Dissociative Disorders Flashcards
Dissociative disorders are characterized by…
an involuntary escape from reality or a disconnection between thoughts, identity, consciousness and memory.
What are 3 dissociative disorders?
Dissociative amnesia
Depersonalization disorder
Dissociative identity disorder
What is dissociative amnesia?
Main symptom is difficulty remembering important information about one’s self
Set for an amnesic episode is usually sudden, and an episode can last minutes, hours, days, or, rarely, months or years
There is no set onset age
This amnesia may be localized (i.e., an event or period of time), selective (i.e., a specific aspect of an event), or generalized (i.e., identity and life history).
Awareness of amnesia occurs only when personal identity is lost or when circumstances make these individuals aware that autobiographical information is missing (e.g., when they discover evidence of events they cannot recall or when others tell them or ask them about events they cannot recall).
What is depersonalization disorder?
Involves ongoing feelings of detachment from actions, feelings, thoughts and sensations as if they are watching a movie
Can last just a matter of moments or return at times over the years
Average onset age is 16, although depersonalization episodes can start anywhere from early to mid childhood
characterized by clinically significant persistent or recurrent depersonalization (i.e., experiences of unreality or detachment from one’s mind, self, or body) and/or derealization (i.e., experiences of unreality or detachment from one’s surroundings).
What is dissociative identity disorder?
Formerly known as multiple personality disorder
Alternating between multiple identities
Often these identities may have unique names, characteristics, mannerisms and voices
Women are more likely to be diagnosed; men are more likely to deny symptoms and trauma histories, and commonly exhibit more violent behavior
Characterized by a) the presence of two or more distinct personality states or an experience of possession and b) recurrent episodes of amnesia
Individuals with dissociative identity disorder experience
- recurrent, inexplicable intrusions into their conscious functioning and sense of self (e.g., voices; dissociated actions and speech; intrusive thoughts, emotions, and impulses)
- alterations of sense of self (e.g., attitudes, preferences, and feeling like one’s body or actions are not one’s own)
- odd changes of perception (e.g., depersonalization or derealization, such as feeling detached from one’s body while cut ting)
- intermittent functional neurological symptoms.
What causes dissociative disorders?
Dissociative disorders usually develop as a way of dealing with trauma.
Dissociative disorders most often form in children exposed to long-term physical, sexual or emotional abuse.
Natural disasters and combat can also cause dissociative disorders.
Describe the influence of culture on dissociative disorders.
The fragmented identities of a person who has DID may take the form of spirits, deities, demons or animals
Voluntarily induced states of depersonalization can be a part of meditative practices prevalent in many religions and cultures, and should not be diagnosed as a disorder
How are dissociative symptoms experienced?
Unbidden intrusions into awareness and behavior, with accompanying losses of continuity in subjective experience
- “positive” dissociative symptoms such as fragmentation of identity, depersonalization, and derealization
- inability to access information or to control mental functions that normally are readily amenable to access or control
- ‘“negative” dissociative symptoms such as amnesia
What is the diagnostic criteria for dissociative identity disorder?
The disruption in identity involves marked discontinuity in sense of self and sense of agency, accompanied by related alterations in:
- affect
-behavior
- consciousness
- memory
- perception
- cognition
- sensorimotor functioning
Recurrent gaps in the recall of everyday events, important personal information, and/ or traumatic events that are inconsistent with ordinary forgetting.
The dissociative amnesia of individuals with dissociative identity disorder manifests in what ways?
1) Gaps in remote memory of personal life events (e.g., periods of childhood or adolescence; some important life events, such as the death of a grandparent, getting married, giving birth)
2) Lapses in dependable memory (e.g., of what happened today, of well-learned skills such as how to do their job, use a computer, read, drive)
3) Discovery of evidence of their everyday actions and tasks that they do not recollect doing (e.g., finding unexplained objects in their shopping bags or among their possessions; finding perplexing writings or drawings that they must have created; discovering injuries; “coming to” in the midst of doing something)
What are they types of dissociative amnesia?
Localized amnesia, a failure to recall events during a circumscribed period of time, is the most common form of dissociative amnesia. Localized amnesia may be broader than amnesia for a single traumatic event (e.g., months or years associated with child abuse or in tense combat).
In selective amnesia, the individual can recall some, but not all, of the events during a circumscribed period of time.
Generalized amnesia, a complete loss of memory for one’s life history, is rare. Individuals with generalized amnesia may forget personal identity.
What is the diagnostic criteria for depersonalization/derealization disorder?
- Depersonalization: Experiences of unreality, detachment, or being an outside observer with respect to one’s thoughts, feelings, sensations, body, or actions (e.g., perceptual alterations, distorted sense of time, unreal or absent self, emotional and/ or physical numbing).
- Derealization: Experiences of unreality or detachment with respect to surroundings (e.g., individuals or objects are experienced as unreal, dreamlike, foggy, life less, or visually distorted).
