Dissociative Amnesia

Dissociative amnesia is when a person cannot remember important information about their life. This disorder is characterized by a high degree of memory loss that includes gaps in memory for long periods of time or of memories involving a traumatic event.

Memory loss in dissociative amnesia is more severe than normal forgetfulness. People with dissociative amnesia could forget information about themselves, events and people in their lives, especially traumatic experiences. Dissociative amnesia sometimes involves travel or confused wandering away from your life (dissociative fugue).  

There are three types of dissociative amnesia:

  • Localized: memory loss affects specific areas of knowledge or parts of a person’s life, such as a certain period during childhood. This type of dissociative amnesia is usually related to a specific trauma.
  • Generalized: memory loss affects major parts of an individual’s life or identity, such as being unable to recognize their own name, family and friends.
  • Fugue: dissociative fugue is when an individual has generalized amnesia and adopts a new identity.  

Symptoms

  • Memory loss of certain time periods, events, people and personal information
  • A blurred sense of identity
  • A sense of being detached from yourself and your emotions
  • Significant stress or problems in your relationships, work or other important areas of your life
  • Mental health problems, such as depression, anxiety, and suicidal thoughts and behaviors
  • Inability to cope well with emotional or professional stress

Prevalence

Dissociative amnesia is a rare disorder, it affects about 1% of men and 2.6% of women in the general population.

Prognosis

For most people with dissociative amnesia, memory eventually returns, sometimes slowly and sometimes suddenly, which makes the overall outlook very good. In some cases, however, the person is never able to fully recover their lost memories.

When to seek help

Treatment

The goal of treatment is to relieve symptoms and control any problematic behavior. Treatment for dissociative amnesia includes:

  • Psychotherapy: encourages communication of conflicts and increases insight into problems.
  • Cognitive therapy: focuses on changing dysfunctional thinking patterns and the resulting feelings and behaviors.
  • Medication: used to treat depression or anxiety that might accompany dissociative amnesia disorder.
  • Family therapy: aims to teach the family about the disorder, its causes and how to recognize symptoms of a recurrence.
  • Clinical hypnosis: this treatment uses intense relaxation, concentration, and focused attention to achieve an altered state of consciousness which allows people to explore thoughts and feelings that they may have hidden from the conscious minds.
  • Creative therapy (art, music therapy): These therapies allow the client to explore and express their thoughts and feelings in a safe and creative way.