A 22-year-old German man suffering from a rare form of dissociative identity disorder (DID) has become unable to lead a normal life, because each of his 10 different personalities is so different.

Even if you don’t know too much about dissociative identity disorder, aka multiple personality disorder, you’ve probably seen films like ‘Me, Myself and Irene‘, or M Night Shyamalan’s ‘Split‘, both of which feature protagonists with DID. The rare psychiatric condition develops in early childhood as a result of severe trauma, and leads to the development of two or more identities that control a person’s behavior at different times. It can lead to gaps in memory and can affect a person’s ability to connect with reality and other people. Leonard Stöckl, a 22-year-old man from Munich, in Germany, suffers from a severe form of DID and shares his body with 10 other different identities.

Photo: Diane Picchiottino/Unsplash

Leonard was able to lead a relatively normal life until last year, when he was taking A-Level exams. While everyone else was studying for the tests, he was unable to focus and suffered memory loss due to his multiple personalities switching. Things got so bad that he had to seek medical help and was eventually diagnosed with dissociative identity disorder.

The 22-year-old describes his rare condition as a system made up of 10 different identities – Kovu, 4, Hektor, 8, Ana, 16, Cosmo, 17, Ash, 18, Jessy, 19, Leo, 21, Billy, 23, Liv, 24, and Red, 26 – each of which can take control at any one time. This makes it virtually impossible to hold down a job, as all his different personalities have different abilities and wishes, and also makes it hard for him to leave the house by himself.

As you can imagine, sharing your body with 10 different identities of different ages and genders can make romantic relationships difficult. Leonard Stöckl is lucky that his partner, Massimo, understands his condition, but having minors like Kovu or Hektor take over randomly can make things awkward. Plus, not all of them like Massimo as much as Leonard does.

“One of the alters HATED him at first – he’s now trying to be pleasant but it doesn’t always work,” Stöckl said. “We have a very young alter that has met him, but it can be difficult for my boyfriend when there is a younger person fronting whilst we are together.”

But even though living with DID can be incredibly difficult sometimes, Leonard likes to look at the positives, claiming that if wouldn’t get rid of his alters even if he could.

“They are my family, my best friends, my team – I wouldn’t even be able to live without them,” he told SWNS. “Every one of us has our own wishes and interests and we can share them with each other. I would never choose to live without the other alters.”