that is too far-reaching to be explained as mere forgetfulness. With dissociative identity disorder, there are also highly distinct memory variations, which fluctuate with the person’s split personality.

The “alters” or different identities have their own age, sex, or race. Each has his or her own postures, gestures, and distinct way of talking. Sometimes the alters are imaginary people; sometimes they are animals. As each personality reveals itself and controls the individuals’ behavior and thoughts, it’s called “switching.” Switching can take seconds to minutes to days.

Permit me to use pop culture to give you perspective on the condition. If you’ve ever read the books or watched the movies Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde or Harvey Dent from Batman lore, then you will have a fair idea of what dissociative personality disorder might be like.

Now let’s take a look at what a person suffering from Dissociative Personality Disorder might do. Get ready, it is a shocker:

Along with the dissociation and multiple or split personalities, people with dissociative disorders may experience any of the following symptoms:

• Depression
• Mood swings
• Suicidal tendencies
• Sleep disorders (insomnia, night terrors, and sleep walking)
• Anxiety, panic attacks, and phobias (flashbacks, reactions to stimuli or “triggers”)
• Alcohol and drug abuse
• Compulsions and rituals
• Psychotic-like symptoms (including auditory and visual hallucinations)
• Eating disorders

Other symptoms of dissociative identity disorder may include headache, amnesia, time loss, trances, and “out of body experiences.” Some people with dissociative disorders have a tendency toward self-persecution, self-sabotage, and even violence (both self-inflicted and outwardly directed). As an example, someone with dissociative identity disorder may find themselves doing things they wouldn’t normally do, such as speeding, reckless driving, or stealing money from their employer or friend, yet they feel they are being compelled to do it. Some describe this feeling as being a passenger in their body rather than the driver. In other words, they truly believe they have no choice.

Now go ahead and tie what you just read with all the disturbing things you read about Ada’s behaviour over the past days: The twisted ploy to get her boyfriend’s attention, the wild fabrications, enactments and revelations of past “abduction”. Throw in the fact that hitherto the entire world assumed her to be Nigerian. What about her screams for a baby no one knows anything about, or the stories of her wild school girl days?

Let’s take it further.

This is a woman who displayed numerous personalities to several people at one point or the other. She was the saucy vixen on air – taunting her male listeners. She was the blasé sex therapist, talking about sexual toys and twisting positions. She told wild fantastical tales of her heritage, of marriages and engagements that never materialized.

To others she was the perfect well-spoken lady who gave ‘talks’ to impressionable girls and told them to reach for the skies. Other times she was the super elegant compere at prestigious event. She spoke out against abortion, mentored numerous Takoradi Polytechnic female students.

She managed businesses and gave a lot of people here in Takoradi free business advice. She was a princess of the airwaves and a best friend to scores of people all over. There are stories of time spent at hospitals for conditions that can best be described as self-inflicted.

She also put her boyfriend through the wringer with her tales of not one, not two, not three but five Kidnappings. For long stretches of time she will disappear and return with no plausible excuse for her absence. When confronted she will get furious and be asked to be left alone.

That right there is how far I got when I scratched the surface to this whole saga.

Now I am no psychologist but here is my two cents (or is it pesewas?)

At the core of this woman is a very disturbed and broken soul, who had been very successful at creating a very tangible façade to cover her problems and conditions.

It will be so easy to dismiss her as another overreaching woman shot down to earth by her own demons and ambitions. I choose to see a wounded soul who is the architect of her own doom.

Naana Appiah Antwi in my opinion needs a little understanding if not sympathy, but then again you need to understand someone before you can bring yourself to empathize and or sympathize. She is sick and I will wager my last pesewa that if she’s checked by shrinks, they’ll reach the same conclusion.

She’s is this generation’s Icarus: reach too close and got burned. Please see the woman behind the figure and you’ll see what I see – a helpless woman crying for help. Please give her treat her gently for she’s fragile.

Submitted by; Reuben Yao Mawutor Fianu