What is Dissociative Disorder?

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What are dissociative disorders?

Dissociative disorders are mental health conditions that involve feelings of being detached from reality, being outside of your own body or experiencing memory loss (amnesia).

The word “dissociation” means to be disconnected from others, from the world around you or from yourself.

Dissociative disorders involve problems with memory, identity, emotion, perception, behavior and sense of self. Dissociative symptoms can potentially disrupt every area of mental functioning.

Examples of dissociative symptoms include the experience of detachment or feeling as if one is outside one’s body, and loss of memory or amnesia. Dissociative disorders are frequently associated with previous experience of trauma.

Types of dissociative disorders

The three types of dissociative disorders include:

  • Dissociative identity disorder (DID): Formerly known as multiple personality disorder, this disorder involves “switching” to other identities. You may feel as if you have two or more people talking or living inside your head. You may feel like you’re possessed by other identities.People with DID have two or more separate identities. These identities (called “alters”) control their behavior at various times. Each alter has its own personal history, traits, likes and dislikes.
  • Dissociative amnesia:This condition happens when you can’t remember essential information about your life. The forgetting may be limited to specific aspects of your life or may include much of your life history and/or identity.
  • Depersonalization/derealization disorder: This is a condition in which you feel detached from your thoughts, feelings and body (depersonalization), and/or disconnected from your environment (derealization). Depersonalization involves a sense of separation from yourself or feeling like you’re outside of yourself. You may feel as if you’re seeing your actions, feelings, thoughts and self from a distance, like you’re watching a movie. Derealization involves feeling that other people and things are separate from you and seem foggy or dreamlike. Time may seem to slow down or speed up. The world may seem unreal.

There’s also a symptom called dissociative fugue. It’s a temporary mental state in which a person has memory loss and ends up in an unexpected place.

Because dissociative disorders appear on the trauma spectrum, many people with a dissociative disorder may have co-occurring trauma-related mental health conditions, such as:

Symptoms

Symptoms depend on the type of dissociative disorder, but may include:

  • A sense of being separated from yourself and your emotions.
  • Thinking that people and things around you are distorted and not real.
  • A blurred sense of your own identity.
  • Severe stress or problems in relationships, work or other important areas of life.
  • Not being able to cope well with emotional or work-related stress.
  • Memory loss, also called amnesia, of certain time periods, events, people and personal information.
  • Mental health problems, such as depression, anxiety, and suicidal thoughts and behaviors.

What causes dissociative disorders?

Dissociative disorders often develop as a way to deal with a catastrophic event or with long-term stress, abuse or trauma.

This is particularly true if such events take place early in childhood. At this time of life, there are limitations to your ability to fully understand what’s happening. In addition, your coping mechanisms aren’t fully developed and getting support and resources depends on the presence of caring and knowledgeable adults.

Mentally removing yourself from a traumatic situation can be a coping mechanism that helps you escape pain in the short term. This coping mechanism can become an issue if it continues to separate you from reality and removes memories of entire periods of time.

Traumatic situations may include:

  • Repeated physical, mental or sexual abuse.
  • An accident.
  • A natural disaster.
  • Military combat.
  • Being a victim of a crime.


Find reference articles here: https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases/17749-dissociative-disorders

https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/dissociative-disorders/symptoms-causes/syc-20355215

https://www.psychiatry.org/patients-families/dissociative-disorders/what-are-dissociative-disorders