In a case that's reminiscent of Billy Milligan's story (which inspired the movie Split starred by James McAvoy), a boy in Hangzhou, China, was diagnosed with multiple personality disorder.

According to Zhejiang News, the boy, known as Tang Yixuan (not his real name), had been skipping school for 2 months, but his parents could not get him to explain his behaviour.

They brought him to the hospital, where he eventually confided in the psychiatrist.

7 different personalities in a single body

The boy told the doctor that since the 6th grade, he already realised the presence of other people within his own body.

The 7 different personalities range from a little girl to a middle-aged man:

• the insecure and cowardly boy himself
• a muscular man with violent tendencies
• a middle-aged 'evil' and rebellious man
• an expressionless man
• a cold man
• a mature and logical man
• a small girl.

The boy said that while he was taking a shower once, he heard these people quarrelling behind his back.

The girl then came out and while crying, begged them to stop fighting.

The boy ended up using a towel to wrap his head up as he couldn't make them stop.

He said that the realisation that so many 'souls' exist in his body has brought him immense pressure, particularly since he has done some questionable things that he wouldn't do usually, such as starting a petition in the class to kick the substitute teacher out and fighting with his schoolmates.

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Can't control himself

While the doctor said that she initially thought the boy was just hallucinating, she later realised that he's not:

"He actually deeply desires to do better, to be a bit more normal, but he said that he can't control himself."

Due to the fighting among all his different personalities, he's constantly drained emotionally.

He also has some irrational fears, such as not being able to let his phone battery level drop below 90%.

Separation anxiety as a child

According to the doctor, such multiple personality disorders usually develop due to emotional or mental trauma experienced during one's childhood.

However, there were no signs from the boy's memory indicating that he was abused.

The only incident that could offer some kind of explanation is when he was left at the childcare centre for a week by his parents who were busy working.

He had apparently developed a strong sense of abandonment and started throwing tantrums, crying for a full week before his parents came and brought him home.

As for the possible reasons for his different personalities, the doctor said that the little girl present in his mind might have been born out of his desire to have a younger sister, while the mature and logical man might be due to his innate desire to grow up to be exactly like that.

She has conducted a hypnotherapy session to determine the cause of the personality disorder, but to no avail.

She will attempt another session to ascertain if the childcare centre incident left a huge enough impact on him.

Netizens largely skeptical

The boy's story received over 52,000 comments and was shared over 27,000 times on Weibo.

Most netizens remain skeptical, and think that the boy was simply faking it or just going through a stage of 'Middle School 2nd Year Syndrome'.

Translation: I think that the mental illness is fake lol. What is real is that the kid is seeking attention to himself. Can't say he's faking schizophrenia, it's more of him deliberately role playing. Recently in the news, a kid said that he's Zuo Zongtang (a Chinese military leader of the late Qing dynasty) reincarnated. But it was later proven that he was simply pretending based on the information he knew.

Translation: Such cases are usually related to child abuse.

Translation: Just get a spirit medium to cure him. He'll really become mentally ill if he goes to a mental hospital. Doctors' standards nowadays are only limited to treating simple ailments.

Translation: Too little homework. If he had more, the other personalities would be tired to death.

Low awareness of mental-health problems

The skepticism might be due to the low level of awareness or proper understanding in China when it comes to such personality disorders, or mental illnesses in general.

For many Chinese, their exposure to such mental disorders is largely limited to fictional dramas.

Top image via Weibo