Dissociative disorders occur as the brain’s coping strategy with faces with an incident which is too traumatic for processing by the conscious mind. Individuals suffering dissociative disorder disengage from reality in involuntary and pathological ways. Dissociative disorders take several forms the onset of which are all believed to be caused by a traumatic experience or abuse. The various forms are dissociative identity disorder, dissociative fugue and depersonalization disorder and dissociative amnesia.
common symptoms of dissociative disorders are selective amnesia (relating to a specific person or event), depersonalization (when an individual feels detached from them-self), an indistinct or distorted sense of identity, and derealization (a feeling that people and situations in your surrounding environment are unreal). People suffering from dissociative disorders may also experience other mental health issues, such as depression and anxiety. A mental health professional can help individuals suffering dissociative disorder to develop strategies for coping.
Dissociative disorders of movement and sensation
Individuals suffering dissociative disorders of movement or sensation will experience convulsions (seizures), paralysis and numbness. The physical cause is unknown but may result of a communication problem within the brain and for this reason may often be confused with neurological disorders such as epilepsy or stroke.
Dissociative amnesia
Individuals suffering dissociative amnesia will experience episodes where they can’t remember information either about themselves or their past life events or may lose a previous talent or skill. These memory gaps are more extreme than forgetfulness. Individuals with dissociative amnesia may end up in a strange place without recollection of going there. These episodes could last minutes, hours or days as well as months or years in some rare cases.
Dissociative identity disorder
Dissociative identity disorder, or multiple personality disorder, is unusual and Individuals suffering may feel unsure of their identity or who they are as well as feeling they have other identities with individual names, voices and mannerisms. Sufferers may feel their own identity is unknown, refer to themselves as “we”, behaving out of character and sometimes write using different handwriting
