Disorders

 

Dissociative Disorders

What Are Dissociative Disorders?

Dissociative disorders are the complete or partial breakdown of a person's realisation and perception of their memory, consciousness, surroundings and identity. Dissociative disorders tend to occur more in females than they do in males and are generally prevalent in adults rather than children. However, dissociative disorders can happen to anyone at any age. They are relatively uncommon, although a greater number of cases have been witness in recent years, especially of dissociative amnesia. There are four main types of dissociative disorders:

Dissociative Disorders - Depersonalisation

Depersonalisation disorder is a particularly difficult disorder to explain to anyone without first hand experience. It is literally the feeling of depersonalisation whereby a sufferer feels distanced or unattached from himself or herself. Many patients claim that life is like a dream and unreal. Anxiety and depression are very common symptoms of most dissociative disorders but especially depersonalisation disorder.

Dissociative Disorders - Identity Disorder

Dissociative identity disorder, also still referred to as multiple personality disorder, means that a person experience the separate personalities of two or more people. A person's personal memory can be adversely affected when a new personality introduces itself. Each personality has an entire identity hence memory loss and other confusion in sufferers.

Dissociative Disorders - Dissociative Amnesia

Dissociative amnesia is the more common of the dissociative disorders. When a person undergoes a traumatic time in their life they sometimes experience memory loss of the event and time surrounding the event. Gaps become evident in a person's recollection of their personal history and can create anxiety or depression in a lot of sufferers.

Dissociative Disorders - Dissociative Fugue

Dissociative fugue is usually identified when a person travels away from their home, often following a stressful event, completely forgetting their past. After the fugue experience when a person has recovered they will forget the experience altogether. This dissociative disorder is usually only discovered once a person leaves their current home and sets up resident and a new identity in a different community.

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