Dissociative Disorders Symptoms and Types

Memory, identity, emotion, perception, behavior, and sense of self are all disturbed by dissociative disorders. Dissociative symptoms have the potential to disturb various aspects of mental health.

Psychologists believe that a person’s continuous encounter with trauma causes them to suffer from dissociative disorders. Because the incident is too unpleasant and difficult to be incorporated into the conscious mind, dissociation is used as a coping method.

Other mental health conditions, such as anxiety disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and posttraumatic stress disorder, can have dissociative disorders or signs of dissociative disorders.

Symptoms of Dissociative Disorders

Dissociative disorder symptoms vary depending on the severity and type of disorder. They can, however, include:

• Significant memory loss related to particular people, dates, and even events
• Unexpected and sudden shifts in the mood for example experiencing sadness without reason
• Memory problems that aren’t connected to physical injuries or medical conditions.
• Mental health problems like anxiety, depression, and thoughts of suicide
• An absence of feeling from your emotions or Numbness
• Memory lapses that are significant, such as not remembering important personal details
• Lack of self-identity

Types of Dissociative Disorders

Dissociative Amnesia

The main symptom is a loss of memory that is more severe than ordinary memory loss and is not diagnosed as a medical problem. Memory loss occurs when you are unable to recall information about yourself, your life, or the events and people in your life, particularly during a stressful moment.

Dissociative amnesia might be limited to certain events at a single time, such as fierce battles, or it can result in the full loss of self-remembering memories. Traveling or a confused wandering away from your usual routine can be part of it. Amnesia is usually instantaneous and lasts for a few minutes, hours, months or years.

Dissociative Fuzzy

It is a rare disorder that generates dissociative symptoms in which a person leaves their home unexpectedly and without notice. These journeys could last anywhere from a few hours to several months. There have been cases of people who have traveled thousands of kilometers to escape dissociative distress.

In opulence, the person will exhibit symptoms of amnesia, having no idea why they left in the first place and having difficulty recalling their past. The person will be perplexed or unable to recall their own identity. Individuals have assumed different identities in extremely rare situations.

Dissociative Identity Disorder

It was once known as multiple personality disorder, but it is now the most well-known example of dissociative disorder. Individuals with dissociative identity disorder have several identities and personalities rather than just one.

To be diagnosed with identity dissociation disorder, at least two of the individual’s identities must be present regularly and impact the person’s behavior. Although some people with dissociative identity disorder have more than 100 identities, almost half of those who suffer from it have no more than 11 identities.

Each dissociated personality has its own identity, self-image, history, and name. When a person takes on one of these alternate identities, known as alters, he or she experiences extensive gaps in memory.

Within a minute, person can move into an altered personality, and these alter might be of different ages, ethnicities, genders, sexual preferences, and even have distinct body languages and postures than the individual. A traumatic incident is frequently responsible for the personalities’ presence and departure.

Individuals with dissociative identity disorder frequently have co-occurring disorders such as borderline personality disorder, eating disorders, depression, and drug abuse. Self-mutilation, violence, and suicidal impulses can result from the combination of these disorders.

Depersonalization Disorder

Depersonalization disorder causes people to feel alienated from others. The victims themselves find their bodies unreal to themselves.

While the symptoms of depersonalization vary from person to person, the most common characteristics include the vibe of one’s body dissolving or changing, the feeling of one’s life unfolding as an external observer, and the sensation of one’s body floating on the ceiling while looking down at oneself, and the feeling of one’s body being some kind of robot or machine.

The majority of patients who suffer from depersonalization disorder have also experienced emotional disconnection and a sense of emotional dullness.

Someone showing few signs of depersonalization does not mean they are suffering from depersonalization disorder. Depersonalization is often a symptom of various diseases, such as anxiety disorders, posttraumatic stress disorder, or borderline personality disorders.

They do not have depersonalization disorder if depersonalization occurs only in response to a severe stressor or panic attack.

Depersonalization can occur in people who appear to be completely normal. Depersonalization can be caused by a lack of sleep, emotionally difficult situations, the use of particular anesthetics, and conditions such as weightlessness.

Because depersonalization is a regular phenomenon, depersonalization disorders are only recognized when the symptoms become severe enough to cause the patient a great deal of emotional discomfort and a disruption in the normal functioning of the human body and mind.