Dissociative Amnesia: What Are The Signs & Symptoms?

A Quick Guide

Dissociative amnesia is a type of dissociative disorder characterized by memory loss and a breakdown of mental processes. It is more common in individuals who have experienced trauma or abuse. Symptoms can range from mild to severe, affecting a person’s daily life. Dissociative amnesia is more prevalent in women, and it is often linked to significant life events or environmental factors.

What is dissociative amnesia? 

Dissociative amnesia is among a group of disorders known as dissociative disorders. Some major signs of dissociative disorders are that there is a breakdown of normally functioning mental processes such as memory, consciousness or awareness, identity, or perception.

People who suffer from dissociative amnesia struggle to recall crucial details about their past. This forgetfulness may be limited to a particular area. Or it may enclose a significant portion of the person’s identity or life history.

Though, in a rare condition known as dissociative fugue, a person may forget all or most of their personal details, including their name, past, and friends. 

In extreme circumstances, they may even leave their home and assume an entirely new identity. Dissociative amnesia always results in considerably worse memory loss than one would expect from normal forgetting.

Dissociative symptoms depending upon the type of dissociative amnesia can range from minor to being so severe that they interfere with a person’s ability to operate a normal life. For instance, a person’s relationships and work-related activities may be impacted.

Who is more prone to dissociative amnesia? 

In the general population, dissociative amnesia affects only 1% of men and 2.6% of women. Some people are more susceptible to developing dissociative amnesia.

People who were abused as children and those who have gone through a traumatic event at any time in their lives are more prone to this disorder.

Learn more about the relationship between Dissociative Amnesia, Trauma, And PTSD.

The environment also has an impact as dissociative amnesia is more common during and after wars and other disasters.

Signs & Symptoms of dissociative amnesia 

Some of the signs and symptoms of dissociative amnesia include the following: 

1. Memory loss can be complete (generalized) or specific to a particular area (localized). A person with dissociative amnesia may lose details like their identity, personal history, or past events, but will most likely remember more generic facts.

Some forms of forgetfulness, such as the kind linked to dementia, make it difficult for a person to create new memories. With the exception of amnesia, people with this disorder seem to be able to form new memories and retain their cognitive abilities.

While other types of memory loss might be upsetting, people with dissociative amnesia frequently seem unconcerned about their forgetfulness. Furthermore, most people may even regain their memories as dissociative amnesia lessens.

2. Dissociative disorders like dissociative amnesia are frequently connected to a particularly traumatic or demanding life event. For instance, being subjected to abuse or taking part in military combat.

People with this disorder may not be able to recall any information regarding their traumatizing time period. For instance, a victim of abuse could find it difficult to recollect specific facts from the time period in which the abuse took place.

3. Many dissociative amnesia cases are brief, lasting only a few hours. Though in particular circumstances they might last longer. 

4. Many times, another medical condition might be used to explain memory loss. However, if other illnesses, such as a brain injury, stroke, or alcohol or drug abuse, cannot explain memory loss then it is considered to be dissociative amnesia.

We hope you found this article useful in learning more about dissociative amnesia along with its signs and symptoms. Learn more about the treatment options for Dissociative Amnesia.