‘90210’ Alum Reveals Dissociative Identity Disorder Diagnosis

AnnaLynne McCord is opening up about her diagnosis with Dissociative Identity Disorder, a condition previously known as multiple personality disorder. The 90210 actress, 33, shared about her mental health journey in a conversation with Dr. Daniel Amen, during which she said there was nothing about it “that I invite shame into anymore,” which is how she has gotten to the point where she can “articulate the nature of these pervasive traumas” that have formed her.

McCord, who has previously spoken about being a victim of rape as a teenager and child sexual abuse, shared with Amen that she had dealt with memory loss surrounding that trauma. “I don’t have anything until around 5. Then from 5 to 11, I recount incidents throughout,” she said. “Then when I was 13, I have a singled-out memory that was one thing, but I don’t have the sense of anything else at that time.”

Working as an actress on the Beverly Hills, 90210 spinoff was what helped her realize the internal splits she had been dealing with. Filming the 2012 horror film Excision during a hiatus from the show, McCord said she began to tap into something she hadn’t previously addressed. “I played a very cerebral, disturbed, strange little girl that was very close to who I feel I am on the inside. It was very exposing, very confronting, probably a bit re-traumatizing without realizing it,” she said. “The crazy thing about it was that I wrapped that film at 2 a.m. on a Tuesday and had to be happy, crazy Beverly Hills blonde bombshell on Wednesday at noon. I couldn’t find her, she was not accessible. I was dark, I was very deep into this character Pauline, and I couldn’t get [out].”

The Nip/Tuck actress also shared becoming “co-conscious” of her true identity and another personality she called “little Anna” when she was just 13 years old. “She was a balls to the wall, middle fingers to the sky, anarchist from hell who will stab you with the spike ring that she wears, and you’ll like it. Then she’ll make you lick the blood from it,” she said of her separate personality. “She was a nasty little creature, but I have so much gratitude to her because she got me out of the hell that I was in.”